that ennoble the soul of
man, had a certain stigma which marked him as one lost and
disintegrated: this was laziness, incapacity to persist in work.
Directly an honest and well-behaved man begins to suffer from
brain-disease, before he shows any violent impulses, disorder in
conduct, or signs of delirium, he has a premonitory symptom: he can no
longer apply himself to work. Among the masses, it is justly thought
that a girl will make a good wife when she is industrious, and a man
is said to be an honest fellow and one who can offer good prospects to
the girl who is to be his wife, when he is a good workman. This
_goodness_ is not a matter of ability; it implies steadiness,
perseverance. For instance, a pseudo-artist of great skill in
producing small artistic objects, but lacking the will to work, would
not be considered a good match. Every one knows that he is not only
incapable of economic production, but that he is a suspicious and
dangerous character, that he might become a bad husband, a bad father,
a bad citizen. On the other hand, the humblest artisan who "works"
undoubtedly contains within himself all the elements which make for
happiness and security in life. This unquestionably was the meaning of
the great Roman encomium: "She stayed indoors and spun the wool," that
is to say, she was a woman of character, a worthy companion for the
conquerors of the world.

Now the little child who manifests perseverance in his work as the
first constructive act of his psychical life, and upon this act builds
up internal order, equilibrium, and the growth of personality,
demonstrates, almost as in a splendid revelation, the true manner in
which man renders himself valuable to the community. The little child
who persists in his exercises, concentrated and absorbed, is obviously
elaborating the constant man, the man of character, the man who will
find in himself all human values, crowning that unique fundamental
manifestation: persistence in work. Whatever task the child may
choose it will be all the same, provided he persists in it. For what
is valuable is not the work itself, but the work as a means for the
construction of the psychic man.

He who interrupts the children in their occupations in order to make
them learn some pre-determined thing; he who makes them cease the
study of arithmetic to pass on to that of geography and the like,
thinking it is important to direct their culture, confuses the means
with the end and