CHAPTER I.

Industrial education neglected-The lessons of things-The education of children before the period of school-The understanding and the senses -The education of thought and language-Mission of the senses and physical organs-The eyes and the fingers translate the works of the spirit-Sensible objects sources of information-Cultivating half the faculties-Simple ideas powerless unless embodied in some form-The hand-Montaigne on the hand-Outis on the void in education-The

senses.

No discussion regarding the useful pursuits of life can take place at present without an emphatic recognition of the claims of industrial education. When we consider that all labor is now directed by knowledge, and must continue to be so still more in the future, we may be sensible of some surprise at the little effort made in our educational system to meet this want. It will be generally admitted that an educated person should gain assistance from his studies when he comes to earn a livelihood. But our boys and girls, for the most part, have no occupation, and are fit for none when they leave school. They know enough, but can do nothing; they have learning, but no capacity. The industrial pursuits of life, upon which the whole fabric of society reposes, are quite ignored. Education is bestowed upon the mind, while all the executive functions of the physical system are neglected. These executive functions are certainly

as important as a knowledge of geography, spelling, defining, and grammar, of which the details are so often without interest, and do not in any way develop the faculties that deal with the realities of life; nor do such studies enable the pupils to speak of anything belonging to any calling, pursuit, or manufactured article on earth. It would seem from our system of public instruction that there existed no such pursuits as that by which men can earn a living, no employment which requires manual skill of any kind, and no such things in the world as machines. and tools and applied science except as mere figures of speech. To graduate one taught to think only, is like sending a ship to sea in charge of a navigator without a pilot, or a single person on board who can understand or execute his commands. Mental improvement is an inappreciable blessing, but do not the eye and the hand improve the earth and fill the world with comfort and beauty? Man was endowed with both to subdue the earth, and a proper education necessarily includes the cultivation of a taste for lessons in regard to things as well as ideas. Our earliest education is a sensible one, and adapted to our condition. Our first teachers and masters in philosophy are our hands, our eyes, and our sensations. The facts communicated to the child by experience may seem to be acquired rather by the operations of instinct than of intellect, but the term education is as applicable to this training as to the formal teaching of the school. Whatever he sees, or hears, or feels, teaches him a thousand things necessary to a narrow set of exigencies, and gives him the mastery of his limited necessities. He learns to speak after his first or second year, and acquires grammar before he can say his alpha

bet. He can hear with understanding much that is said, and comprehends the duty of obedience. He knows the effect of heat and cold, and many of the mechanical properties of the atmosphere. Trees and herbs and flowers are distinguished; birds and beasts are recognized, and all sensible objects draw forth questions which display observation and reflection; and, in fact, he acts intelligently upon a great variety of ideal objects. He can appreciate moral precepts, and understands the difference between kindness, honesty and truth, and fraud, deceit and profanity. In fact, many of the intellectual habits of life are formed in childhood; and what he learns of useful truths and their practical application often exercises an influence for good or evil over his subsequent conduct. This is the natural method adopted by Froebel for training children, and consists in learning the reality of things.

Philosophy teaches that mental perceptions depend upon the senses, and that the faculty of understanding objective phenomena is in the mind. Without the senses no object would come into the mind, and without the mind no object would be understood by the senses. The latter can not think, and the former can not perceive. In no other way than by the united operation of both can knowledge arise. We can thus acknowledge the elements contributed by each to our improvement, and that no use of the understanding is possible until it can represent itself in the different objects upon which the hand of labor is employed; for the mere existence of an idea or thought will never give birth to a concrete form corresponding to it, except by the aid of manual skill. This is the condition upon which all improvement or progress depends, and

would seem to suggest the adequate preparation of both sense and mind for the common work. Such, however, has not been the course of education. Thought requires the power of language to express its intelligence, and without words spoken or written, mental operations, it has been held, would have no mode of representation; and it is upon the co-activity of these faculties-thought and language-alone that education has mainly concerned itself. The whole system has, therefore, mostly been the education in language. This partial and one-sided method overlooks the simple fact that words are but the symbols of realities; whereas our vague and indefinite impressions become fixed and palpable only through the employment of manual skill and mechanical art, by which also the imagination, the memory, invention, and emotion, manifest their marvelous and enduring effects. To convey the images of external things to the mental faculties, and to work out the thoughts created in the mind, is the mission of our physical organs. Thus it is that there is carried on between the external and the internal a perpetual correspondence, and the work goes on inside and outside much of the time quite independently of our wishes or our feelings. This mutual relation is upon the principle that whatever adds to the improvement and strength of one will fortify and elevate the other. The eyes and the fingers translate the works of the spirit, and mingle with its thought in the form of useful and beautiful objects. This is the lesson of things which play nearly the whole rôle of human experience. Figures, the stars, music, and all sensible objects, are means of sensible information. What would the eye of the astronomer be worth, unless trained to watch the heavens with