From Mr. James MacAlister, Superintendent of the Schools of Philadelphia, 1882:

"The hand is the most marvelous instrument in the world; it is the necessary complement of the mind in dealing with matter in all its varied forms. It is the hand that 'rounded Peter's dome;' it is the hand that carved those statues in marble and bronze, that painted those pictures in palace and church, which we travel into distant lands to admire; it is the hand that builds the ships which sail the sea, laden with the commerce of the world; it is the hand that constructs the machinery which moves the busy industries of this age of steam; it is the hand that enables the mind to realize in a thousand ways its highest imaginings, its profoundest reasonings, and its most practical inventions."