XVI TECHNICAL EDUCATION 407 



terity of hand, but sharp eyes and endless patience. 

 And you must not suppose that my particular 

 branch of science is especially distinguished for the 

 demand it makes upon skill in manipulation. A 

 similar requirement is made upon all students of 

 physical science. The astronomer, the electrician, 

 the chemist, the mineralogist, the botanist, are 

 constantly called upon to perform manual opera- 

 tions of exceeding delicacy. The progress of all 

 branches of physical science depends upon obser- 

 vation, or on that artificial observation which is 

 termed experiment, of one kind or another ; and, the 

 farther we advance, the more practical difficulties 

 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 handicraftsmen 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 

 brought into contact with tangible 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, 



86 



