MANUAL TRAINING. 799 



truths as these must be emphasized. There will then he less sur- 

 prise when people quarrel and go to law because they can not see 

 the same thing in the same way. Many a business failure might 

 have been averted had this trouble been adequately known in 

 advance. Where a danger is philosophically foreseen, the risks 

 incident to it may be diminished. 



We need constantly to remember that human truth is a vari- 

 able incomplete entity ; that it differs accordilig to whether it is 

 your truth or my truth ; that it is subject to the deflections of 

 emotion, at the mercy of the association of ideas and of the edu- 

 cation and personal training received in any community at any 



time. 







MANUAL TRAINING. 



By Dk. C. HANFOED HENDERSON, 



PETNCTPAL OF THE NORTHEAST MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA. 



n, 



IT will be remembered by those familiar with biblical lore that 

 when Saul, the son of Kish, went forth in search of his 

 father's asses, he found, instead of these humble animals, a king- 

 dom and a crown. Not every man is so fortunate. Indeed, as we 

 all know, the experience is often reversed. Yet it does fall out 

 from time to time that a very modest journey into the world of 

 thought or action lands one in the midst of wholly unexpected 

 possessions. The Burgomeister of Dessau, patiently gazing at the 

 sun day after day for thirty years, and noting the sun-spots as 

 they waxed and waned, to discover in the end their remarkable 

 periodicity, is a more modern instance. Others might be cited. 

 We go in quest of a given end. We travel a few paces. A chance 

 experiment, an almost random thought, and behold a new 

 world ! It is no miracle sprung full-grown from the womb of the 

 impossible. It is an orderly sequence, the wider prospect which 

 comes from a better point of view. 



I have had a somewhat similar experience in this matter of 

 manual training. I came in search of a quiet good ; I find a king- 

 dom. 



We are inquiring into the inner content of manual training. 

 Let us begin at the beginning at the mystery of birth. It is a 

 favorite starting point of mine, for life best stands out in all its 

 cosmic relations when I view it as a sublime panorama, watching 

 the human soul as it emerges from the mists of infancy and fol- 

 lowing it until it sinks below the horizon of the grave. It is a 

 method which has the disadvantage of long prefaces, but perhaps 

 the compensation of clearer conclusions. 



