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LABOUR AND CHILDHOOD

kind of hammer at first, for the power to close the hand depends on the power to open it, and there is good reason to think that the hand opened slowly. Opened it was, however; and the palm projected at last in the plane, and the hollowed palm in the cup and basket. Even the arm was projected at last as a lance, and also as a rudder and oar, which is the simple form of a stretched arm and flat hand. The moving arm is seen to-day in many workshops, on the river sides, and lifting places; and the perfected human arm in beautiful tools. Still the impulse to perfect seems to be, for the most part, unconscious. Here is an early German axe.

Early German axe

In contrast to this heavy tool, that looks like a weapon, there is this drawing from Kapp's book, of the axe of a modern American backwoodsman. The iron blade lies parallel with the shoulder and its powerful muscles, the elbow is parallel with the