VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY OF THE NEW TRAINING.

I might dwell on other considerations; upon the impulse to he communicated to invention and discovery; upon the disclosure, here and there, of rare mechanical genius, which, under the old system of education, might have been hopelessly lost in a dreary wilderness of words; upon the value of the arts acquired in saving disrepair within the home, enabling the thousand needed strokes of the hammer to be well and promptly given, securing the insertion of the nail in time that saves nine; upon the virtue which a general mechanical education of the people would have in preserving and exalting the priceless sense of social decency, which keeps the fence along the village street in order, the gate hung, the glass set, the shutter in place; but perhaps I have already said enough to introduce the discussion of the question of Industrial education.

APPENDIX H.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION HELD IN

1.

Introduction.

LONDON AUGUST. 1884.

II. Inaugural address by Lord Reay, president of the Conference,
with brief responses by the American Minister and by
Mr. Mundella.

807

I.-INTRODUCTION.

The inaugural address by Lord Reay, before the distinguished body of delegates to the first International Conference on Education, is here given as the concluding appendix to the introductory volume, "Part I," of this Report.

As the purpose in compiling this volume has been to collect from every available source, whatever might be of use in the discussion as to what form of elementary training in the public schools is most essential to the best and fullest development of the industries of a people, irrespective of the question as to whether their trained activities are ultimately to be directed to mechanical, scientific, or artistic production; that is, either to the making of machines, the building of ships, the development of mines, the cultivation of the soil, the construction of highways; or, to the erection of buildings, the weaving of textiles, the shaping of costumes, the making of fictile wares; or the design and creation of such works of beauty, as are embodied in the productions of the higher arts; the following comprehensive address, with the responses, made on the occasion of the opening of the International Educational Conference held in connection with the Health Exhibition in London, in August, 1884, brings it to a fitting conclusion.

This fitness arises from the fact that, while the importance of the study of elementary drawing receives due recognition in this admirable address, the cultivation, from the earliest years of school life, of the habit of accurate observation, the value of manual training, and the utility of additional technical industrial training, are also clearly set forth, which features of the address are in full accord with the subjectmatter of this volume. The imperative need of the highest scientific and technical training, as an essential factor in the prosperity of a manufacturing people, is also shown. At the same time the value of every form of higher education as contributing to the broadest and best development of a people, and of all knowledge which tends to promote the arts of civilization and to cultivate the amenities of social life; thus adding to the pleasure arising from the display and use of objects of beauty and convenience, the rarer and varied charms of intellectual and artistic culture, are eloquently set forth.

Hospitable to the modern idea of introducing scientific methods in every department of education, abreast of the contemporary movement for the practical training of the world's workers to precision and efficiency in their several industries, the distinguished speaker is, nevertheless, wisely conservative of all that is of proved excellence in the older methods, and is intelligently appreciative of the charm of that old scholastic training, the results of which, embodied in the world's literature, have, from age to age, kept securely treasured for mankind the record of the past achievements of the race; without which, the Science of to-day had been impossible.