288 
On Technical Education. 
[May, 
of affairs more lights and superior industry are requisite ; 
. • . and consequently a different and better furniture of mind 
is requisite to be brought into the business of life. 
“ This is certainly a call upon us to examine the state of 
education in this country, and to consider how those years are 
employed which men pass previous to their entering into the 
world ; for upon this their future behaviour and success 
must, in a great measure, depend. A transition which is not 
easy can never be made with advantage , and therefore it is cer- 
tainly our wisdom to contrive that the studies of youth should 
tend to fit them for the business of manhood, and that the 
objects of their attention, and turn of thinking in younger 
life, should not be too remote from the destined employment of 
their riper years. If this be not attended to, they must ne- 
cessarily be mere novices upon entering the great world, be 
almost unavoidably embarrassed in their conduct, and, after 
all the time and expense bestowed upon their education, be 
indebted to a series of blunders for the most useful knowledge they 
will ever acquire . 
“ In what manner soever those gentlemen who are not of 
any learned profession, but who, in other capacities, have 
rendered the most important services to their country, came 
by that knowledge which made them capable of it, I appeal 
to themselves whether any considerable share of it was 
acquired till they had finished their studies at the university. 
So remote is the general course of study at places of the 
most liberal education among us from the business of civil life .” 
One hundred and twenty years have very nearly passed 
away since Priestly first published his Essay ; yet the com- 
plaint he made of the want of a system of school education 
suitable for boys intended for trade and commerce, or, as he 
phrased it, “ for civil and active life, a course of studies that 
would best adapt them for the destined employments of riper 
years,” is still unprovided for this class of youths in the 
United Kingdom. The children of the poorer classes have 
been provided by the State since Priestly’s time, with 
schools, which exist in almost every village and in every dis- 
trict in large towns ; with teachers who are trained for their 
work ; with inspectors to see that the prescribed course of 
studies is fully and efficiently carried out ; and the system of 
education is being continually improved. The higher classes 
are also provided with well-endowed public schools and uni- 
versities ; but “ the middle class is dependent still, to a great 
extent, for its education on private desultory enterprise : this 
class, in this land of education, gets nothing out of the mil- 
lions given annually for this purpose to every class except 
themselves.” 
