Show URGE OF MANKIND TO 40 DO SOMETHING pp mental growth achieved by the effort bodily hunger has driven man to find ways of getting food lie ile has pushed back the shadows of forests and planted fields and gardens lie ile has drained marshes and irrigated arid regions lie ile has invented hoes and plows and harvesters to take the place of naked hands in gather in ing sustenance for or himself an ani his family there is no more impelling motive to effort in all the range of human existence than hunger ex capt the sight of a starving child for whose nourishment one has a cespon sivility lity professor jacks has called atten tion to another kind of hunger which Is general in mankind an urge to something even beyond what one has achieved a arming for skill it Is the repeated satisfaction of this hun ger ever renewed that results in mental growth and the highest sort of happ ness it Is often questioned whether education has increased hap in the individual it may be that the mere addition of information does not contribute to the making of a heip happier human being but th continuing struggle for higher skill in some worthy field of human effort creative activity Is the phrase most often used to describe it not only brings nourishment of spirit and hap but adds to the wealth of the world in terms of human intellectual values the greatest skills of the greatest number may determine the greatest good of the greatest num ber certainly it would if the choice of skills were wise and that does not mean if the skills merely pro deuced materially valuable things plutarch remarks in his essay esay on pericles that he who busies himself in mean occupations produces in the very pains he takes about things of little or no use an evidence evl eNi dence against hini himself self of his negligence and indis position to do what Is really good but the something which one does with infinite pains may be of good in the development of the individual who does it even if the product Is not of valuable substance Ism enlas conid could not have been a wretched be ing for he was an excellent piper alexander tha great need not have been ashamed as his practical fa ther philip of macedon thought he should have been for playing a piece of music so charmingly and skillfully leisure hobbies hobbles are for increasing Inc reasIn numbers who cannot find in the mr row range of their vocations their salvation the mind a desire for excellence in something is a mystery but it does after all suggest the course which our education must tale in the de t not only of the child but also of the man and woman to the end of their lives and with this sort of training should be given aa as doctor jacks suggests in his three reforms a larger place to physical education and the appreciation ot beauty lew york times |