430 TECHNICAL EDUCATION xvil 



In this and in all complicated matters we must re- 

 member a saying of Bacon, which may be freely 

 translated thus : " Consistent error is very often 

 vastly more useful than muddle-headed truth/' 

 At any rate, if there be any error in the conclu- 

 sions I shall put before you, I will do my best to 

 make the error perfectly clear and plain. 



Now, looking at the question of what we want 

 to do in this broad and general way, it appears to 

 me that it is necessary for us, in the first place, to 

 amend and improve our system of primary educa- 

 tion .in such a fashion as will make it a proper 

 preparation for the business of life. In the second 

 place, I think we have to consider what measures 

 may best be adopted for the development to its 

 uttermost of that which may be called technical 

 skill ; and, in the third place, I think we have to 

 consider what other matters there are for us to at- 

 tend to, what other arrangements have to be kept 

 carefully in sight in order that, while pursuing 

 these ends, we do not forget that which is the end 

 of civil existence, I mean a stable social state 

 without which all other measures are merely 

 futile, and, in effect, modes of going faster to 

 ruin. 



You are aware no people should know the fact 

 better than Manchester people that, within the 

 last seventeen years, a vast system of primary 

 education has been created and extended over the 

 whole country. I had some part in the original 



