IIL] TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 75 



man needs, above all things, health, strength, and 

 the patience and cheerfulness which, if they do not 

 always accompany these blessings, can hardly in the 

 nature of things exist without them ; to which we 

 must add honesty of purpose and a pride in doing 

 what is done well. 



A good handicraftsman can get on very well with- 

 out genius, but he will fare badly without a reasonable 

 share of that which is a more useful possession for 

 workaday life, namely, mother- wit ; and he will be all 

 the better for a real knowledge, however limited, of the 

 ordinary laws of nature, and especially of those which 

 apply to his own business. 



Instruction carried so far as to help the scholar to 

 turn his store of mother- wit to account, to acquire a 

 fair amount of sound elementary knowledge, and to 

 use his hands and eyes; while leaving him fresh, 

 vigorous, and with a sense of the dignity of his own 

 calling, whatever it may be, if fairly and honestly 

 pursued, cannot fail to be of invaluable service to all 

 those who come under its influence. 



But, on the other hand, if school instruction is 

 carried so far as to encourage bookishness ; if the 

 ambition of the scholar is directed, not to the gaining 

 of knowledge, but to the being able to pass examina- 

 tions successfully; especially if encouragement is 

 given to the mischievous delusion that brainwork is, 

 in itself, and apart from its quality, a nobler or more 

 respectable thing than handiwork such education 

 may be a deadly mischief to the workman, and lead to 

 the rapid ruin of the industries it is intended to serve. 



