TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION 47 



their cultivation in separate institutions, seems to me to be 

 fraught with serious dangers and disadvantages. In the first 

 place, countenance is given to the mischievous tendency to 

 distinguish between useful and useless knowledge. An 

 entirely artificial cleavage is produced in the whole body of 

 learning, which prevents that reaction between teachers, 

 students, and studies of different types that is so potent in 

 correcting extravagances, in extending the mental horizon, in 

 producing breadth of intellectual sympathy, and in giving 

 a well-adjusted culture to the whole human being. It would, 

 I think, be difficult to overstate the importance of the influence 

 which comes from the close association, in a place of learning, 

 of people of widely different interests and destinies. It means 

 more than one can well say. It is at the basis of what we call 

 liberalism in education ; it is the thing which works equally 

 against pedantry and venality ; it is more than intellectual, it 

 is spiritual. It is, I believe, all-important and indispensable if 

 we desire to imbue the rising generation with the true per- 

 spective of knowledge and of life. 



I am well aware that the cultivation of technical and pro- 

 fessional studies in separate institutions is favoured by some 

 high authorities and is the accepted practice of some countries. 

 I can well believe that it has some advantages of convenience 

 and may conduce to a certain kind of efficiency. Efficiency 

 we certainly desire ; the close union of specialized knowledge 

 with the practical arts is now a necessity of national existence. 

 But national well-being depends in the end on something much 

 deeper than intellectual efficiency and technical skill. -We 

 want first and foremost men of character, understanding, and 

 ideals, and in the organization of technical and professional 

 training, as in all educational enterprise, this is a primary 

 consideration to which sacrifices may be cheerfully made. 



For these reasons then, positive and negative, I am an 

 earnest advocate for the actual embodiment of professional and 



