The Difference between Ancient and Modern Systems of Education. — Plato Blinded by Half-truths. — No place in the present order of things for Dogmatisms. — Education begins at Birth. — The Influence of Women extends from the Cradle to the Grave. — The Crime of Crimes. — Neglect to educate Woman. — The Superiority of Women over Men as Teachers. — Froebel discovered it. — Nature designed Woman to Teach; hence the Importance of Fitting her for her Highest Destiny.[123]

CHAPTER XIII.
THE MORAL EFFECT OF MANUAL TRAINING.

Mental Impulses are often Vicious; but the Exertion of Physical Power in the Arts is always Beneficent — hence Manual Training tends to correct vicious mental Impulses. — Every mental Impression produces a moral Effect. — All Training is Moral as well as Mental. — Selfishness is total Depravity; but Selfishness has been Deified under the name of Prudence. — Napoleon an Example of Selfishness. — The End of Selfishness is Disaster; but Prevailing Systems of Education promote Selfishness. — The Modern City an Illustration of Selfishness. — The Ancient City. — Existing Systems of Education Negatively Wrong. — Manual Training supplies the lacking Element. — The Objective must take the Place of the Subjective in Education. — Words without Acts are as dead as Faith without Works.[130]

CHAPTER XIV.
THE MIND AND THE HAND.

The Mind and the Hand are Allies; the Mind speculates, the Hand tests its Speculations in Things. — The Hand explodes the Errors of the Mind — it searches after Truth and finds it in Things. — Mental Errors are subtile; they elude us, but the False in Things stands self-exposed. — The Hand is the Mind’s Moral Rudder. — The Organ of Touch the most Wonderful of the Senses; all the Others are Passive; it alone is Active. — Sir Charles Bell’s Discovery of a “Muscular Sense.” — Dr. Henry Maudsley on the Muscular Sense. — The Hand influences the Brain. — Connected Thought impossible without Language, and Language dependent upon Objects; and all Artificial Objects are the Work of the Hand. — Progress is therefore the Imprint of the Hand upon Matter in Art. — The Hand is nearer the Brain than are the Eye and the Ear. — The Marvellous Works of the Hand.[144]

CHAPTER XV.
THE POWER OF THE TRAINED HAND.

The Legend of Adam and the Stick with which he subdued the Animals. — The Stick is the Symbol of Power, and only the Hand can wield it. — The Hand imprisons Steam and Electricity, and keeps them at hard Labor. — The Destitution of England Two Hundred and Fifty Years ago: a Pen Picture. — The Transformation wrought by the Hand: a Pen Picture. — It is due, not to Men who make Laws, but to Men who make Things. — The Scientist and the Inventor are the World’s Benefactors. — A Parallel between the Right Honorable William E. Gladstone and Sir Henry Bessemer. — Mr. Gladstone a Man of Ideas, Mr. Bessemer a Man of Deeds. — The Value of the latter’s Inventions. — Mr. Gladstone represents the Old Education, Mr. Bessemer the New.[157]

CHAPTER XVI.
THE INVENTORS, CIVIL ENGINEERS, AND MECHANICS OF ENGLAND, AND ENGLISH PROGRESS.

A Trade is better than a Profession. — The Railway, Telegraph, and Steamship are more Potent than the Lawyer, Doctor, and Priest. — Book-makers writing the Lives of the Inventors of last Century. — The Workshop to be the Scene of the Greatest Triumphs of Man. — The Civil Engineers of England the Heroes of English Progress. — The Life of James Brindley, the Canal-maker; his Struggles and Poverty. — The Roll of Honor. — Mr. Gladstone’s Significant Admission that English Triumphs in Science and Art were won without Government Aid. — Disregarding the Common-sense of the Savage, Legislators have chosen to learn of Plato, who declared that “The Useful Arts are Degrading.” — How Improvements in the Arts have been met by Ignorant Opposition. — The Power wielded by the Mechanic.[170]

CHAPTER XVII.
POWER OF STEAM AND CONTEMPT OF ARTISANS.