people on his return to them, or amongst other people where he may find encouragement to settle for that purpose.

Thus have the foundations been laid for this genial drawing out and exercise of latent mechanical genius amongst the people of England. With the object of widening those foundations, these pages have been prepared; primarily as forming a Text Book for Teachers, but also as an incentive to parents, educationists, and statesmen to fortify the rising generation of England against the opprobrium so justly alleged against the English of the present day, that they are behind the rest of the industrial world in those elements of mechanical taste and skill, which are becoming more and more essential to the maintenance of manufacturing and commercial prosperity.

An earnest determination to promote amendment in these respects cannot be better carried into effect than by insisting that Hand-Craft shall be regarded as an essential branch of the Technical Education that is now struggling to assert itself usefully. If such a branch be left out, the mere teaching of routine trade processes will inevitably fail. Such routine processes are many of them in heavy-handed, rough disregard of the nicety, accuracy, finish, and judgment which intelligent exercise in Hand-Craft can alone impart; which is the only reliable basis for the superior mechanical results so much needed.

Hand-Craft in wood is distinguished from carpentry or joinery in many important respects.

There is no division of labour.

Everything produced is the entire work of one operator, for the defects of which he is solely responsible.

This directness of responsibility is one of the great merits of Hand-Craft, being calculated to promote wholesome pride in the excellence of complete work; a sentiment that is apt to be very weak, or totally wanting, where division of labour is much relied upon.

The intellectual faculties are brought into unison with the hand, by knowledge and experience developing together with increasing dexterity.

Genuine respect and sympathy are developed for manual toil by familiarity with its application.

Love of work in general is developed, and a taste for it instilled by practical experience of its utility.

Habits of attention, perseverance, industry, and discipline are formed, cultivated, and unconsciously grafted upon the pupil, by the application necessary to excel.

Independence, order, and cleanliness spontaneously grow and become part of the nature of the operator.

Manual dexterity being thoroughly established, the operator is endowed with the consequent acquired ability for dealing with the practical business of life.

Education being the object that should be constantly kept in view, in the teaching and practice of Hand-Craft, it should be thoroughly appreciated that it is adapted for forming and shaping the entire bent of all the faculties.

The objects recommended to work upon are all small, and are therefore within the capacity of the very young, and of both sexes.

For the same reason, the eye, the hand, and the judgment are trained to precise form and finish in the minutest details. This is important, for, though it is generally easier to make something large and rough than small and smooth, no one who is incapable of making a small model well can make a large one any better. Small objects are invariably the best training to work upon, as being certain to inspire appreciation for neatness, exactness, and accuracy.

BASIS OF TEACHING.

Practical teaching of Hand-Craft is based upon models for imitation.

These models, distinguished by numbering from 1A and 1B to 25, are represented by the drawings accompanying these pages, and the instructions hereafter subjoined are explained by reference to the drawings.

The following is a

LIST OF THE MODELS.

*** The second column indicates the kind of wood required—B. signifying Beech or Birch, and F. signifying Fir, commonly called Deal or Pine; the class of wood usually distinguished as Pine being preferable to the rougher-grained wood generally classed as Deal.