THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANUAL TRAINING. 331 



insufficient material, stand at the other. Health is found in the 

 golden mean- — to meet life and to reflect upon it. I take education 

 and evolution to be one, the reaction of the environment upon the 

 organism. The process consists in arousing in consciousness a group 

 of sensations of the right sort, and in the right amount, and in induc- 

 ing a habit of working up this material into thought. The process 

 requires a wholesome organism, and one operating in obedience to 

 some inner impulse — that is to say, it requires self -activity and not 

 vicarious activity. It is a very subtle process, work for angels rather 

 than for men, and all the while it must be carried out with utter 

 unconsciousness on the part of the child as the result of his own 

 spontaneity. The teacher may stimulate this self-activity, must 

 supply materials for it to spend itself upon, but never — and this is 

 the particular temptation in the path of the teacher — never must 

 he substitute his own activity or his own impulse. It was a great 

 day for me when I woke to the fact that one can only do what one 

 wants to do. It was a great day for me, both because it taught me 

 the source of my own actions, and because it taught me that to 

 influence other people's actions you must first influence their desires. 

 A given environment is not the same environment to two different 

 children. Their power to respond is different. Their will to respond 

 is unequal. If the environment is to react helpfully on both of 

 them, either a change must be brought about in the children them- 

 selves, by means of a secondary or preliminary environment designed 

 especially for that purpose, or else the given environment must pre- 

 sent alternative elements calculated to appeal to different natures. 

 Both methods are legitimate and both are often necessary. The first 

 is brought about by the personal tete-d-tete work of the teacher, work 

 wholly individual, work requiring the characteristics of both the ser- 

 pent and the dove; and the second, by giving the school life that 

 flexibility and many-sided interest which will allow some choice on 

 the part of the child. The sensations that we want are only brought 

 about by action, by direct physical contact with the environment, 

 and this can only come as the result of desire. We live in a world 

 rich in possible activities and sensations, embarrassingly rich, but 

 possible only to those who want them. One can only do what one 

 wants to do. The source of power and the limitation of power are 

 one. It is found in the emotional life, in desire. Where this is mani- 

 fold and rich, life is manifold and rich; where this is stunted and 

 poor, life itself is stunted and poor. There is here a direct causal 

 chain which can not be broken, and • which must be taken into 

 account in any rational educational method. It is desire, action, sen- 

 sation, thought. I do not know whether psychological analysis will 

 some time show us what desire is, or separate it into more primal 



