66 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. [LECT. 



myself seriously with the question of technical educa- 

 tion ; and I had acquired the conviction that there are 

 few subjects respecting which it is more important for 

 all classes of the community to have clear and just 

 ideas than this ; while, certainly, there is none which 

 is more deserving of attention by the Working Men's 

 Club and Institute Union. 



It is not for me to express an opinion whether the 

 considerations, which I am about to submit to you, will 

 be proved by experience to be just or not ; but I will 

 do my best to make them clear. Among the many 

 good things to be found in Lord Bacon's works, none 

 is more full of wisdom than the saying that " truth 

 more easily comes out of error than out of confusion." 

 Clear and consecutive wrong-thinking is the next best 

 thing to right-thinking ; so that, if I succeed in clear- 

 ing your ideas on this topic, I shall have wasted neither 

 your time nor my own. 



" Technical education," in the sense in which the 

 term is ordinarily used, and in which I am now 

 employing it, means that sort of education which is 

 specially adapted to the needs of men whose business 

 in life it is to pursue some kind of handicraft ; it is, 

 in fact, a fine Greco-Latin equivalent for what in good 

 vernacular English would be called "the teaching of 

 handicrafts." And probably, at this stage of our pro- 

 gress, it may occur to many of you to think of the 

 story of the cobbler and his last, and to say to your- 

 selves, 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 



