80 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



to undergo. As to knowing anything about anatomy 

 itself, on the whole I would rather he left that alone 

 until he took it up seriously in my laboratory. It is 

 hard work enough to teaeh, and I should not like to 

 have superadded to that the possible need of unteach- 



Well, but, you will say, this is Hamlet with the 

 Prince of Denmark left out; your "technical educa- 

 tion " is simply a good education, with more attention to 

 physical science, to drawing, and to modern languages, 

 than is common, and there is nothing specially technical 

 about it. 



Exactly so; that remark takes us straight to the 

 heart of what I have to say ; which is, that, in my judg- 

 ment, the preparatory education of the handicraftsman 

 ought to have nothing of what is ordinarily understood 

 by "technical" about it. 



The workshop is the only real school for a handicraft. 

 The education which precedes that of the workshop 

 should be entirely devoted to the strengthening of the 

 body, the elevation of the moral faculties, and the culti- 

 vation of the intelligence; and, especially, to the im- 

 buing the mind with a broad and clear view of the laws 

 of that natural world with the components of which the 

 handicraftsman will have to deal. And, the earlier the 

 period of life at which the handicraftsman has to enter 

 into actual practice of his craft, the more important is it 

 that he should devote the precious hours of preliminary 

 education to things of the mind, which have no direct 



