THE SPIRIT OF MANUAL TRAINING. 435 



children. Oppressed with weariness, we paint our heaven as a 

 place of eternal rest. As well might we extol the lifeless moon 

 above the sentient earth. It is no wonder that men fear death, 

 and hear with chill delight the holy name of heaven. Through 

 all our human institutions there runs this same unnaturalness 

 and inconsistency acting like a constant brake upon our progress. 

 In theory we adore this progress, but the seraphim of our secret 

 altars are insoluble, infusible, unchangeable. In the school this 

 inconsistency of ours has been particularly glaring and particu- 

 larly disastrous. We have found our imagination of sufficient 

 compass to span the distance between man and protoplasm, but it 

 seems to have halted at the less difficult task of recognizing that 

 the principle of evolution is still working, and that the educa- 

 tional demands of one age are not the demands of all ages. 



The cause of education, however, will be but poorly served if 

 one demolish without building up again with as much zeal as he 

 tears down. Nor must one complain too bitterly of an institution 

 which, in spite of its short-comings, has assisted to produce in the 

 community a culture sufficient to recognize them. But it would 

 be well to remember that the school can never be made to con- 

 form to any crystallographic habit, however beautiful. Let it be 

 regarded as what it is, simply a tool and a very plastic one at that, 

 not too sacred to be sharpened and altered, whenever by so doing 

 it can be made to accomplish better work. 



The great question, then, concerning the schools is a very sim- 

 ple one : What effect has the institution upon its pupils ? What 

 sort of men and women does it make out of them ? It is not what 

 studies are taught, or what accomplishments are imparted, or what 

 extent of information is bestowed. These considerations have 

 their proper importance, but they are secondary ; the real test is 

 deeper. The standard so far has been too material. We want 

 now something more spiritual. It is a truism to say that the 

 function of the school is not to instruct, but to educate ; but it is 

 a truism which has not yet been taken sufficiently to heart to be 

 translated into a fact. Struck by the manifest inadequacy of the 

 ordinary school in preparing boys to meet the problems of life, a 

 somewhat vehement reformer has declared that America has suc- 

 ceeded, not because of her public-school system, but in spite of it. 

 The exaggeration is evident. There are many, however, who can 

 not help feeling that as a moral force the modern school, whether 

 public or private, has been scarcely less than impotent. It has 

 given itself up to the business of instruction, and has found little 

 or no time for the infinitely more important work of development. 

 The whole force of the school should be devoted to the one su- 

 preme issue — the boy himself. If, while you are making a man, 

 you can also make a scholar, it will be well, but look to the man 



