And so these three agencies can not encroach on each others’ territory, for they have a common work to do if they are true to their trust. Let the home give the first lessons, and all through the changing years let it be both an educative and religious influence. Let the school be solicitous of both the unfolding mind and the craving heart. Let the Church minister to spiritual needs and not forget that the true education of the heart does not despise the education of the mind. Then shall the child have it said of him, as it was said of that Child of the long ago, “And He advanced in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man.” The Association of Mind and Muscle (1918) In Nicholas Nickleby, the book in which Charles Dickens attempted to set forth the evils of the boarding school system in England in his day, one of the things at which we have sometimes pointed a finger of ridicule really sets forth an important pedagogical principle. It is that part of the story which tells how Squeers, the schoolmaster, first taught a boy to spell a word—usually incorrectly—and then sent him to perform some manual task associated with it. The imperfect spelling cannot be called good pedagogy, and the work to be done was not always calculated to contribute to the dignity of a gentleman, but it is a fact that there is something about the actual doing of a thing which enables the memory the more tenaciously to retain the concept of the thing itself. In other words, there is some strange but very real and definite association between the mind and the muscle. They act in close cooperation with one another. The mind may be capable of learning things without the corresponding action of the muscle, but it can learn a thing very much more easily and permanently with that cooperative action. This is a principle which runs through all educational effort. It has had expression from quite remote times. An apostle reminded his hearers of their duty to be doers of the word and not hearers only. His words constituted a very good educational gospel. We not only owe it to ourselves and to the world to act in accordance with the best of our knowledge, but we actually learn better the thing which we take the time and pains to do.