Huxley As A Handicraftsman

"Technical education," in the sense n wlrich the term is ordinarily used, and in which I am now employing it, ineans tliat sort of education which is speoially adapted to the needs of men ■whose business in life it is to pursue some kind of handicraft ; it is, in fact, a ine Greco-Latin equivalent for what in good vernacular English would be called 'the teaching of handicrafts. " And, irobably, at this stage of our progress, tjmay occur to many of you to thmk of ,he story of the cobbler and his last, and o say to yourselves, though you will be oo polite to put the question openly to me : "VVhat does the speaker kñow jractically about this matter ? What is lis handicraft ? I think the question is a very proper one, and, unless I were jrepared to answer it, I hope satisfacto■ily, I should have chosen some other theme. The fact is, I am, and have been any time these thirty years, a manwhoworks with his hands - a handicraftsman. I do not say this in the broadly metaphorical sense in which fine gentlemen, with all the delicacy of Agag about them, trip to the hustings about election time, and protest that they, too, are workingmen. I really meau my -words to be taken in their direct, literal and straightEorward sense. In fact, if the most nimble-flngered watchmaker amoug yon will come to my workshop, he may set me to put a watcii together, and I will set him to dissect, say, a black-beetle's nerves. I do not -wish to vaunt, butl am inclined to think that I shall manage my job to his satisfaction sooner than he will do