226 THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE v 



evening classes, as the great instrument for the 

 technical education of the artizan. The utility of 

 such classes has now been placed beyond all 

 doubt ; the only question which remains is to 

 find the ways and means of extending them. 



We are here, as in all other questions of social 

 organization, met by two diametrically opposed 

 views. On the one hand, the methods pursued 

 in foreign countries are held up as our example. 

 The state is exhorted to take the matter in hand, 

 and establish a great system of technical educa- 

 tion. On the other hand, many economists of 

 the individualist school exhaust the resources of 

 language in condemning and repudiating, not 

 merely the interference of the general government 

 in such matters, but the application of a farthing 

 of the funds raised by local taxation to these 

 purposes. I entertain a strong conviction that, 

 in this country, at any rate, the State had much 

 better leave purely technical and trade instruction 

 alone. But, although my personal leanings are 

 decidedly towards the individualists, I have ar- 

 rived at that conclusion on merely practical 

 grounds. In fact, my individualism is rather of a 

 sentimental sort, and I sometimes think I should 

 be stronger in the faith if it were less vehemently 

 advocated. 1 I am unable to see that civil society 



1 In what follows I am only repeating and emphasizing 

 opinions which I expressed seventeen years ago, in an Address 

 to the members of the Midland Institute (republished in Critiques 

 and Addresses in 1873, and in Vol. i. of these Essays). I have 



