i879-] 
Notices of Books . 
1 17 
the text of which was “ Billig und schlecl ” ? Do we not hear 
the Germans themselves lamenting over the industrial condition 
and prospects of their own country ? It seems to us that in the 
present state of general commercial depression every country 
imagines the position of its rivals better than its own, their 
measures more judicious, and their future more assured. Is not 
the brilliant figure which Germany makes in the intellectual 
world the result of an impulse given half a century ago, but now 
gradually slackening amidst tne hindrances of dominant mili- 
tarism and of a newly-awakened greed for wealth ? From the 
expulsion of the first Napoleon the principle of Germany was 
“ plain living and high thinking ;” she preferred the man of 
genius, learning, and research, even if in a threadbare coat, to 
the mere accumulator of money, Is this still her creed, or is 
she not, in her haste to get rich, “ killing the goose that laid the 
golden eggs ”? 
To return to our more immediate subject : the Commissioners 
are naturally forced to admit that Britain has no such system of 
secondary education as exists on the Continent. They quote the 
advice given by C. Graham Smith to all aspirants to the pro- 
fession of civil engineering, to go to Paris and take the course 
of study prescribed at l’Ecole Centrale, or else to attend ledtures 
at a German or Swiss Polytechnic School. Still they point out 
that much is iiow being done “ to redeem Britain from the dis- 
grace which at one time threatened her.” They consider that it 
is in the industrial application of art-education “that the British 
nation has most wonderfully exhibited the energy and the tho- 
roughness with which it usually carries on whatever work it may 
undertake in real earnest.” Giving a brief sketch of the rise and 
progress of our schools of art, they declare that — “ From a 
position far, very far, behind the continental nations, Great 
Britain has, in this one technical department, brought herself up 
into the very foremost place.” 
The thought here naturally suggests itself that what we have 
done in one department we may do also in others. We have 
merely to exert ourselves for industrial science as we have done 
for industrial art, and we shall soon be spared the humiliation 
of exporting raw materials and re-importing them after having 
undergpne a transformation. We shall have, it is true, a struggle 
with the speech-makers, who justly fear that if we base our edu- 
cation upon Science their reign will be over. 
We cannot better conclude this notice than by citing the fol- 
lowing admirable passage : — “ In the selection of instructors for 
the highest class of technical schools another qualification is de- 
manded, so extremely rare that few universities even can boast 
the possession of more than a very small proportion of such 
men. The man who is needed in the school of technology, 
where advanced students and professional men are to be taught 
the highest studies applicable in their professional work, must 
