XVI TECHNICAL EDUCATION 423 



social arrangements, is to keep these glorious sports 

 of Nature from being either corrupted by luxury 

 or starved by poverty, and to put them into the 

 position in which they can do the work for which 

 they are especially fitted. 



Thus, if a lad in an elementary school showed 

 signs of special capacity, I would try to provide 

 him with the means of continuing his education 

 after his daily working life had begun ; if in the 

 evening classes he developed special capabilities 

 in the direction of science or of drawing, I would 

 try to secure him an apprenticeship to some trade 

 in which those powers would have applicability. 

 Or, if he chose to become a teacher, he should have 

 the chance of so doing. Finally, to the lad of 

 genius, the one in a million, I would make accessi- 

 ble the highest and most complete training the 

 country could afford. Whatever that might cost, 

 depend upon it the investment would be a good 

 one. I weigh my words when I say that if the 

 nation could purchase a potential Watt, or Davy, 

 or Faraday, at the cost of a hundred thousand 

 pounds down, he would be dirt-cheap at the money. 

 It is a mere commonplace and everyday piece of 

 knowledge, that what these three men did has 

 produced untold millions of wealth, in the narrow- 

 est economical sense of the word. 



Therefore, as the sum and crown of what is to be 

 done for technical education, I look to the provision 

 of a machinery for winnowing out the capacities 



