III.] TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 81 



I have said that the Government is already doing 

 a great deal in aid of that kind of technical education 

 for handicraftsmen which, to my mind, is alone worth 

 seeking. Perhaps it is doing as much as it ought to 

 do, even in this direction. Certainly there is another 

 kind of help of the most important character, for which 

 we may look elsewhere than to the Government. 

 The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, 

 nor the aptitude, for either literary, or scientific, or 

 artistic pursuits; nor, indeed, for excellence of any 

 sort. Their ambition is to go through life with 

 moderate exertion and a fair share of ease, doing 

 common things in a common way. And a great 

 blessing and comfort it is that the majority of men 

 are of this mind; for the majority of things to be 

 done are common things, and are quite well enough 

 done when commonly done. The great end of life is 

 not knowledge but action. What men need is, as 

 much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise 

 into a basis for action ; give them more and it may 

 become injurious. One knows people who are as heavy 

 and stupid from undigested learning as others are from 

 over -fulness of meat and drink. But a small per- 

 centage of the population is born with that most 

 excellent quality, a desire for excellence, or with 

 special aptitudes of some sort or another ; Mr. Galton 

 tells us that not more than one in four thousand may 

 be expected to attain distinction, and not more than 

 one in a million some share of that intensity of in- 

 stinctive aptitude, that burning thirst for excellence, 

 which is called genius. 



o 



