38 PROFESSORS AND PRACTICAL MEN 



Englishman to learn. His very straightforwardness and stern 

 common sense, and his businesslike ways, may all conspire to 

 make him unbusinesslike in matters of education and research, 

 to which, believe me, a man must serve a long apprenticeship 

 before he becomes a master craftsman. I will listen eagerly 

 to a business man while he tells me what he wants ; I will 

 eagerly seek the real knowledge that he has to give ; I will 

 eagerly lean upon him in the manifold business of administra- 

 tion ; I will eagerly take his money. But when he wants to 

 tell me that I shall teach this and not teach that ; that this is 

 useful, the other useless ; above all, when he talks as if a well- 

 constituted university should give proficiency in the practice 

 of trades and render apprenticeship superfluous well, I do not 

 listen to him very patiently, and I say to myself, ' Alas that 

 this man should think himself practical ! ' 



If we on our side come to take a more sympathetic and 

 direct part in bringing science to your service, I plead that 

 you on yours shall show a larger measure of, faith, of hope, 

 and, I might almost say, of charity. Do not try to constrain us 

 in our own proper business ; do not be impatient of returns. 

 They are sure to come history has abundantly proved it ; 

 but you must freely cast your bread upon the waters. 



I have chosen in this address to take what may be called 

 a materialistic view of education, and I am not ashamed. I 

 do not forget that education has many purposes to serve, and 

 that man does not live by bread alone. But without bread 

 man becomes a shadowy or a rebellious being ; an ascetic or 

 an anarchist. He must have bread, and he must get it by the 

 sweat of his brow. Englishmen collectively must have work ; 

 the nation must have industries ; and I take it as no degrada- 

 tion of education to contrive that it shall minister directly 

 to their preservation, their progress, and their prosperity. 

 Rather would I say this that thereby you dignify labour, 

 refresh the toiler with the fruits of knowledge, and infuse into 



