74: TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



myself seriously with the question of technical educa- 

 tion ; and I had acquired the conviction that there are 

 few subjects respecting which it is more important for 

 all classes of the community to have clear and just 

 ideas than this ; while, certainly, there is none which 

 is more deserving of attention by the Working Men's 

 Club and Institute Union. 



It is not for me to express an opinion whether the 

 considerations, which I am about to submit to you, will 

 be proved by experience to be just or not ; but I will 

 do my best to make them clear. Among the many 

 good things to be found in Lord Bacon's works, none 

 is more full of wisdom than the saying that "truth 

 more easily comes out of error than out of confusion." 

 Clear and consecutive wrong-thinking is the next best 

 thing to right-thinking; so that, if I succeed in clear- 

 ing your ideas on this topic, I shall have wasted neither 

 your time nor my own. 



" Technical education," in the sense in which the 

 term is ordinarily used, and in which I am now em- 

 ploying it, means that sort of education which is spe- 

 cially adapted to the needs of men whose business in 

 life it is to pursue some kind of handicraft; it is, in 

 fact, a fine Greco-Latin equivalent for what in good 

 vernacular English would be called "the teaching of 

 handicrafts." And probably, at this stage of our prog- 

 ress, it may occur to many of you to think of the 

 story of the cobbler and his last, and to say to your- 

 selves, though you will be too polite to put the question 



