t
quickens the desire to do well. Children will go quietly back again and
again to look, without saying anything, at something they have made with
their own hands, their eyes telling all that it means to them, beyond
what they can express.

With its power of ministering to harmonious development of the faculties
manual work has a direct influence on fitness for home and social life.
It greatly develops good sense and aptitude for dealing with ordinary
difficulties as they arise. In common emergencies it is the "handy"
member of the household whose judgment and help are called upon, not the
brilliant person or one who has specialized in any branch, but the one
who can do common things and can invent resources when experience fails.
When the specialist is at fault and the artist waits for inspiration,
the handy person conies in and saves the situation, unprofessionally,
like the bone-setter, without much credit, but to the great comfort of
every one concerned.

Manual work likewise saves from eccentricity or helps to correct it.
Eccentricity may appear harmless and even interesting, but in practice
it is found to be a drawback, enfeebling some sides of a character,
throwing the judgment at least on some points out of focus. In children
it ought to be recognized as a defect to be counteracted. When people
have an overmastering genius which of itself marks out for them a
special way of excellence, some degree of eccentricity is easily
pardoned, and almost allowable. But eccentricity unaccompanied by genius
is mere uncorrected selfishness, or want of mental balance. It is
selfishness if it could be corrected and is not, because it makes
exactions from others without return. It will not adapt itself to them
but insists on being taken as it is, whether acceptable or not. At best,
eccentricity is a morbid tendency liable to run into extremes when its
habits are undisturbed. An excuse sometimes made for eccentricity is
that it is a security against any further mental aberration, perhaps on
the same principle that inoculation producing a mild form of diseases is
sometimes a safeguard against their attacks. But if the mind and habits
of life can be brought under control, so as to take part in ordinary
affairs without attracting attention or having exemptions and allowance
made for them, a result of a far higher order will have been attained.
To recognize eccentricity as selfishness is a first step to its cure,
and to make onesel