TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 77 



we are edified by their histories and are charmed with 

 their poems, which sometimes illustrate so remarkably 

 the powers of man's imagination ; some of us admire 

 and even humbly try to follow them in their high philo- 

 sophical excursions, though we know the risk of being 

 snubbed by the inquiry whether grovelling dissectors 

 of monkeys and blackbeetles can hope to enter into the 

 empyreal kingdom of speculation. But still we feel that 

 our business is different ; humbler if you will, though the 

 diminution of dignity is, perhaps, compensated by the 

 increase of reality; and that we, like you, have to get 

 our work done in a region where little avails, if the 

 power of dealing with practical tangible facts is want- 

 ing. You know that clever talk touching joinery will 

 not make a chair; and I know that it is of about as 

 much value in the physical sciences. Mother Mature is 

 serenely obdurate to honeyed words ; only those who 

 understand the ways of things, and can silently and 

 effectually handle them, get any good out of her. 



And now, having, as I hope, justified my assumption 

 of a place among handicraftsmen, and put myself right 

 with you as to my qualification, from practical knowl- 

 edge, to speak about technical education, I will proceed 

 to lay before you the results of my experience as a 

 teacher of a handicraft, and tell you what sort of edu- 

 cation I should think best adapted for a boy whom one 

 wanted to make a professional anatomist. 



I should say, in the first place, let him have a good 



