MR F. R. BENSON.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1652, 20 January 1913, Page 4

MR F. R. BENSON.

.DANGERS-OP THE MECHANIC At ' AGE. ! -'■HroS.-'K.' Benson has .made a practice during",tho last. three .or ' four - years of -paying a ho:is in Manchester to tho .Salfdrd'Technical School, add giving an address to' the teachers-and stu.He gave ono■ on -.'a, recent Saturday morriing.i A large meeting, in the lecture hall, over which Sir William Stephens presided, listened , to his address 011' the -"'Senso of 'Poetry." ' ' ; ; : 'Mr;- : :Benson's main tfleme was that/ a .Capacity',for-pootry, apart from the high, pleasure' and mental illumination w'hich it gave, had a tangible value to the nation.':''No great achievement could r be ( nmdo without the stimulus of poetic' ideas; .The music of Shakespeare's verse was the music.of tho heroic achievements of Shakespeare's age, . .Speaking of; the craftsmanship of Shakespeare/ especially iniits. assoe.iitieh with < the.. power of, rhythmic, movement, Mr/ Benson showed a* relationship, between-the craftsmanship of the poet arid .that .of tho , workman.: The rhythmic movements of hand and foot.-upon which success in 1 arts depended were associated with poetry. Tho' question of getting iback tho usb, of the hand, which wo seamed to bo losing, was one'of ...supreme; importance. ; . Wo Vereyin'danger'of becoming too mechanical in thoguht and movement. ' In our hasid and in the splendour of our mechanical; achievement'..we .were forgetting • what made the machine. no Tegardedj therefore,' as .one of '.the. glad signs Of wnat he might, call tho new learning' an'd the new. teaching that it emphasised the importance of tho use of the .hand. . .The .future- that we looked, forward to was an .empire 'founded, not upon war and exploitation, but upon the arts/and and in such an empire: dominance 'would .go •, fro tho I people who had skill to use their hands, and who .had , preserved the faculty of seeing life wholly and sanely, because they saw it from the point of view of what we called 'soul, or • spirit. . It shoftld inspire teachers in the school to think that they were, holping to build up an Empire m which . the rhythm of. the hand. and foot, tho rhythm of nature, yrould sound harmoniously .with the rhythm , of' the chin'ei- '••• -••• •' , ', : Mr. Benson was heartily thanked for tho address.