handicrafts cover so wide a range that the material progress of civilization can be
classed under them, and indeed without their development the arts and vocations
would be impossible. Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and literature
have a thousand possibilities both in technique and content. Likewise the modes
of society, conduct, and religion are unlimited in their forms of expression.
Limitations of Expression.—While it is more blessed to give than to receive, it
is somewhat harder in the doing; for more of the self is, after all, involved in
expression than in impression. Expression needs to be cultivated as an art; for
who can express all he thinks, or feels, or conceives? Who can do his innermost
self justice when he attempts to express it in language, in music, or in marble?
The painter answers when praised for his work, "If you could but see the picture
I intended to paint!" The pupil says, "I know, but I cannot tell." The friend says,
"I wish I could tell you how sorry I am." The actor complains, "If I could only
portray the passion as I feel it, I could bring all the world to my feet!" The body,
being of grosser structure than the mind, must always lag somewhat behind in
expressing the mind's states; yet, so perfect is the harmony between the two, that
with a body well trained to respond to the mind's needs, comparatively little of
the spiritual need be lost in its expression through the material.
2. THE PLACE OF EXPRESSION IN DEVELOPMENT
Nor are we to think that cultivation of expression results in better power of
expression alone, or that lack of cultivation results only in decreased power of
expression.
Intellectual Value of Expression.—There is a distinct mental value in
expression. An idea always assumes new clearness and wider relations when it is
expressed. Michael Angelo, making his plans for the great cathedral, found his
first concept of the structure expanding and growing more beautiful as he
developed his plans. The sculptor, beginning to model the statue after the image
which he has in his mind, finds the image growing and becoming more
expressive and beautiful as the clay is molded and formed. The writer finds the
scope and worth of his book growing as he proceeds with the writing. The
student, beginning doubtfully on his construction in geometry, finds the truth
growing clearer as he proceeds. The child with a dim and hazy notion of the
meaning of the story in history or literature discovers that the meaning grows
clear as he himself works out its expression in speech, in the handicrafts, or in
dramatic representation.