338 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



forms of mere bodily work, sucli as the activities of the day laborer,, 

 of the washerwoman, and the domestic servant. But such work is- 

 not hand work. It is strictly bodily work, and the hand serves merely 

 as the clutch by which the particular tool, whether shovel or broom, 

 is fastened to the body. The main mental reaction is fatigue. But 

 manual work proper is the sense of touch applied to the carrying 

 out of some definite and intelligent purpose. 



We do not yet know enough of these mental reactions to reach 

 any finality in the matter of the manual exercises. It is for the 

 present experimental. In the most progressive schools you will find 

 a large amount of flexibility. The exercises of one year will not 

 be the exercises of the next. There is the constant hope of some- 

 thing that will yield richer returns. But the underlying principle 

 is the same. It is distinctly physiological, a system of brain gym- 

 nastics by which an expansion of function brings about the develop- 

 ment of the organ. It is founded upon a monistic philosophy of 

 life — a belief that man with all his diversity of need and of power 

 is essentially one, a unit organism. 



The mental reactions that manual training brings about are essen- 

 tially ethical, and, since conduct has to do so largely with one's rela- 

 tions with one's fellows, they are also essentially social. The most 

 evolved conduct, that which displays the most complete adaptation 

 of means to ends, can be the result only of a completely rounded 

 intelligence. Complete morality means the setting up of definite 

 moral ends, and it also means their attainment. We weaken the 

 moral fiber deplorably, it seems to me, in our modern way of looking 

 at things, when we lay such moral and legal stress upon the motive, 

 and so little upon the performance. The emphasis is not justifiable. 

 Since motive and act stand in the direct relation of cause and effect^ 

 it may be charitable but it is certainly not scientific to couple a good 

 motive with a bad act. If the moral ends have been clearly seen, 

 if that vision of the complete life has been fairly grasped, the more 

 difficult and it seems to me the essential part of morality, the attain- 

 ment of the complete life, still remains to be fulfilled. To accom- 

 plish this part of its mission, manual training seeks to make very 

 clear the relation between cause and effect, and to eliminate the 

 capricious and grotesque. Every bit of manual work is a practical 

 adjusting of means to ends, an object lesson in causation, and when 

 finished, it stands there before us, and tells us in very plain and 

 unequivocal language whether the thing has been well done or ill. 

 There is no room here for idle excuses. 



These are some of the methods of manual training. Not one of 

 them is sacred or fixed or unalterable. They are mere tools, a 

 process, a means to an end, something to be altered, relinquished, sup- 



