Thus have the foundations been laid for this genial drawing out and exercise of latent mechanical genius amongst the people of England. With the object of widening those foundations, these pages have been prepared; primarily as forming a Text Book for Teachers, but also as an incentive to parents, educationists, and statesmen to fortify the rising generation of England against the opprobrium so justly alleged against the English of the present day, that they are behind the rest of the industrial world in those elements of mechanical taste and skill, which are becoming more and more essential to the maintenance of manufacturing and commercial prosperity.
An earnest determination to promote amendment in these respects cannot be better carried into effect than by insisting that Hand-Craft shall be regarded as an essential branch of the Technical Education that is now struggling to assert itself usefully. If such a branch be left out, the mere teaching of routine trade processes will inevitably fail. Such routine processes are many of them in heavy-handed, rough disregard of the nicety, accuracy, finish, and judgment which intelligent exercise in Hand-Craft can alone impart; which is the only reliable basis for the superior mechanical results so much needed.
Hand-Craft in wood is distinguished from carpentry or joinery in many important respects.
There is no division of labour.
Everything produced is the entire work of one operator, for the defects of which he is solely responsible.
This directness of responsibility is one of the great merits of Hand-Craft, being calculated to promote wholesome pride in the excellence of complete work; a sentiment that is apt to be very weak, or totally wanting, where division of labour is much relied upon.
The intellectual faculties are brought into unison with the hand, by knowledge and experience developing together with increasing dexterity.
Genuine respect and sympathy are developed for manual toil by familiarity with its application.
Love of work in general is developed, and a taste for it instilled by practical experience of its utility.
Habits of attention, perseverance, industry, and discipline are formed, cultivated, and unconsciously grafted upon the pupil, by the application necessary to excel.