1907] Nature Study No. 41. 227 



I have often been struck, in many conversations with machin- 

 ists and engineers of the better class, by their terse and pointed 

 methods of reasoning - . If upon such a basis there could be erected 

 the superstructure of a liberal education, the results should be 

 ideal. Manual training should furnish this basis and go beyond it by 

 awakening the incentive towards the getting of further knowledge. 



To awaken this incentive is the highest lruit of an educational 

 system, for in the last analysis we find that each individual must 

 educate himself and herself or forever remain a mere repository of 

 useless knowledge. 



The old methods of education were merely encyclopedic. The 

 new method should make of each fact a living and working truth- 



Artistic and Scientific Hobbies. 



As an example of an artistic hobby, Amateur Photography 

 stands out pre-eminently. It has many valid claims to our atten- 

 tion. It develops the artistic sense, trains the judgment, acquaints 

 one with some of the laws of chemistry and optics and above all 

 brings its votaries into close communion with the beauties of 

 nature. It has an amusing side, I was almost going to say a 

 pathetic side, as well. The considerations of light, time and posi- 

 tion, as well as the often totally irresponsible action of developers 

 and other items, keeps one continually interested and incidentally 

 adds to one's knowledge in many directions. 



It most certainly offers continual exercise in training one's 

 patience and self control ; but who will say, who has conquered the 

 A,B,C, and obtained a few successes, that the result is not worth 

 the trouble. Like all really valuable hobbies, it is difficult to 

 attain proficiency therein, and there are ever widening and allur- 

 ing fields opening up ahead. 



My first camera, back about 1887, was a black box with a 

 pin-hole through a piece of ferrotype plate stuck in the front. 

 This did for a few weeks. Then I read up the article on Photography 

 in an encyclopedia and made a sliding box camera with an old 

 opera glass lens. Its productions in the architectural line were 

 more wonderful than the leaning tower of Pisa. 



Then a real lens costing about $3.50 was purchased and a 

 more ambitious attempt was made beliows, shutter and all. 



