Consummation
If the conception of man's relation to the world set forth in these
chapters is sound, work is the chief instrumentality in the education of
the human spirit; for it involves both self-realisation and the adjustment
of self to the order of life. Through effort a man brings to light all
that is in him, and by effort he finds his place in the universal order.
Work is his great spiritual opportunity, and the more completely he
expresses himself through it the finer the product and the greater the
worker. There is an essential unity between all kinds of work, as there is
an essential continuity in the life of the race. The rudest implements of
the earliest men and the divinest creations of the greatest artists are
parts of the unbroken effort of humanity to bring into clear consciousness
all that is in it, and all that is involved in its relationship with the
universe. The spiritual history of the race is written in the blurred and
indistinct record of human energy and creativeness, made by the hands of
all races, in all times, in every kind of material. Work has emancipated,
educated, developed, and interpreted the human spirit; it has made man
acquainted with himself; it has set him in harmony with nature; and it has
created that permanent capital of force, self-control, character, moral
power, and educational influence which we call civilisation.
Work has been, therefore, not only the supreme spiritual opportunity, but
the highest spiritual privilege and one of the deepest sources of joy. It
has been an expression not only of human energy but of the creativeness of
the human spirit. By their works men have not only built homes for
themselves in this vast universe, but they have co-operated with the
divine creativeness in the control of force, the modification of
conditions, the fertilisation of the earth, the fashioning of new forms.
In his work man has found God, both by the revelation of what is in his
own spirit and by the discovery of those forces and laws with which every
created thing must be brought into harmony. The divine element in humanity
has revealed itself in that instinct for creativeness which is always
striving for expression in the work of humanity; that instinct which
blindly pushes its way through rudimentary stages of effort to the
possession of skill; slowly transforming itself meanwhile into
intelligence, and flowering at last in the Parthenon, the Cathedral at
Amiens, the Book of Job, Faust, Hamlet, the Divine Comedy, Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony, Wagner's Parsifal, Rembrandt's portraits. This ascent of
the spirit of man out of the mysterious depths of its own consciousness to
these sublime heights of achievement is the true history of the race; the
history which silently unfolds itself through and behind events, and makes
events comprehensible. In the sweat of his brow man has protected and fed
himself; but this has been but the beginning of that continuous miracle
which has not only turned deserts into gardens and water into wine, but
has transformed the uncouth rock into images of immortal beauty, and the
worker from the servant of natural conditions and forces into their
master. Men still work, as their fathers did before them, for shelter and
bread; but the spiritual products of work have long since dwarfed its
material returns. A man must still work or starve in any well-ordered
society; but the products of work to-day are ease, travel, society, art,--
in a word, culture. In that free unfolding of all that is in man and that
ripening of knowledge, taste, and character, which are summed up in
culture, work finds its true interpretation. A man puts himself into his
work in order that he may pass through an apprenticeship of servitude and
crudity into the freedom of creative power. He discovers, liberates,
harmonises, and enriches himself. Through work he accomplishes his
destiny; for one of the great ends of his life is attained only when he
makes himself skilful and creative, masters the secrets of his craft and
pours his spiritual energy like a great tide into his work. The master
worker learns that the secret of happiness is the opportunity and the
ability to express nobly whatever is deepest in his personality, and that
supreme good fortune comes to him who can lose himself in some generous
and adequate task.
The last word, however, is not task but opportunity; for work, like all
forms of education, prophesies the larger uses of energy, experience, and
power which are to come when training and discipline have accomplished
their ends and borne their fruit.