will be rapid-unfavorable, and school will but check what nature is already accomplishing. How does a child learn so much during his first five or six years? By simply following the promptings of nature. The restless activity, the fickleness and the inquisitive instincts of the child have wrought to a grand result before he enters school. Let us not arrest, but guide this growth. If we succeed, the child will never know the weariness and ill-temper which come with irksome and unnatural restraint. He will enjoy school-work because his faculties are exercised in accordance with the laws of their normal development. His mind will seize and assimilate knowledge as unconsciously as the magnet attracts iron. But the materials furnished must be such as his mind can appropriate. They must be adapted to his age and mental cravings. Otherwise the weariness and mischief-making which indicate intellectual starvation will be manifested. As well might we expect the flower to bloom without warmth and moisture as to look for a harmonious growth to which surrounding conditions do not minister. As well give a stone to the child who asks for bread as to offer him mental food which his mind cannot appropriate.

Interest is essential in training the child's perceptive powers. His capacity for voluntary attention is very limited. He may listen respectfully to his teacher. He may bravely endeavor to attend to that which does not interest him; but nature soon asserts itself, and the faculties flag and refuse to act. Abstract and general statements do not come within the sphere of a child's interest. But let the teacher bring well-selected objects into the school-room; let her distribute them among the pupils and elicit the results of their observation, and their spontaneous attention will evince the vigor of their intellectual activity. Efforts to this end are systematically begun in the kindergarten and first grade; they never should be discontinued in all our educational work. Of late, all are agreed in theory that occupation should be furnished for the sense-organs in training the child. But so little impression has been made upon the actual practice in most schools, that this necessity of the child-nature needs to be continually urged. Teachers should not be allowed to forget that the intellectual fabric which they seek to build must have a solid foundation in sense-knowledge. Sully says: "Thought will be loose and inaccurate when the preliminary stage of perception has been hurried over. The first-hand. knowledge of things through personal inspection is worth far more than any second-hand account of them by description." And Porter, always conservative and stately, remarks that "the perfection with which this power can be exercised depends on the interest and training of the individual. Different persons acquire, by special discipline, special power to perceive certain classes of objects. What a man is, is exemplified by what he perceives."

Manual training, then, should not be regarded as a new subject, as a counterclaimant with other branches of a limited amount of time and mental energy, but rather as a system of educational methods which recognize the necessity of addressing the child's intellect through his senses. It aims at the pro

duction of thought-power by supplying an abundance of thought materials. It develops the capacity for voluntary attention by creating conditions which require it. The child who is moulding clay, the boy who is cutting a mortise, the young man who is carving a panel, must attend. With them, interest and spontaneous attention pass unconsciously into voluntary concentration of mental energy. They cannot sit listlessly with books before them while their thoughts fly away to the skating-park or play-ground. They cannot delude themselves with the idea that they have studied two hours, when they have not really applied themselves ten minutes. They acquire—they must acquire -the power of observing closely and accurately. They learn the great lesson of ascertaining just what is to be done before attempting to do it. They learn the dependence of one thing upon another, and that each step in a process must be taken in its proper order. They learn that carelessness and mistakes destroy good work, and that every faculty must be alert in order to secure the best results.

A generation ago, nearly every boy gained a practical familiarity with some employment at home. The farmer's son secured a good muscular development by assisting his father out of school. He learned how to use his hands. His quick and accurate eye was trained to observe every feature of an object. But nothing gives our modern city school-boy any such opportunity. And this one-sidedness of his educational environment is a serious loss to his teacher, as well as to himself. Children need objective teaching. It is difficult for them to think in the abstract; it is easy and natural for them to be interested in individual objects—in things which they can themselves handle; in work which they can themselves do. The child who is confused and wearied with intellectual work will be made happy and refreshed by something to do with his hands. He learns to think, as is natural for the child, in the concrete. He learns the qualities of objects, and manifold facts which can only be gained by actual experience. The judgment and powers of comparison are developed. The taste is stimulated and conformed to correct standards. Manual exercises, then, are an important auxiliary in the formation of correct intellectual habits, not only because they require close attention, but also because they supply accurate materials for the processes of thought. Men who possess a high degree of intellectual penetration are always close observers. Good analytical powers imply vigorous perceptive powers. The shadowy and disconnected materials furnished by careless observation fail to enrich the memory and imagination. Close deduction and reliable influence cannot be drawn from inexact or insufficient data. Every intellectual faculty is enfeebled and its product obscured by indistinct or insufficient data. Every intellectual faculty is enfeebled and its product obscured by indistinct or indifferent perception. All mental operations are clarified and brought into harmony by uniform reliance upon clear and definite knowledge. Such a thinker walks in the light. He feels no distrust of his conclusions, because he sees the ample foundation on which they rest. He proceeds with confi

dence, because his lines of thought and action are clearly apprehended. His mental habit compels him to stop before a doubtful step has been taken. How much of the vague and shallow thinking which pervades the community would be reinvigorated if all were trained to apprehend clearly the grounds on which their opinions rest! How much more effective would be our thinking and our work if it all rested upon a sure and well-laid foundation in perception!

Moreover, the child can learn no lessons at school which are of greater value than the virtues of industry, perseverance, and genuineness. It is not claimed that this education has the power to overcome all the faults and weaknesses of human nature. Those who demand such results from the public schools will always be disappointed. But it is already apparent that manual training, especially in its more advanced work, stimulates the best elements of an upright character. The boy who has learned to apply himself till a specific thing is accomplished, has taken an important step in moral training. The universal weakness of human nature, until trained and disciplined, is a tendency to do things imperfectly, partly from ignorance, partly from reluctance to make the requisite effort. Habits of thought react upon fundamental traits of character. The boy who has learned precision and adaptation in the use of tools, has also learned a lesson which will serve him in other departments of training, in social and moral relations. Any means or system of training which will help a boy to overcome a dislike of work and a disposition to do things carelessly, is of great educational value, though nothing else come of it. He who has conquered difficulties once will more easily succeed a second time. The skillful use of tools and materials in the production of any article, is intimately related to that moral grit which will find a means of accomplishing any needful end. The boy acquires in the work-shop the habit of overcoming difficulties, and persisting in an undertaking till it is crowned with success. Every boy in the royal family of Germany is taught to work with his hands, not that he may fall back upon it, if necessary, as a means of earning a livelihood, but that he may acquire the power of doing things. Character, stimulated and reënforced by honest effort in one pursuit, will not fail when brought to the test in other and more important relations.

Let us now attempt to apply these principles in answer to the question, What kind of manual training is appropriate to the grammar grades?

We require, first, bodily exercises which involve a maximum of intellectual activity; second, those which are interesting; and third, those which savor of work rather than play.

1. Drawing should render far greater service in this direction than it has hitherto done. History, geography, animal lessons, plant lessons, and much of the other work of the grammar grades will be greatly enriched by combining the drawing with them. A pupil's interest is wonderfully stimulated when he finds that he can make practical use of his drawing in his other school

work. He discovers a new significance in a subject when he finds that he can illustrate it with a picture. The sketch and the description stand side. by side; they supplement one another, and the double expression gives far more than a double value. He makes a drawing of the animal whose habits he describes. He embellishes his historical narratives with such illustrations as will make the scenes more real. As he grows older he gives you a glimpse of the objects of interest which he has seen in his imaginary geographical tours. He paraphrases a classical poem and accompanies his literary work with a picture of the castle or belfry-tower to which reference is made. In this way, the hand, the eye and the taste are at once trained, and the habit is formed of giving clear and adequate expression to every idea one wishes to communicate. Drawing has now been taught in the public schools for fifteen years. No teacher is longer acceptable who has not learned to draw. The best teachers make constant use of the blackboard. They should train their pupils to be equally accustomed to graphic illustration. Almost everything taught in the schools thus becomes tributary to language-teaching, and all the school-work contributes to that practical habit of thought which associates the daily routine of school with actual life. Let us cease to imagine that in training the powers of thought or expression we need to ignore the world of to-day with all its busy interests. Let us teach our boys and girls to know and to love that which is beautiful and good all about them.

2. Nor need this work be limited to drawing. The clay-modeling of the primary may well be developed into more artistic forms and continued in the upper grades. It affords admirable training, and has been successful wherever tried. When a pupil has learned to draw an animal, or a basket of fruit, let him reproduce the article in clay with appropriate coloring. Relief maps and other expedients for making real the facts of geography and history, should be made a part of the regular grammar-school work. Sand, putty, salt, and various other materials are used. Elaborate and beautiful work of this kind is now produced. Fortunately, schools which cannot attempt the large and expensive pieces prepared in some places, can do just as profitable work on a smaller scale.

3. The construction of geometrical solids out of thick cardboard affords excellent training for the eye and hand. This work leads inductively to a knowledge of geometry, that noble science whose cold abstractions and theorems have been the terror of many a student, when a more favorable introduction would have led to an agreeable acquaintance. By combining these geometrical solids, having one penetrate another, interesting and highly disciplinary problems are presented.

At what age pupils may wisely begin to work in wood, is much disputed. The cause of manual training has not gained in intelligent interest and confidence by the attempts to anticipate the ordinary physical development of children. A boy of nine or ten years is not capable of handling carpenters' tools in a safe and proper manner. He has neither the strength nor the

steadiness to use such tools. He is not yet capable of taking an intelligent interest in such work. It is as premature for him mentally as it is physically. They who propose putting little children to manual exercises which are beyond their years are guilty of as serious a disregard of psychological principles as are they who tax and weary the childish powers with complicated processes in arithmetic and grammar.

It does not follow, however, that excellent training of hand and eye may not be obtained by various forms of wood-work in the grammar grades. For pupils between ten and thirteen years of age a variety of exercises in whittling may be provided. In some schools this work has been systematized and brought into line with the drawing and clay-work. Cubes, prisms, pyramids, cylinders, and other fundamental forms are carefully shaped with the knife. These type forms are then modified or conventionalized into various familiar articles. An almost unlimited variety of objects may be thus produced. The expense is very slight. We have depended entirely upon the bits of lumber from the manual-training shops for the materials for this work.

In these grades many of the exercises of the Swedish slöjd may be introduced. This system is especially to be commended for its simplicity and inexpensiveness. The earlier exercises, such as making a pointer, a bird's perch, or a flower stick, are not too difficult for ordinary pupils with an ordinary teacher, and the work can be done in an ordinary school-room. In woodworking, as well as in other school exercises, there is danger of making the first steps too difficult. The limitations of the slöjd are, however, apparent, and I question the wisdom of the principle that each exercise must be a completely-finished article. Its great merit is its availability. It is closely related to the drawing, develops the sense of form, and is well adapted to gain the interest of pupils.

For the last two years in the grammar school, when pupils are from thirteen to fifteen years of age, a carefully-selected course of exercises in carpentry and cabinet-work affords perhaps the best manual training. Even here the heavier tools should be avoided, and care taken not to over-tax the pupil's strength. The exercises should be short, and should lead up to the manualtraining work of the high school. A work-shop is of course a necessity, but it need not be elaborate or expensive.

I have no desire to differ from those who propose to put wood-working tools into the hands of the girls, but it would seem that something more appropriate might be found for them. Every girl should learn to sew; indeed it is surprising that all girls are not taught plain sewing at home. But every teacher can testify that many mothers never attempt so slight a matter as mending their children's clothes. Multitudes of women are utterly ignorant of the use of the needle, and girls are left to grow up in rags, simply because they have never been taught to sew. The educational value-the effect upon the mind and character—of learning to sew is equal to other forms of manual training, and the practical and social bearings of the instruction invest it with