Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/823

Rh useful. It was recognized as a part of virtue. It meant not only an ability to accomplish certain practical operations successfully, but it also meant much more than this. It meant the cultivation of character. It meant the growth of patience, of perseverance, and of judgment. It meant the development of the sturdy virtues of self-reliance and self-poise. Manual training came to have an ethical value. I can not do better here than to quote with cordial approval a passage from Mr. Edward Carpenter's Essay on Desirable Mansions:

"Man is made to work with his hands. This is a fact which can not be got over. From this central fact he can not travel far. I don't care whether it be an individual or a class, the life which is far removed from this becomes corrupt, shriveled, and diseased. You may explain it how you like, but it is so. Administrative work has to be done in a nation as well as productive work; but it must be done by men accustomed to manual labor, who have the healthy decision and primitive, authentic judgment which comes of that, else it can not be done well. In the new form of society which is slowly advancing upon us, this will be felt more than now. The higher the position of trust a man occupies, the more will it be thought important that at some period of his life he should have been thoroughly inured to manual work; this not only on account of the physical and moral robustness implied by it, but equally because it will be seen to be impossible for any one without this experience of what is the very flesh and blood of the national life to promote the good health of the nation, or to understand the conditions under which the people live whom he has to serve."

Manual training has thus shown two aspects. It presents itself as a convenience, and as an agent of moral culture. To-day it is entering a new phase, and is expanding into a kingdom. It is doing so through the recognition of its psychological import.

Consider the structure of the human body. It is an organism made up of many complex tissues, of bones, muscles, and nerves. The whole is nourished by blood, manufactured within its own precincts. Special organs and ducts provide a system of sewerage for the prompt disposal of waste. In health, the blood supply is ample, its aëration complete, the renewal of tissue is prompt, the removal of waste is without interruption. Each organ performs its function. We have a healthy human animal—a rare sight. We value it for what it is and for what it can do. The indicated strength must be turned to some account. The well-poised head must display intelligence. A failure in these expectations, and our seemingly perfect human mechanism is a sad disappointment. It is the informing spirit and the disciplined will that make the Apollo admirable. These do not spring like Venus from the