570 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 1 



By Psof. T. H. HUXLEY, F. E. S. 



ANY candid observer of the phenomena of modern society will 

 readily admit that bores must be classed among the enemies of 

 the human race ; and a little consideration will probably lead him to 

 the further admission that no species of that extensive genus of nox- 

 ious creatures is more objectionable than the educational bore. Con- 

 vinced, as I am, of the truth of this great social generalization, it is 

 not without a certain trepidation that I venture to address you on an 

 educational topic. For, in the course of the last ten years, to go back 

 no further, I am afraid to say how often I have ventured to speak of 

 education, from that given in the primary schools to that which is to 

 be had in the universities and medical colleges ; indeed, the only part 

 of this wide region into which as yet I have not adventured is that into 

 which I propose to intrude to-day. 



Thus I cannot but be aware that I am dangerously near becoming 

 the thing which all men fear and fly. But I have deliberately elected 

 to run the risk. For, when you did me the honor to ask me to address 

 you, an unexpected circumstance had led me to occupy myself seri- 

 ously with the question of technical education ; and I had acquired 

 the conviction that there are few subjects respecting which it is more 

 important for all classes of the community to have clear and just 

 ideas than this, while certainly there is none which is more deserv- 

 ing of attention by the Working-Men's Club and Institute Union. 



It is not for me to express an opinion whether the considerations 

 which I am about to submit to you will be proved by experience to 

 bejustornot; but I will do my best to make them clear. Among 

 the many good things to be found in Lord Bacon's works, none is 

 more full of wisdom than the saying that "truth more easily comes 

 out of error than out of confusion." Clear and consecutive wrong- 

 thinking is the next best thing to right-thinking; so that, if I suc- 

 ceed in clearing your ideas on this topic, I shall have wasted neither 

 your time nor my own. 



" Technical education," in the sense in which the term is ordinarily 

 used, and in which I am now employing it, means that sort of educa- 

 tion which is specially adapted to the needs of men whose business in 

 life it is to pursue some kind of handicraft ; it is, in fact, a fine Greco- 

 Latin equivalent for what in good vernacular English would be called 

 " the teaching of handicrafts." And probably, at this stage of our 

 progress, it may occur to many of you to think of the story of the 

 cobbler and his last, and to say to yourselves, though you will be too 



1 An address delivered to the Working-Men's Club and Institute Union, December, 

 1, 1811. 



