Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/141

 the artisan deals, with the forces of nature—they are quelled rather. They are quelled even in handwork. The finest mechanics of the past got little credit for their work. The man who made the sword Excalibur was not immortalized, though the sword was immortalized. No doubt some great hand workers suffered through neglect, and wished for recognition. What is more remarkable, however, is that they seem to have suffered infinitely less through such causes than did other orders of great men. Our great inventors, too, so little talked about even to-day, suffer less; and this detachedness appears even in the fully-trained pupils of the new technical college. "It may be," said Ham, "that there are vain statesmen, kings, priests, but we should as little expect to find a vain mechanic as a vain scientist." That is to say, the mechanic is, morally, in some respects at least, the higher order of person.

But this elevation of one kind of worker is not due certainly to any innate superiority; it is more probably the result of the training given in his work. This integral kind of technical training extends beyond childhood into youth; and it seems to favour in these stormy years the harmonious working of many awakening brain centres.