406 TECHNICAL EDUCATION XVI 



craft ; it is, in fact, a fine Greco-Latin equivalent 

 for what in good vernacular English would be 

 called " the teaching of handicrafts." And prob- 

 ably, 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 polite to put the question openly to me, 

 What does the speaker know practically about this 

 matter ? What is his handicraft ? I think the 

 question is a very proper one, and unless I were 

 prepared to answer it, I hope satisfactorily, I 

 should have chosen some other theme. 



The fact is, I am, and have been, any time these 

 thirty years, a man who works with his hands a 

 handicraftsman. I do not say this in the broadly 

 metaphorical sense in which fine gentlemen, with 

 all the delicacy of Agag about them, trip to the 

 hustings about election time, and protest that they 

 too are working men. I really mean my words to 

 be taken in their direct, literal, and straightforward 

 sense. In fact, if the most nimble-fingered watch- 

 maker among you will come to my workshop, he 

 may set me to put a watch together, and I will set 

 him to dissect, say, a blackbeetle's nerves. I do 

 not wish to vaunt, but I am inclined to think 

 that I shall manage my job to his satisfaction 

 sooner than he will do his piece of work to mine. 



In truth, anatomy, which is my handicraft, is 

 one of the most difficult kinds of mechanical labour, 

 involving, as it does, not only lightness and dex- 



