TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 575 



der-instruction is a bad thing, over-instruction may possibly be a 

 worse. 



Success in any kind of practical life is not dependent solely, or 

 indeed chiefly, upon knowledge. Even in the learned professions 

 knowledge, alone, is of less consequence than people are apt to sup- 

 pose. And, if much expenditure of bodily energy is involved in the 

 day's work, mere knowledge is of still less importance when weighed 

 against the probable cost of its acquirement. To do a fair day's work 

 with his hands, a man needs, above all things, health, strength, and 

 the patience and cheerfulness which, if they do not always accompany 

 these blessings, can hardly in the nature of things exist without them ; 

 to which we must add honesty of purpose and a pride in doing what 

 is done well. 



A good handicraftsman can get on very well without genius, but he 

 will fare badly without a reasonable share of what is a more useful 

 possession for work-a-day life, namely, mother-wit ; and he will be all 

 the better for a real knowledge, however limited, of the ordinary laws 

 of Nature, and especially of those which apply to his own business. 



Instruction carried so far as to help the scholar to turn his store of 

 mother-wit to account, to acquire a fair amount of sound elementary 

 knowledge, and to use his hands and eyes, while leaving him fresh, 

 vigorous, and with a sense of the dignity of his own calling, whatever 

 it may be, if fairly and honestly pursued, cannot fail to be of invalu- 

 able service to all those who come under its influence. 



But, on the other hand, if school instruction is carried so far as to 

 encourage bookishness ; if the ambition of the scholar is directed, not 

 to the gaining of knowledge, but to the being able to pass examina- 

 tions successfully ; especially if encouragement is given to the mis- 

 chievous delusion that brain-work is, in itself, and apart from its 

 quality, a nobler or more respectable thing than handiwork such 

 education may be a deadly mischief to the workman, and lead to the 

 rapid ruin of the industries it is intended to serve. 



I know that I am expressing the opinion of some of the largest as 

 well as the most enlightened employers of labor, when I say that 

 there is a real danger that, from the extreme of no education, we may 

 run to the other extreme of over-education of handicraftsmen. And 

 I apprehend that what is true for the ordinary hand-worker is true for 

 the foreman. Activity, probity, knowledge of men, i-eady mother- 

 wit, supplemented by a good knowledge of the general principles 

 involved in his business, are the making of a good foreman. If he 

 possess these qualities, no amount of learning will fit him better for 

 his position ; while the course of life and the habit of mind required 

 for the attainment of such learning may, in various direct and indi- 

 rect ways, act as direct disqualifications for it. 



Keeping in mind, then, that the two things to be avoided are, the 

 delay of the entrance of boys into practical life, and the substitution 



