XVI TECHNICAL EDUCATION 407 



tience. And you must not suppose that my par- 

 tic-ular branch of science is especially distinguished 

 for the demand it makes upon skill in manipula- 

 tion. A similar requirement is made upon all stu- 

 dents of physical science. The astronomer, the 

 electrician, the chemist, the mineralogist, the bot- 

 anist, are constantly called upon to perform manual 

 operations of exceeding delicacy. The progress of 

 all branches of physical science depends upon ob- 

 servation, or on that artificial observation which is 

 termed experiment, of one kind or another; and, 

 the farther we advance, the more practical difficul- 

 ties surround the investigation of the conditions of 

 the problems offered to us; so that mobile and yet 

 steady hands, guided by clear vision, are more and 

 more in request in the workshops of science. 



Indeed, it has struck me that one of the 

 grounds of that sympathy between the handicrafts- 

 men of this country and the men of science, by 

 which it has so often been my good fortune to 

 profit, may, perhaps, lie here. You feel and we 

 feel that, among the so-called learned folks, we 

 alone are brou2:ht into contact with tamj-ible facts 

 in the way that you are. You know well enough 

 that it is one thing to write a history of chairs in 

 general, or to address a poem to a throne, or to 

 speculate about the occult powers of the chair of 

 St. Peter; and quite another thing to make with 

 your own hands a veritable chair, that will stand 



fair and square, and alford a safe and satisfac- 

 8G 



