Interest aroused in the central department of each child's power so fully as to lead to original expression becomes the supreme agency in producing definite and energetic action of his whole being, and therefore one of the chief aims of education should be to find the interest center of each child and provide opportunities for original work to develop original power. Art is the only subject that can develop the central power of some children, and it has a wider influence in the development of a consciousness of original power in all children than any other subject except manual training, and it is one of the most essential elements in manual training

Art gives a new form of expression, which may be developed easily and joyously into self-expression. Every new form of self-expression strengthens the powers of self-expression already possessed by the child. All forms of self-expression are in harmony with each other, and are mutually developeng to each other. Each new power broadens the mind and makes it more fully conscious of its powers. Each undeveloped power prevents the perfect growth of all other related powers. The revelation of a new phase of selfhood to the child is a notable epoch in his growth, and in the awakening and defining of his powers. Art is the highest form of self-expression for many children and it may be a high productive form of self-expression for all children.

Art strengthens the mental powers. It cultivates the observant powers and accurate observation is the fundamental basis of clear and definite thinking. Seeing is a mental act. Culture in correct seeing means culture of the mind, not of the eye. We see only those things to which we pay attention. Thousands of pictures form themselves on the retina each day that are not The mind attends only to those pictures in the eye which are related to appreceptive centers formed in ti by experience and training.

seen.

Art trains the reasoning powers. Definite seeing leads to accurate thinking. Accurate observation lays the foundation for correct judgment. A considerable portion of our reasoning depends on our conceptions of size, form, color, and relationship; therefore art by the cultivation of new and exact apperceptive centers of size, form, color, and relationship, gives a logical preparation for clear thinking.

Art provides the highest opportunities for the culture of the imagination. Real art is not a mere reproduction of beautiful things that have been stored in the memory, nor is its highest work the representation of the best work in nature. True art is more than this. It is an expression of the highest revelations of a lifetime in new forms in harmony with the individuality of the artist. Art molds material things into new and higher forms; it beautifies them with more exquisite and more harmonious colors; it transforms them into more ennobling expressions of the highest spiritual evolution of humanity. But art does not stop here. It deals with the unseen and attempts the interpretation of the infinite; it reveals the most transcendent visions of spiritual insight. Whether art be reproduction, or representation or transformation, or spiritual revelation, it exercises some form of the imaginatoe, either repre

sentative, or constructive, or creative, and by exercise develops it and qualifies it for fuller, freer activity. Our highest powers are capable of most rapid and most comprehensive development, and all powers grow most rapidly when used for highest purposes. As art is such a high form of self-expression, it necessarily follows that it is one of the most perfect agencies for developing the imagination.

Art develops originality and qualifies man to aid in increasing human wisdom and power, and in the promotion of human happiness by the revelation of new thought, new forms of beauty, and new conceptions of aesthetic and spiritual evolution. We should leave the world richer than we find it. Our only possible gift to civilization is some true revelation of our spiritual power. The development of original power is therefore the supreme element in education. Original power can be developed only by the exercise of some form of self-expression in constructive invention, oratory, literature, music, or art. Art is certainly one of the highest of these forms, and therefore it is one of the most productive agencies for developing original power.

We are usually too willing to be satisfied with high achievement in the power of expression by the child in oral language, written language, music, manual training, and art. This is a mistake, because expression alone adds nothing to human power or wisdom or vision. Expression at best is but a preparation for self-expression. It is not even that in the truest sense. Selfexpression, or originality, is not only the desired end of education, but the process by which the most comprehensive, the most definite, and the perfect forms of self-expression may be acquired. Self-expression is infinitely more productive than expression. The passive forms of expression are little better than the passive forms of accumulation in developing the child. The true function of selfhood is the exercise of original or creative power. When the creative functions of the child are assumed by the teacher, or are left out of consideration altogether, the child's culture is weakened at its most vital center. No other school work affords such universally attractive opportunities as art for the expression and development of originality, and for the revelation of the growing inner life by creative activity in improving and beautifying the conditions of our environment.

Art is of special educative value because it so readily reveals to the child himself the possession of original power. The most important epoch in the life of a child is the time he gets a revelation of his special power, a consciousness of the fact that he has independent creative power. The central element in strong character is a positive self-reverence based on a conscious recognition of original power to be used for humanity. No other school-study gives such excellent opportunities as art for revealing to a teacher the great fact that the child has original power. The results of a child's original efforts are more distinctively manifest, more objectively real, and more easily achieved in art than in any other subject. This is the culture that gives real value to all other kinds of culture, and that arouses most effectively the powers of the mind.

Art is a very important element in the education of a child because it qualifies him for the true interpretation of the great works of art. All the great ideals of the world's leaders in the progress of humanity toward a higher civilization are stored for the development of the present and for coming generations in literature, art, and music. The schools, should train all children to be able to search intelligently in the treasure-houses of the race, and to interpret correctly the transcendent visions of those men and women who have stood on the mountain peaks of development, and who have recorded their higher visions for all who come after them. The schools try to train their pupils to interpret literature as a means of securing greater happiness and higher development; they should also train them to comprehend and interpret the great ideals that are preserved in art and music for the enrichment of the race.

I am never so conscious of a defect in my culture as when I stand with a painter before a great picture, or walk with an architect in a grand cathedral. The artist or the architect sees and feels and thinks a thousand things unseen, unfelt, unthought by me. I am relatively blind and unconscious when compared with him. The things he sees and feels, the great thoughts that stir and lift him, are recorded in the picture for me, as well as for him, but I cannot interpret them for lack of the culture which I failed to get. I cannot see and interpret the records because I was not trained to see and interpret. It might have been possible for me to have seen clearly and interpreted truly, and my whole intellectual and spiritual life is narrower and weaker because of my lack of the culture that would have enabled me to do so. The fact that we could not all be trained to see what Ruskin saw in color, or in architecture, is no reason why we should not be trained to see as much as we have natural power to see. Our duty as educators is to kindle the children, and cultivate. their vital intellectual powers so fully that they may be able to gain as much of culture and of uplift as possible from all the elements of culture and uplift. Art is one of the most productive of these elements. It is a key to many great storehouses of the best culture. We wisely try to train our pupils to be capable of comprehending and enjoying and using the emotion and thought stored in literature. We should for exactly the same reasons train them to see and understand and enjoy the records and revelations of the varied forms of art in painting, in sculpture, and in architecture. We should leave no child without the power to appreciate and interpret the works of the great leaders of the past.

The child who has not been taught the fundamental principles of balance, rhythm, and harmony is blind to the real beauty of the designs in carpets, curtains, and wall paper. The child who has not been trained to recognize correct forms and proportions and to understand the relationships of forms and proportions cannot truly appreciate the exquisite beauties of sculpture or the majestic beauty of a cathedral. The man who understands the correct principles of literary composition sees in literature many beauties in literary form that bring no joy to the untrained; the man who has a knowledge of

the principles of composition in painting gains infinitely more of happiness and of culture by studying a picture than a man who has not learned those principles. The principles of composition in art are as definite and as simple and as easy to teach and to understand as the principles of literary composition, and every child has a right to know them.

True art-teaching multiplies our power to see beauty, and harmony, and unity, and design, not only in the greatest art productions of man but in the works of nature. The man whose color sense has not been trained is not able to recognize the rich harmonies of color that are seen by trained eyes. The melody and the beauty exist for all, and are seen and understood and appreciated by all in proportion to the amount of art-training we have received. Oh, the difference between the trained and the untrained!

One of the most effective lessons I ever learned was given by a teacher of art who showed me a collection of Japanese pictures chosen especially as illustrations of the exquisite color harmonies developed by those greatest students of color. Beside each picture lay some common object. The harmonies in blues and grays of that first picture I saw reproduced in a cinder from the ash heap. The harmonies in the tones of browns were beautifully seen in the inner side of a piece of bark taken from an old and decaying log, and all through the series of pictures, each picture had its color harmonies reproduced by moss, or bark, or shell, or fungus, or by some common thing that most of us pass without any recognition of its beauty. It means a great deal to a young life to be made conscious of the fact that even the commonest things that lie unnoticed around us possess some elements of beauty equal to the most fully developed conception of the race. The revelation of beauty and harmony hitherto unseen prepares us to believe in the higher evolution of the race, in order that it may become capable of comprehending the higher beauty and harmony yet to be revealed. It helps too to a clearer understanding of the universe and its Creator to realize that even the most apparently valueless things possess transcendent beauty when we become capable of seeing it.

But the lesson that we are in the midst of beauty, and the training in power to see beauty, great as they are, are not so important as the habit of searching consciously for the beautiful. The greatest modern art teachers make alertness to beauty and responsiveness to its influence the supreme aims. The true teacher often says to her pupils: Draw or sketch or paint for me the flower or tree or tower or porch or vase or landscape you think most beautiful, or bring me the pattern or picture or object that you think most beautiful. At first it is enough that the child shall make the choice, but later the reasons for the preference should be given.

Of course it is essential that the choice of each child should be recognized as of absolute value to him, and reverently respected by his teacher. If his choice be inferior, his taste cannot be raised to a higher plane by the adoption of the choice of another. The making of choices, and the explanation of

the reasons for making them, form a very productive exercise; but the chief value of such training is the development of a persistent tendency to search consciously for the beautiful and true in our environment and in our conditions. Constantly relating the best outer to the best inner will lead to a conscious purpose to make the best inner become the outer. The habit of choosing the most beautiful in our environment will aid in the development of the most beautiful characteristics of life.

Ideals transform individuals, and ultimately transform national life. Ideals become vital in our lives by consciously choosing them.

Art has a high culture influence because it tends to lift the soul above materialism. Every working-man should know that he can create and reveal ideals. So will his life be ennobled. Our material life should be spiritualized. The spiritual in literature and music and art is lifting the race slowly towards the Divine. This is the real education.

Mr. Morris says: "Art is for the few." This is a narrow view. It is the limited thought of an artist, not the broad view of an artistic educator. Each soul should have those powers trained which tend to bring it into conscious relationship to the universal spirit. Art can do much to achieve this grand result. Each new apperceptive center of beauty and harmony qualifies for a higher and deeper consciousness of beauty and harmony, and promotes our conscious growth towards the Divine.

With grander ideals of liberty and of individual power, and of the possibility of human achievement as we grow towards a truer spiritual emancipation, let us teach the best we know of art to all the children as a basis for a nobler art and for a purer individual and national life.

THE BEARING OF ART ON INDUSTRY

CHARLES ZUEBLIN, BOSTON, MASS.

Goethe once said: "Fortunate is he who at an early age knows what art is;" which you may take as a platitude, but Philip Gilbert Hamerton has said that in the whole realm of art literature you will hardly find a sentence of equal significance.

We all have had the experience, either in ourselves or in others, of trying to overcome years of neglect or bad teaching; and often no amount of information, no amount of subsequent training, will neutralize the mistakes of the schools. I fancy most of us have gone through some sort of art-training. Unfortunately for many, that usually has meant merely a sort of encyclopedic survey of the great painters and sculptors of the world. Unless we can learn some of the elements of art, we cannot by mere knowledge of art products remedy our deficiencies.

I want to speak here very briefly about the function of art with respect to occupation, social welfare, and culture, believing that we shall satisfy these needs best if in preparation for occupation we give students a knowledge of