MANUAL TRAINING. 51 



So far as the content of this literature is concerned, the human 

 spirit may be as wise and as gracious without .the study of the 

 dead languages, as with it. The issue really hangs, then, upon the 

 value of the discipline. This, too, is as great as ever, but it must 

 be remembered that a discipline may be good may, indeed, be the 

 best at any one time and yet with the progress of events become 

 I'elatively poor. This, it seems to me, is the case with the classics. 

 We are working for intellectual power. There was a time when 

 the classics offered the best means of attaining this end. But such 

 studies appeal only to a limited set of faculties. The best dis- 

 cipline is undeniably one which appeals to the fullest set of facul- 

 ties, for this will mean the largest amount of brain development, 

 and consequently the greatest intellectual power. 



The objection which the classicists hold against our modern 

 science culture as a substitute for the ancient languages is, I take 

 it, that we have made this culture an end in itself, and have 

 valued the facts above their effect upon the human spirit. So far 

 as this objection is true it is a valid one. But the same spirit 

 which once made the study of Latin and Greek the acknowledged 

 means of culture is even more applicable in science. Like the 

 content of Latin and Greek in the middle ages, the content of 

 science at the present time is something greatly to be desired in 

 and for itself as adding immeasurably to the wisdom and gracious- 

 ness of life ; while the process of gaining this content a process 

 which employs every sense and every faculty, and from its neces- 

 sities evolves new senses and new faculties represents a disci- 

 pline of the highest possible value. 



The classicists have preserved the spirit of true culture a 

 profound appreciation of the subjective value of learning. 



The scientists have reached the right method the employ- 

 ment and development of all the senses and faculties. 



The proper reconciliation between these contending friends of 

 culture is very simple. It consists in cherishing the spirit of the 

 one and adopting the method of the other. 



Now I believe that a similar reconciliation is possible as re- 

 gards manual training. The great thing is the human spirit, the 

 sum of human faculty. The end of education is the unfolding 

 and perfecting of the spirit. All other ends are secondary to 

 this. It is the great thing in the kindergarten, in the elementary 

 schools, in the high schools, in the universities. It is also the 

 great thing, and we are much too apt to forget this, in the 

 conduct of mature life. We are working for power. We are 

 after a certain quality in organized matter, a complexity of struc- 

 ture and a sensitiveness in the gray and white of the bram. We 

 can accomplish this purpose, we can gain this power, we can 

 evolve this quality of complexity and sensitiveness only by very 



