Show URGE OF MANKIND TO DO SOMETHING mental growth achieved by the effort bed bodily ly hunger has driven man ta find nd ways of getting food ile he has pushed back the shadows of forests and planted fields and gardens lie ile has drained marshes and irrigated arid regions lie he lips invented hoes and plows and harvesters to take the place of naked hands in gathering sustenance for himself and ills his family there Is no more impelling motive to effort in all the range of human existence than hunger except the sight of a starving child for whose nourishment one has a responsibility lity professor jacks has called attention to another kind of hunger which Is general in mankind an urge to something even beyond what one has achieved a craving for skill it is the repeated satisfaction of this hunger ever renewed that results in m mental growth and the highest sort of happiness it Is often questioned whether education has increased happiness in the individual it may be that the more addition of information does not contribute to the making of a happier human being but the continuing struggle for higher lii glier skill in some field fiek of human effort creative activity Is the phrase most often used to describe it not only brings nourishment of spirit and happiness 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 op of the greatest number certainly it would if tile choice of skills were wise and that does not mean if the skills merely produced materially valuable things things Ilu plutarch tarch remarks in ills essay on pericles that lie he who busies himself in mean occupations produces in the very pains lie ho takes about bilings of little or no use an all evidence against himself of ills his negligence rind and indisposition to do what Is really good but the something which one does with infinite pains may be of r good 0 in tile the development of the individual who does it even if the product Is riot not of valuable substance Ism Is enlas could not have been a wretched being for lie was an excellent piper alexander the great need not have been ashamed as ills his practical father philip of macedon thought lie he should have been for playing n piece of music so charmingly and skillfully leisure hobbles are for increasing numbers who cannot find in the narrow range of their vocations their salvation the minds desire tor for excellence in something is a mystery but it does after nil nii suggest the course which our education must take in the development not only of the child but also of the man and woman to the end of their lives arid and with tills this sort of training should be given as am doctor jacks suggests in ills his three reforms a larget larger place to phy sirol education and the appreciation of beauty new york times |