, 1886-03-10

me StrnEEic Ia homorlIo-brhin OF n
savags-Inereas. of intellectual Power
Psychological Ethics-Honor the Body
-Gro~th of Manual Training.
In no way is the brain work doing 50
much damage us to itself. Tho power Of
memory Is unqcstionably less on-the aver
agc ia men Of to-day han In the Greeks
and our other Aryun predecessors. The
llindoos Of this day can repeat volumes OF
the N,lns. Our brains our overloaded and
stalled in h slough. We forget nine
tcnths III what we learn. A large amount
OF accumulation finds no place to write its
records OH the brain. The effort is ex-
hausting. The struggle to memorize breaks
down the nutritiye powers and makes dys-
peptics; the excretive powers, and apoplcxy
and Bright's disease follow. The diseases
Of civilization are for the most part brain
diseases, or those brought on by the brain.
Is civilization n failurei VIII 1t always run
"A certain round and disappear where the
Assyrian, Egyptian and Grecian culture
went-self slainy
al MAXIMUM OF BRAIS-PowER.
Crowded in its case, or skull, the brain
has perhaps come near Its finality Of bulk.
But it has long since adopted the plan Of
folding itself in and In, and by n myriad
Of cOnyolutions, contriyed 10 increase its
surface power. The brain of a savage, II
spread out, would cover some nifty square
feet; the brain OF an educated American
covers in like conditions 200 square feet.
Here Is four times the superficial brain
area, or four times the recording and d.
recting power. The skull case Is thinned,
aud The inilrm faculties crowded out, so
that the dominant regality Of reason may
he increased. Has brain-power reached
its maximum Can we look for any fur
ther increase OF intellectual powerf 1t is
clear that no poet has ever sur
passed, may, none has equaled, Ho-
mer. With the advantages in the
way Of data at command, no naturalist
has ever equnled, certainly not surpassed,
Aristotle No moral philosophers have
excellcd Jesus, and those OF the fifth cen
fury earlier, Buddha, Socrates and Confu
cius. The average power Of today is
vastly ahead Of the average OF any preced-
ing age, but brain power seems to have
touched its height in Plato, Homer and
Shakespeare.
The general tendency is, as you
zee, for the brain, In ruling the
body, to 20 to such extremes as
10 take the body down, to disin-
tegrate it, and so subvert her own pur-
poses, The senses weakened, our relation
TO the outer universe is dulled. Whatever
may be the vuigarity Of a gross body, that
the brain does not govern, is equally true,
In n feeble way, Of an aborted body, that
high civilization hns dropped through the
cracks of the car Of progress. Physiology
cal ethics are our present need; n gospel Of
legs and arms as well as brain; but a
gospel OF good eyes, ears, and noses rs well.
BRAIN \ BoDY-MANUAL TRAINING.
Spencer, the poet, says; "For of the soul
the body form doth take" This is equally
true, TINT OF the body the soul takes its
form. II one desires II long life for noble
ends, II his ambition is to be OF the utmost
possible value in the world, he must have
an honest opinion about his flesh and n
sincere conservatism In the use of it. The
old fashioned trinity OF evil was "the
world, the flesh, md the devil" Nova
days TO make good use OF the world we
must honor the body. Good aims make a
healthy body; n sound body aid good
aims. Temperance, honesty purity-an
good graces and virtues-build up not
only the soul but the body.
What shall we do with the brain under
the circumstances BY what means can
we set up n counterpoise, or how can we
divide an authority that is getting to be
banefulf We know that evolution in sep
arating man from his ancestry of mann
mails differenced him mainly In two points,
the head and the hands. So far as the
rest Of our body is concerned it Is very
old-fashioned. But the hand Is marvellous
ly human, a type Of our distinct power.
No animal has a hand-a~ tool-making and
tool-using organ. Its d~elicacy OF touch, its
power.to use, its universally, is something
new. There seems 10 be no more feasible
plan to set up the hand as the rival Of the
brain, in other words, to turn our educa-
ton more to art and less to memorizing
and specializing. The brain let's go in n
crisis; the hand grips the tighter. l donot
know any more hopeful tendency now en-
tering into education than the growth of
manual training, training the hand TO do
the masters cunning.-@E. p. Pr In st.
Louis Globe Democrat.