MANT7AL WORK

and if we had not thîs autobiographical conf esâon, there is suffident internai évidence in the book itself to suggest it. We hâve seen how that, in those earlier days, he f dt the call of the open air, and the demand laid like a necessity upon him for manual work. A cultured youth, intellectu* ally well above the average, academically successfui, and with considérable prof essional prospects, he seemed destined for another Idnd of career, but this insistent call was in bis heart. It is the honûng instinct in the souL The retum to Nature, in the sensé that C arpenter made it, is the restoration of the exile ; it is the '" prodigal son," wasting his spiritual substance in the " far country" of intellectuaKsm and mechanism, " conùng to himself/' arising, and retuming (perhaps in this case we had better say) to the Mother.

The demand for manual work is a fundamental manifestation of the créative impulse. " To come near to understanding the use of materials is divine." ^ One of the most hopeful signs of modem times is the quickening of interest in the homelier arts and craf ts on the part of educated and refined people. This fact has probably more significance for the future religions Ufe of this country than any "new theology," or any Disestablishment Bill, or any efiort sîfter the reunion of the churches. It is essentially a religions pheiK>menon. It is a revolt — at last ! — against