NATURE 
[OcTOBER 5, 1899 
importance both to you and to England. 
that we have to guard against. 
Now one of the great abuses I take to be that technical 
education is often begun too early in life, that is, that it is 
substituted for a general education, and a boy attempts to put 
his knowledge to practical use before he has learnt how to 
fearn. 
Another abuse is the divorcing of practice from theory, and 
the danger of elevating practical application above scientific 
knowledge. 
I shall try, therefore, to-day to say a few words, firstly, about 
the necessity of acquiring a sound general education before any 
special, work is attacked, and, secondly, about the necessity of 
basing all practical work on theoretic knowledge. 
_ Lattribute the compliment which has been paid me in the 
invitation to speak at the opening of the present session to the 
fact of my having been connected, for many years past, with 
the management of probably the largest engineering firm in 
England. That. position has afforded me exceptional oppor- 
tunities for observing what educational antecedents are likely 
to produce the best results in the engineering field. I say 
“* exceptional opportunities ” advisedly, for we at present em- 
ploy in our various works not far removed from 30,00c hands. 
Of these a large number are youths ; often sons of workmen, 
but not unfrequently drawn from the class which I see repre- 
sented before me. 
I am continually asked what education I should recommend 
for a lad entering Elswick. I always say, ‘‘Send your son to 
as good a school as you can, keep him there as long as you can, 
do not curtail his time of schooling, do not stunt his early 
intellectual growth by narrowing it down to any special study 
as taught at elementary schools.’ 
Science, mechanical drawing, and such like are no doubt 
very useful (as all knowledge is useful) in their way. These 
studies may prove an irresistible attraction to minds with a 
strong bent towards scientific subjects, but I would fancy most 
employers would rather that a lad came to us blankly ignorant 
of both, so long as he had had a good education, had been 
taught, and had ability to think, and to concentrate his atten- 
tion on any subject brought to his notice. 
Some of you may have heard, no doubt, the answer of the 
Duke of Wellington to a father who asked him what was the 
best education for his son, preparatory to his joining the army : 
“The best education you can give him.” 
It was a very pregnant utterance, terse and to the point, as 
mearly all the great Duke’s were ; and it remains as true for any 
other profession as for the army. 
In nine cases out of ten, I should say, any knowledge 
acquired by a boy before he is sixteen can have but a slight 
intrinsic value. Up to that age, it is not z/a¢ he learns that 
we have to look at, but ow he learns ; it is the habit of dis- 
cipline, of mental application, of power in attacking a subject, that 
are so valuable ; not, generally, any definite piece of knowledge 
he may have gained. 
According to my experience, the most valuable knowledge 
It is only its abuse 
that a man has at his disposal is that which he has taught him-. 
self. That a special technical education is not an absolute 
necessity is not difficult of proof My own chief, Lord Arm- 
strong, commenced life as a solicitor; James Watt was an 
instrument maker, and was prevented from opening a shop in 
Glasgow because he had not served a {full apprenticeship. 
George Stephenson was an assistant fireman to his father at 
Killingworth Colliery. Faraday was brought up as a book- 
binder. I cite the cases of these great men simply to show how 
men without trained assistance have taught themselves, and 
what can be done by the dauntless energy, untiring industry 
and patient search after truth which were the great character- 
istics of all of them, and which enabled them to do such great 
things. 
My own impression with regard to early education is that, as 
a sharpener of the young intellect, and as a mental discipline, 
it would be difficult to improve upon the curriculum which is 
now in force at our public schools, and which, in the main, has 
been in force for so many centuries. 
Iam not in accord with those who think that modern lan- 
guages should supersede the classics as a means of education, 
and T should regret more than I do the attempts which have 
been made in this direction, did I think that these attempts 
were likely to be successful. Men of science will remember 
that practically the whole of our scientific nomenclature is 
NO. 1562, VOL. 60] 
borrowed from the Greek and Latin languages ; and, personally, 
I have found my own knowledge of the classics—which repre- 
sents, no doubt, that of a very ordinary schoolboy—stand by me, 
and enable me to enjoy, as I would not otherwise have done, 
that noble literature, which, as Lord Macaulay says, is the most 
splendid and perhaps the most durable of the many glories of 
England. - 
But, whatever may be the fate of the classics as a means, I 
must take up my parable against a course of education I have 
seen in several primary schools where an attempt is made to 
teach boys, often little better than children, rudimentary 
chemistry, rudimentary geology, also physiology and electricity. 
Occasional popular lectures on these sciences may be of very 
great value to some boys in interesting them in these great 
subjects, and in leading them, at some later date, seriously to 
study them, but these sciences as taught in the schools I refer to 
can have but little value in encouraging habits of thought, of 
application, and of mental discipline ; and to knowledge so 
acquired the words of Pope are peculiarly applicable :— 
‘* A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, 
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring, 
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
And drinking deeply sobers it again.” 
I am aware that many people say that the years a boy wastes 
on Greek and Latin might be better employed in learning 
German and French. It may be so, but it is not difficult to 
teach these most important languages colloquially at a very early 
age; and with regard to technical subjects, speaking from 
my own observation, I may say that I do not think I have known 
any man at twenty-eight or thirty who was the better for having 
abandoned his general education for technical subjects at too 
early an age. 
Those men who, with fair abilities, have received a really 
good education, have been taught to use their minds, and who, 
by contact with other students, have acquired habits of appli- 
cation, amply make up for their late start by the power of mind 
and grip that they bring to their work. They are fresh and 
keen when others, who have been hammering away at semi- 
technical work from early boyhood, have become stale and are 
less vigorous, and that reflection moves me to deprecate strongly 
any attempt to teach seriously practical or electrical engineering 
in preparatory or elementary schools. As an excellent recreation, 
such studies are no doubt to be ‘encouraged, but to make them 
a systematic part of education, to the exclusion of studies which 
have a more direct effect in developing the understanding, seems 
to me to be entirely wrong. I would go further and say that 
even in public schools, and their equivalents, for older boys, 
what are termed engineering shops are generally a failure, so 
far as any efhcient knowledge to be gained in them is con- 
cerned. Except asa reasonable diversion for recreation hours, 
such ‘‘ shops” have, I fear, but little value, and in nine cases 
out of ten the hours spent in them are subtracted from the 
time due to more valuable studies. 
In my judgment, the age at which a boy should seriously 
begin any special studies, with a view to fit him technically for 
the profession he may have decided to follow, should not be 
earlier than seventeen or eighteen. 
And in any discussion as to the age at which a boy should 
leave school, the great incidental advantages that he gains from 
a reasonable prolongation of his schooldays must never be lost 
sight of. A stricter discipline, a wiser supervision, a more 
authoritative yet sympathetic advice as to conduct, are more 
possible at school than can ever be the case in after life, and a 
more constant and generous association with his equals rubs oft 
angularities and leads to amenity of disposition. It is seldom, 
indeed, that one cannot trace the difference between a lad who 
has had a full public school training and another who has been 
less fortunate. Speaking as an employer of labour, I should 
say that we find a pleasant speech and manner, tact in dealing 
with others, and some power of organisation of the utmost 
value ; and it is precisely those qualities which a boy acquires, or 
ought to acquire, in his /a¢er years at a public school. Without 
such qualities even the highest scientific attainments will never 
make a captain of industry, and in selecting candidates for 
appointments the man-of-business distinctly prefers a youth who 
has had the benefit of some years at a good school. 
So much for the necessity of grounding technical studies on 
the basis of a sound general education. 
The next point I should like to urge is that any practical tech- 
nical instruction and any practical knowledge acquired in the 
