78 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. (>ECT. 



as if it were a potent medicine, " a few drops to be 

 taken occasionally in a teaspoon." Every year I 

 notice that that earnest and untiring friend of yours 

 and of mine, Sir John Lubbock, stirs up the Govern- 

 ment of the day in the House of Commons on this 

 subject ; and also that, every year, he, and the few 

 members of the House of Commons, such as Mr. 

 Playfair, who sympathise with him, are met with 

 expressions of warm admiration for science in gen- 

 eral, and reasons at large for doing nothing in particu- 

 lar. But now that Mr. Forster, to whom the education 

 of the country owes so much, has announced his con- 

 version to the right faith, I begin to hope that, sooner 

 or later, things will mend. 



I have given what I believe to be a good reason for 

 the assumption, that the keeping at school of boys, who 

 are to be handicraftsmen, beyond the age of thirteen or 

 fourteen is neither practicable nor desirable ; and, as it 

 is quite certain, that, with justice to other and no less 

 important branches of education, nothing more than 

 the rudiments of science and art teaching can be 

 introduced into elementary schools, we must seek 

 elsewhere for a supplementary training in these sub- 

 jects, and, if need be, in foreign languages, which may 

 go on after the workman's life has begun. 



The means of acquiring the scientific and artistic 

 part of this training already exists in full working 

 order, in the first place, in the classes of the Science 

 and Art Department, which are, for the most part, held 

 in the evening, so as to be accessible to all who choose 

 to avail themselves of them after working hours. The 



