ditch, but the sonnet may be false or artificial, and in that case counts for nothing, or less. The real difference resides in the person doing much more than in the thing done. A workman, building a wall, may have a perception of the value of the use he is performing, or he may not; only in the former case, of course, does he deserve the name of artist. The seamstress who plies her needle in our attic, or the poor man's wife who must needs wash and scrub and darn and work all day long, and from year's end to year's end, if she realize the universal bearings of her industry, is an artist, and a nobler and more adorable one than she who sings for $5,000 a night.—America.
(3499)
Work and Long Life—See Industry and Longevity.
Work as Witness—See Testimony of
Work.
WORK ATTITUDE, THE
What is work—work not as mere external
performance, but as attitude of mind? It
signifies that the person is not content longer
to accept and to act upon the meanings that
things suggest, but demands congruity of
meaning with the things themselves. In the
natural course of growth, children come to
find irresponsible make-believe plays inadequate.
A fiction is too easy a way out to
afford content. There is not enough stimulus
to call forth satisfactory mental response.
When this point is reached, the ideas that
things suggest must be applied to the things
with some regard to fitness. A small cart,
resembling a "real" cart, with "real" wheels,
tongue and body, meets the mental demand
better than merely making believe that anything
which comes to hand is a cart. Occasionally
to take part in setting a "real" table
with "real" dishes brings more reward than
forever to make believe a flat stone is a
table and that leaves are dishes. The interest
may still center in the meanings, the
things may be of importance only as amplifying
a certain meaning. So far the attitude
is one of play. But the meaning is now of
such a character that it must find appropriate
embodiment in actual things.
The dictionary does not permit us to call such activities work. Nevertheless, they represent a genuine passage of play into work. For work (as a mental attitude, not as mere external performance) means interest in the adequate embodiment of a meaning (a suggestion, purpose, aim) in objective form through the use of appropriate materials and appliances. Such an attitude takes advantage of the meanings aroused and built up in free play, but controls their development by seeing to it that they are applied to things in ways consistent with the observable structure of the things themselves.
The point of this distinction between play and work may be cleared up by comparing it with a more usual way of stating the difference. In play activity, it is said, the interest is in the activity for its own sake; in work, it is in the product or result in which the activity terminates. Hence the former is purely free, while the latter is tied down by the end to be achieved.—John Dewey, "How We Think."
(3500)
WORK, CHRISTIAN
The verses below are true of every soul who really desires to do God's work.
If we can not be the watchman
Standing high on Zion's wall,
Pointing out the path to heaven,
Offering life and peace to all;
With our prayers, and with our bounties
We can do what heaven demands;
We can be, like helpful Aaron,
Holding up the prophet's hands.
Do not, then, stand idly waiting,
For some greater work to do,
For time is a lazy goddess—
She will never come to you.
Go and toil in any vineyard,
Do not fear to do or dare;
If you want a field of labor
You can find it anywhere.
(3501)
Work, Daily—See Melody from Drudgery.
WORK DESPISED
A king desired a fine mosaic picture. The
master-artist divided the stones from which
it was to be constructed among his workmen,
giving to each his own design. One
artist considered his fragment too small to
notice, and threw away the stone intrusted
to him, saying, "It is of no worth." When
all the work was brought together, his stone
was found to be the most important of all,
the very centerpiece. He lost his place, and
was branded upon the forehead with the
words, "Of no worth," as a penalty for his
neglect.
(3502)
