The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-08-06

ways. The more flexible the play
things the more acceptable, and to dis
cover new capabilities of change a.
ways brings new delight.
Even when child has learned, by &C.
tual play with it, the various positions
which one little infexibIe stick may
take, and when he has learned to make
picture ofitin all these positions, it will
ever after be significant plaything to
him. When two sticks reach relative
positions numbering twenty-five or
more. although he may not yet know
that number, he has learned the secret
OF finding much in little. With that
number doubled his resource is almost
unlimited, and he has the beginning of
the secret of ideal invention. which is
the secret of every step Of progress the
world has ever made. He has the
practical secret, too, for he is learning
to do with his hands what his mind
sees, and in such a manner as to be no
unnatural tax upon either. His work
may be very crude, but it is promise
Of better. These materials, like all
the materials of life, should be used as
means Of education, and not the end !;
so immediate results matter little, so
long as the power of achieving better
results is acquired.
Science says, 6 / see a truth, and
must reach it by the shortest possible
route, the straight line" Art whis-
peIs, "The way is blockaded; go
around little, ard you will get there
sooner. Bend your straight line"
So in our play with children. The
graceful curve opens to them new re-
sources, which the circle completes and
in the union of straight and curved
lines in Inventive Drawing, from the
center out, we have the foundation of
all Arts. Nature. too, is symbolized
in a myriad of different ways. 1t is
the secret door to her very heart 1t
is the union, too, of practical doing
with ideal thinking.
Science says, BE exact" Art sug-
gests that in teaching too much must
not be sacrificed to present exactness.
If little child comes to me with his
hands full of newly-gathered blossoms
and asks me to write" them upon the
board, it will not help him for me to
say, 81 cannot do it now; / must wait
until l have studied them with the
greatest care, and have the time to
copy" If, on the contrary, as quickly
as my hands can do it, with the best
material at hand, / picture his little
blossoms for him, he will crown me
with them hundred times. He may
say the picture is just exactly like the
blossoms; and if I answer, l am glad
it looks er-actly like them to you," ten
to one, if the incident is repeated the
next morning, he will tell me it looks
eggs-actly, &C., with emphasis, because
he was not drilled on that word until
he wished he had not brought the
flowers.
The object OF directed or inventive
play with children is to give them the
use of self-powers, not to initiate the
expressions of mine. Naturally, then
these expressions differ, and are to be
read just as we would read letters from
different persons, each an Individual
expression of an individual mind, yet
all growing out of the same simple
laws.
To have the door.key of a house in
ones pocket is just the same as having
the possession of the house. To have
in ones consciousness the underlying
principles of an Art is to have posses
sion of that Art. Two persons who
have never heard of each other, work.
ing upon the same principles in Art OF
any thing else, may chance to give ex.
preston in the same form, almost
simultaneously, as two writer's whose
thought is upon the same subject may
use the same combination Of words in
expressing it. This only proves that
mind as well as matter is guided by
laws which are recognized by similar
possesses. If [ have the secret of
the leaf. the little one growing at
my own door in Kenosha will tell me
the whole story; shall not have to GO
to Italy for it. If have an ear for
the voice of God in any water, I shall
hear it in Lake Michigan. If | have
any power to appreciate the old mas.
ters, [ shall be ready to greet the new,
F. A. B. d.