162 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



above all, the science of mechanics; therefore, while under the 

 fostering care of governments and academies, our fine art lan- 

 guishes, though pampered with wealth, mechanical arts flourish 

 wherever two or three men in fustian combine to work together. 

 But what should we think of the farmer who neglected the pro- 

 duce for which his soil was fit in favour of exotic plants, which 

 could only be coaxed into feeble life with infinite care and ruin- 

 ous expenditure ? 



Another reason for the neglect of mechanical drawing in fa- 

 vour of free-hand drawing is to be found in the dilettante interest 

 which the more cultivated classes take in art. The patrons of 

 schools, squires, clergymen and their families, can sketch a little, 

 or at least know what a free-hand drawing looks like, while they 

 are generally utterly ignorant of the meaning of a cross section 

 or an elevation. But when the schools and classes are initiated 

 by workmen, then we see a class of mechanical drawing invari- 

 ably instituted as of the first necessity; and if any one will question 

 workmen and foremen as to their desire for a knowledge of 

 artistic drawing as compared with mechanical drawing, they will 

 soon cease to doubt the existence of a real demand, although in 

 all Scotland there were only 61 persons in 1866 who received 

 this kind of instruction through schools assisted by Government 

 through Captain Donnelly's department. 



I hope you are convinced of the importance of this branch of 

 elementary scientific education, and will now proceed to discuss 

 remedies which ought at once to be adopted. 



It is quite insufficient to pay teachers on results, for the fol- 

 lowing reasons : 



1st. The persons really competent to teach mechanical draw- 

 ing cannot be professional teachers, but must be practical draughts- 

 men. The knowledge which the workman wants cannot be given 

 him at a school where the master teaches reading, writing, 

 arithmetic, geography, and has just managed to get a certificate 

 that he understands geometrical projection. The knowledge 

 the workman wants is the knowledge acquired by the draughts- 

 man from long familiarity with practical constructions. To this 

 man plans, cross sections, and elevations of machinery are all as 

 real and as natural as the things themselves. He does not look 

 upon them as results of geometrical propositions he generally 



