55* 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



distinctive but their dominating feat- 

 ure. The true aim and the intellectual 

 character of these schools are admirably 

 presented in the article on " The Spirit 

 of Manual Training," by Prof. 0. Han- 

 ford Henderson, which opens this issue 

 of the " Monthly." As Prof. Henderson 

 shows, there is no school whose plan is 

 so free from one-sidedness as the manual 

 training school. " The specific purpose 

 of such schools," he says, " is to offer an 

 education that includes as far as possible 

 all of the faculties. Its favorite maxim 

 is, ' Put the whole boy to school.' Its 

 mode of carrying out this purpose is the 

 very practical one of occupying the time 

 in any way, formal or informal, that 

 will best lead to the end proposed." 

 The chief danger which besets such a 

 school is that of becoming a shop, and 

 producing artisans rather than develop- 

 ing men. There are many who are not 

 aware that any other effect follows from 

 the training of the hands than the power 

 to make certain articles. But not a finger 

 can be consciously lifted unless an im- 

 pulse is first sent to that finger from the 

 brain. The bungling motions of un- 

 practiced hands are due to the imperfect 

 control of an undeveloped brain, and 

 the gradual acquirement of the power 

 to mo ve the hands to just the right ex- 

 tent, in just the right direction, and 

 with just the right amount of force, is 

 accompanied by a proportionate devel- 

 opment in the brain. The increasing 

 sensitiveness of the eye to detect slight 

 deviations from a perfect square, vertical, 

 or circle carries with it a general ability 

 to see accurately, and to rightly interpret 

 the visual impressions presented to the 

 mind. Manual training has also a higher 

 influence. The boy takes a pride in his 

 work, and, in overcoming the difficulties 

 of his successive tasks, he develops the 

 virtues of perseverance, self-reliance, 

 and honesty. These schools are still in 

 a formative stage, and doubtless imper- 

 fections and errors may be found in the 

 character of any particular institution; 

 but if the spirit which Prof. Henderson 



reveals shall dominate the manual train- 

 ing school, its book-study and its shop- 

 work promise to form the best system 

 of all-around educational development 

 that has yet been devised. 



BEUNO'S STATUE AT ROME. 



The erection at Eome of a statue to 

 Giordano Bruno, who on the 17th of 

 February in the year 1600 was publicly 

 burned in that city for the heresies alleged 

 to be contained in his philosophical 

 writings, is a noble act of justice to the 

 memory of a great and much-injured 

 man. It is more than this, however, 

 for it bears emphatic witness to the de- 

 termination of the Italian Government 

 and people to range themselves on the 

 side of the widest freedom in specula- 

 tion, and thus to place their whole civi- 

 lization under the auspices and guidance 

 of the modern spirit. It is satisfactory 

 that, amid not a few partial signs of re- 

 action, we have this great and formal 

 vindication of the principle of intellects al 

 liberty on the part of one of the lead- 

 ing nations of the world. "When we 

 read of the thousands of telegrams of 

 sympathy sent to the Pope in connec- 

 tion with this event, we can not help 

 wondering how the sympathizers, who, 

 it may be presumed, all enjoy a fair 

 measure of civil liberty in the countries 

 throughout which they are scattered, 

 would themselves like to be in the hands 

 of a power that could bring them to the 

 stake if their opinions were not of the 

 pattern which that power chose to ap- 

 prove. From the modern point of view 

 the execution of Bruno was simply the 

 cold-blooded murder by ignorant fanatics 

 of a man immeasurably their superior 

 in knowledge and intellectual power; 

 and who, by his refusal, in the face of 

 death, to recant his opinions, proved 

 himself possessed also of the highest 

 degree of moral heroism. He was ac- 

 cused of atheism in his day, but his 

 system of thought was pantheistic rather 

 than atheistic. He believed that the 



