The Part played by Infancy 119 



sion in the crudest form of myths, the aesthetic 

 sense was germinating likewise. Away back in 

 the glacial period you find pictures drawn and 

 scratched upon the reindeer s antler, portraitures 

 of mammoths and primitive pictures of the chase ; 

 you see the trinkets, the personal decorations, prov 

 ing beyond question that the aesthetic sense was 

 there. There has been an immense aesthetic de 

 velopment since then. And I believe that in the 

 future it is going to mean far more to us than 

 we have yet begun to realize. I refer to the kind 

 of training that comes to mankind through direct 

 operation upon his environment, the incarnation 

 of his thought, the putting of his ideas into new 

 material relations. This is going to exert power 

 ful effects of a civilizing kind. There is something 

 strongly educational and disciplinary in the mere 

 dealing with matter, whether it be in the manual 

 training school, whether it be in carpentry, in over 

 coming the inherent and total depravity of inani 

 mate things, shaping them to your will, and also 

 in learning to subject yourself to their will (for 

 sometimes you must do that in order to achieve 

 your conquests ; in other words, you must humour 

 their habits and proclivities). In all this there is 

 a priceless discipline, moral as well as mental, let 

 alone the fact that, in whatever kind of artistic 



