384 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
A closer attention to the special education required for our 
skilled artizans is necessary. If we wish to keep in the van of 
mechanical and artistic advancement, we must devise special means 
for imparting special knowledge; and, above all, text books and 
examinations, although very good and most useful, cannot in the 
faintest manner supplant work, experience, and trial in the region 
of mechanics and art. 
I fear we in this country have within the last few years relied 
too much on our theory of education. “The better the education, 
the better the workman,” is a saying which has been too often 
quoted. Education is a science, or better, will soon be one, when 
we reason as to results in the same manner as in other sciences. 
Obviously, in the bewildering mass of knowledge now before us, 
the only escape is to ascertain definitely the quantity, and quality, 
and kind required for the various classes, and aim directly and 
simply to communicate this as soon, as early as possible. In the 
case of superior ability, facilities must always be given for acquir- 
ing more than the average; but the contention for a less complex, - 
more thorough, grounding for the mass of the people is in no 
particular against the advancement of the superior mind. “ Eng- 
land is no longer the workshop of the world,” and no country 
depends more on its position as a terrestrial workshop. True we 
are the heirs of a fine constitution, a splendid history, and much 
that is of advantage to us as a commercial nation ; but we are now 
surrounded by newer, freer, less restricted countries—some new, as 
America and our colonies; others awakening from lethargy, like 
Germany and Belgium, which are pressing us hard in the markets » 
of the world. 
In England we have now an immense mass of national obliga- 
tions, cumbrous regulations, and vested interests, so administered, 
in fact, as to be a heavy tax on the efficiency of our work-producing 
power, which, after all, is the only true wealth of a nation. It is 
thus our pressing duty to counteract and reduce as much as possible 
this friction, and no surer method can be devised than the efficient 
training of able bodied men in their various crafts. 
