a lovely book...

I was alerted to an old book online and found a hard copy for sale cheap. "The Boys' Own Toy Maker, A Practical Guide to the Useful Employment of Leisure Hours," by E. Landells was published in 1859 and this copy is from the collection of the Earl of Normanton. A label in the front displays his coat of arms. I can imagine the Earl's children having made use of this book. With a very small bit of research I can know who owned it and where it was kept in such pristine shape

Of course the point of the manual arts are not that they make tradesmen of our children, but that they assist in raising them as fully functional human beings capable of care for each other.

Landells in this small volume states:

"Whoever would be a great inventor to the benefit of humanity must begin to learn common things in very early life; for so vast is the accumulation of knowledge heaped up by the ages and the inventive industry of mankind that if the task of learning be deferred until the business of life, with its thousand cares and distractions, begins, knowledge cannot ripen enough ... to be great in usefulness in their generation, to their country, and to their kind."

Today the US Senate will be allowed to vote on whether or not to end the shutdown of the US government. I've been calling my Senators urging them to pass a clean budget resolution and put Federal employees back to work. They had passed a clean budget resolution almost unanimously  during the last term, and they should do the exact same thing again. Call your own Senators and urge them to act. It seems unfortunate to me that we have so many leaders who are so completely out of touch and so uncaring for those who work on behalf of our safety.

Make, fix, create and insist that others learn lifewise.