BRAIN WORK AND MANUAL WORK. 199 



etc. ; and, however complicated its movements, they can 

 be decomposed into a few modifications of motion, such 

 as the transformation of circular motion into a rec- 

 tilinear, and the like, with a number of intermediate 

 links. So also each handicraft can be decomposed into a 

 number of elements. In each trade one must know how 

 to make a plate with parallel surfaces, a cylinder, a disc, 

 a square, and a round hole ; how to manage a limited 

 number of tools, all tools being mere modifications of 

 less than a dozen types ; and how to transform one kind 

 of motion into another. This is the foundation of all 

 mechanical handicrafts ; so that the knowledge of how 

 to make in wood those primary elements, how to manage 

 the chief tools in wood-work, and how to transform 

 various kinds of motion, ought to be considered as 

 the very basis for the subsequent teaching of all pos- 

 sible kinds of mechanical handicraft The pupil who has 

 acquired that skill already knows one good half of all 

 possible trades. Besides, none can be a good worker in 

 science unless he is in possession of good methods of 

 scientific research ; unless he has learned to observe, to 

 describe with exactitude, to discover mutual relations 

 between facts seemingly disconnected, to make hypo- 

 theses and to verify them, to reason upon cause and 

 effect, and so on. And none can be a good manual 

 worker unless he has been accustomed to the good 

 methods of handicraft altogether. He must grow ac- 

 customed to conceive the subject of his thoughts in a 

 concrete form, to draw it, or to model, to hate badly kept 

 tools and bad methods of work, to give to everything a 

 fine touch of finish, to derive artistic enjoyment from 

 the contemplation of gracious forms and combinations 

 of colours, and dissatisfaction from what is ugly. Be it 

 handicraft, science, or art, the chief aim of the school 

 is not to make a specialist from a beginner, but to teach 

 him the elements of knowledge and the good methods 

 of work, and, above all, to give him that general in- 



