Culture and the State 47 



Precisely in the same way, did time permit, we might 

 discover art, the skill of painter, architect, sculptor, 

 weaver; the industry of bench or forge or field, cultural 

 every one; each of these things may stir the youthful 

 soul. The ring of the anvil, the hum of the saw, the 

 whistle of the great smoothing-plane along the straight- 

 ening edge of boards, even the almost inaudible rustling 

 of the plough as it passes through the glebe all these 

 things are music to the intellectual ear. No; not all 

 these things oh no ! but any one of them, may afford 

 food for the spirit and so rouse it to that quickened 

 sense of light which is culture. They are all filled with 

 meaning; they tell of fact accomplished, of plan, and 

 thought, and purpose ; of beauty that pleases, of wisdom 

 that guides. Simple things are these, but like the great 

 things of science, for that very reason, cultural, assim- 

 ilable to the human spirit. 



But now having seen something, very little, I admit, of 

 the food-supply which our age offers to the minds of 

 aspiring and ingenious youth, it is time we turned to ex- 

 amine for a little the outcome, to see, if we may, what 

 comes of all this; in fine, to learn what may be the pos- 

 sible value of such intellectual exercise and experience 

 when brought back to contact with our every-day world ; 

 when, leaving the confines of school-room and campus, 

 we walk the ordinary ways of men and meet the real 

 problems that vex our individual and social life. How 

 can the culture which the schools afford make the indi- 

 vidual who has felt its touch, more fit for civic duty and 

 accomplishment? This culture, found in college, is said 

 to be, let us recall, absolutely without practical value. 



