638 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as traitors. Yet, it is only by heeding the warnings from these 

 sober-minded men, in whatever station of life we may find them, that 

 we shall be able to choose the right road to follow. Do we wish to 

 show the monarchies of Europe that they were wrong in charging ns 

 with base and selfish motives? Do we really wish to show the world 

 that in this republic individual character — that which Herbert Spen- 

 cer told us, sixteen years ago, is the first essential in fitting men 

 for free institutions — is not wanting; that the average American 

 citizen " has a sufiiciently quick sense of his own claims, and at the 

 same time, as a necessary consequence, a sufficiently quick sense of 

 the claims of others "? If we do, let us heed the voice of those who 

 bid us beware of the false glamour of military glory. In the history 

 of every young nation, as Avell as of the individual, there is always 

 sure to come a time when its destiny is to be decided forever; when 

 success in choosing the right means further growth toward a higher 

 and fuller life, and failure means nothing but eventual decay. At 

 such a time this nation has now arrived — 



" At the crossway stand'st thou ; choose ! '' 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANUAL TRAINING. 



By C. HANFORD HENDERSON, 



DIRECTOR OF THE HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT, PRATT INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



IV.— THE RESULTS OF MANUAL TRAINING. 



IN looking at the actual and possible results of manual training, 

 I come to one of the most attractive aspects of my subject. I 

 find these results, in the main, to be very favorable, but I should 

 be unwilling to use this as an argument for manual training unless it 

 could be shown at the same time that there was an organic relation 

 between these results and the underlying principles. Many of our 

 current social and economic fallacies owe their too long life to just 

 such an appeal to results. The underlying philosophy of manual 

 training might be quite false, and its methods quite unpsychological, 

 and yet the entire scheme in the hands of devoted men and women 

 might be so far modified and colored as to give admirable results. 

 And I am the less willing to use this argument because I should not 

 admit the propriety of its application in the case of unfavorable re- 

 sults. Could the actual results of manual training be shown to be 

 poor, or at least indifferent, I should conclude that it had missed its 

 mark, and had been badly carried out, and not that manual training 

 itself was a poor scheme. It would be quite possible for manual 

 training to be a perfectly sound scheme of education, and the one best 



