XYI TECHNICAL EDUCATION 421 



myself to worry the public, become, for all practical 

 purposes, an accomplished fact. Grateful as I am 

 for all that is now being done, in the same direc- 

 tion, in our higher schools and universities, I have 

 ceased to have any anxiety about the wealthier 

 classes. Scientific knowledge is spreading by 

 what the alchemists called a " distillatio per 

 ascensum ; " and nothing now can prevent it from 

 continuing to distil upwards and permeate English 

 society, until, in the remote future, there shall be 

 no member of the legislature who does not know 

 as much of science as an elementary school-boy ; 

 and even the heads of houses in our venerable 

 seats of learning shall acknowledge that natural 

 science is not merely a sort of University back- 

 door through which inferior men may get at their 

 degrees. Perhaps this apocalyptic vision is a 

 little wild ; and I feel I ought to ask pardon for 

 an outbreak of enthusiasm, which, I assure you, is 

 not my commonest failing. 



I have said that the Government is already doing 

 a great deal in aid of that kind of technical edu- 

 cation 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, 



