Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-01-30
SCIENTIFIC.

HUXLEY on Technical EducGtion.-Re-
Gently Prof. Huxley delivered lecture
In London on the subject, Technical
Education" For many years he said,
he had practiced a form of industry
amount of those qualities which were
requisite TO make a successful practi-
oner. His particular handicraft was
anatomy, and probably that needed as
much delicacy of hand and accuracy of
eye as any of the pursuits that were fol-
lowed by his audience. If the most
skilled matchmaker among them were
to come to his workshop or laboratory,
and bring watch to be put together as
a job for him. and if he (Prof. Huxley
were to set him, in return, to dissec!
the nervous system of black beetle he
fancied the chances would be that he
(the Professor) would have done his
work to the satisfaction of the watch
maker before the matchmaker had per-
formed his task to his. To those who
would like TO learn his business of an
anatomist, it was necessary that they
should have a good and sound know
ledge of the elements OF physical science,
that was to say, of the properties and
characters of natural objects, with
knowledge of drawing and of foreign
languages, and, above all, that vigor
and elasticity of mind which were the
special properties OF youth, as men who
were ageing now knew TO their cost
he meant that power OF looking at
things in different ways, without hav-
ing had their freshness and yigor
washed out Of them by the sort OF in-
tellectual debauchery which was to be
found in thepresent day in the incessant
grinding for examinations. Young
people were made to use their brains
before they were properly set, and SO
by the time that the strain and pressure
of life came upon them the spring OF
tneir..intellectual faculties had gone. Ii
had been said of early risers, that they
were conceited all the morning and
stupid all the afternoon. Whether that
was true he did not know, but it was
certainly in his experience that students
who were made 10 rise too early intel
lectually-to get too early at the tops OF
their classes-were apt 10 be conceited
and stupid as has been described. Ii
was necessary before a youth took to
any particular business TO ascertain
what were the talents he possessed, and
whether he had a natural aptitude for
which he was about to follow. The
great system OF universal education now
established in this country must be re-
garded as one-if not, the one-of the
greatest events OF the century, as cer-
Iainly il was one of the NEST important
of British interests" to be conserved.
lt would put down, as it were, the
Bashi Bazouks of ignorance on the one
hand, and the COssacks or sectarianism
on the other. The method of teaching
adopted at the present time, compared
10 what it was 40 years ago, was really
marvellous, and now the very poorest
child obtained that knowledge for
mere trifie which the middle classes had
to pay dearly for years ago. The pre-
sent state OF things afforded a nucleus
out of which satisfactory system OF
technical education could develop itself.
The Government of the country were
doing possibly as much as IL we're eX-
pedient they should do, but he thought
that, were action was incomplete, pri-
vate help or the aid of the great corpo-
rate bodies of the country should be
given. The talents of youths OF real
genius should be fOstered for the benefit
OF mankind at large, irrespective or any
monetary cost. Men like Faraday,
Davy, or Watt were not to be estimated
by the value of money. A system OF
small and insignificant exhibitions
would do much to lnculcate and improve
love of science.