220 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v 



meet the wants of a bygone condition of society. 

 There is a widespread and, I think, well-justified 

 complaint that it has too much to do with books 

 and too little to do with things. I am as little 

 disposed as any one can well be to narrow early 

 education and to make the primary school a mere 

 annexe of the shop. And it is not so much in 

 the interests of industry, as in that of breadth of 

 culture, that I echo the common complaint against 

 the bookish and theoretical character of our 

 primary instruction. 



If there were no such things as industrial 

 pursuits, a system of education which does 

 nothing for the faculties of observation, which 

 trains neither the eye nor the hand, and is com 

 patible with utter ignorance of the commonest 

 natural truths, might still be reasonably regarded 

 as strangely imperfect. And when we consider 

 that the instruction and training which are 

 lacking are exactly those which are of most 

 importance for the great mass of our population, 

 the fault becomes almost a crime, the more that 

 there is no practical difficulty in making good 

 these defects. There really is no reason why 

 drawing should not be universally taught, and it 

 is an admirable training for both eye and hand. 

 Artists are born, not made ; but everybody may 

 be taught to draw elevations, plans, and sections ; 

 and pots and pans are as good, indeed better, 

 models for this purpose than the Apollo Belvedere. 



