Note E4 — Chapter XIII · THE MORAL EFFECT OF MANUAL TRAINING.

“No city was ever so deeply disgraced by its municipal government as the city of New York. Fourteen years ago the exposure of the Tweed Ring revealed a corruption in that government which had mastered Legislatures and courts, and was plotting to control the national administration; and as we write, all of the living ex-members of the late Board of Aldermen, except two, are held for trial for bribery and corruption, or are in hiding.

“Such a shame is unprecedented. It is in itself a sharp satire upon popular elections, as well as upon the character and public spirit of New York; and the worst of it is that, bad as it is, no citizen probably feels himself to be humiliated, or is conscious of any personal responsibility. To the most stupid man, however, such facts forecast a constant deterioration of the situation.”—“Harper’s Weekly,” April 24, 1886.

[E5] The morality of the present age, like that of the Romans, is a mere theory, entirely destitute of vital force. Selfishness is still, as it always has been, the controlling element in human conduct, and selfishness and morality are utterly incompatible. Moral precepts are inculcated in a perfunctory way, as Greek is taught because it is the fashion, but with no more idea that they will be adopted as the rule of life, than that the language of Homer will again be used as the instrument of speech. The contempt in which morality is commonly held is well shown by the remark of a popular lecturer, who said of Peter the Great, that, “viewed morally he was a monster, and by the gauge of decency, a brute, but a giant from the lofty heights of statesmanship and civilization.” How vain is the hope of reform while leaders of men deem it possible for statesmanship to be rendered lofty by a moral monster, or that the cause of civilization may be advanced by a brute!

[E6] “The artisan stands between every man, woman, and child and the crude materials embodied in the three kingdoms of Nature, and by the magic of his skill they are transformed into means serviceable for use. The wood in the forest, the marble in the quarry, the clay in the bank, the metal in the mine pass through his hands, take on the form of his thought, become arranged by his intelligence, and the product is the modern dwelling. Is there any fancy in fairy tale more wonderful than this? By the skill of the tanner and the shoemaker the raw skin is transformed into the useful shoe. Do you ever think of your indebtedness to these humble toilers for your protection and comfort? Do they ever think of the service they are rendering you?—a service which cannot be compensated by dollars and cents. The jewels which sparkle in royal crowns and add lustre to queenly beauty, the silks and precious stuffs which clothe and give new charms to the loveliness of women, owe their beauty, their lustre, their value to the artisan. He stands between the worm, the mine, and the wearer; and by the transforming power of his skill and patient labor they become robes of beauty and gems of light. But of far greater importance is the service he is rendering to our common humanity. He takes the material which our Heavenly Father has provided in such abundance, puts his thought, his intelligence, and he has every conceivable motive for putting his love and good-will toward men, into them and passing them on as tokens of his love and fidelity to human good. Everything he touches becomes a message not only of his knowledge and his skill but a fit embodiment of his regard for his fellow-men.”—“Mechanical Employments as Means of Human Culture.” Rev. Chauncey Giles. Eleventh Series Tracts, p. 15. Philadelphia: New Church Tract and Publication Society.