88 
On Technical Education. 
[February, 
combined ; and I consider that results were obtained that 
have never been equalled — I will even go so far as to say 
approached — in evening classes, even in the very highest 
scientific schools, not only in the United Kingdom but in 
other countries, including Germany. It is necessary, in 
making this claim on the part of myself, not only to state 
the results obtained, but also other particulars in connection 
with these evening classes, so that others may be able to 
judge whether the claim I make is substantiated by what 
was accomplished by the students. And I think the faCts I 
shall state will not be without interest to many at the present 
time, when so much is being said about Scientific and 
Technical Education. 
Some teachers, I have no doubt, would be able to reply 
that they have also taught Chemistry practically from the 
very commencement of the course of instruction they gave. 
It is therefore necessary to show wherein the difference, as 
I think, exists, in an educational point of view, between the 
system pursued by others and the system I adopted, and in 
doing so I shall discuss the question as I would any other 
scientific problem. I think it will be admitted that I am 
not far astray when I state that if an elementary practical 
course be given, it is usually given on the plan set forth in 
Part I. of the small work by Mr. Francis Jones, entitled 
“ The Owens College Junior Course.” This course does not 
differ in any essential particular from that adopted by lec- 
turers, with the exception that the student in the one case, 
and the leCturer in the other, performs the experiments. In 
neither case, as I think, is the course founded on true 
psychological principles ; it is taught by these systems as it 
might have been, and was, taught when all that was known 
of the science of Chemistry consisted of little more than a 
number of isolated faCts. 
The first and great objeCt in teaching any subject — 
whether classics, the deductive or induCtive sciences — is the 
training of the intellectual faculties, in other words increas- 
ing and strengthening the reasoning powers ; the second 
objeCt is to furnish the mind with material upon which to 
reason, conjoining knowledge and the power to wield it, thus 
bringing, as it has been stated, all Nature under one sway. 
It will not be denied that the system of instruction which is 
the most perfect in training the intellectual faculties is the 
one which furnishes the mind in the best manner with 
material on which to reason ; and if the teaching is of a 
kind that does not to any extent assist in training and 
strengthening the reasoning powers, the information 
