How TO Educate the Laborek. 443 



tliut Mil Mttempt to copy the conceptions of the mind leads 

 to constant improvement in the fine arts. 



From this fact, we may arrive at the true source of improve- 

 ment in the useful arts. The child, at school, should have 

 his ideal letter ; the farmer, his ideal farm and mode 

 of culture ; the mechanic should have his ideal model, and, 

 when each one of these strives to equal, in the reality, the 

 ideal, we shall find, "improvement will shine in every 

 line." 



Common observation shows that the man of thought, 

 though ignorant of the art, is, in reality, the man to whom 

 we must look for improvements in the arts. He may be a 

 recluse, shut up in some lone garret, and there, he, while 

 examining the nature of plants and the laws of their 

 growth, can tell the farmer what improvements can be 

 made to secure the largest crop with the least expenditure 

 of tune and labor. 



The mathematician, who has devoted long years to the 

 study of abstract sciences, can only demonstrate to the 

 mechanic how to construct a plow or a suspension bridge. 



The practical farmed' or mechanic is that man who, 

 from his knowledge of the forces of nature, constructs, on 

 mathematical principles, the best plow, the best mowing 

 machine, and explains their utility. The farmer who drives 

 the plow or rides and directs the mowing machine is only 

 carrying out the intention of the inventor. 



Ericson, when studying the higher mathematics in 

 Sweden, was no less a practical engineer than when, super- 

 intending the construction of the Monitor, in New York 

 city, he, though ignorant of the art of ship-building, devised, 



