technicum_ at their fingers' ends; I mean (for pray, remember, that I
observe my own rule, not to use a hard word without explaining it), that
every tradesman would study so the terms of art of other trades, that he
might be able to speak to every manufacturer or artist in his own
language, and understand them when they talked one to another: this
would make trade be a kind of universal language, and the particular
marks they are obliged to, would be like the notes of music, an
universal character, in which all the tradesmen in England might write
to one another in the language and characters of their several trades,
and be as intelligible to one another as the minister is to his people,
and perhaps much more.

I therefore recommend it to every young tradesman to take all occasions
to converse with mechanics of every kind, and to learn the particular
language of their business; not the names of their tools only, and the
way of working with their instruments as well as hands, but the very
cant of their trade, for every trade has its _nostrums_, and its little
made words, which they often pride themselves in, and which yet are
useful to them on some occasion or other.

There are many advantages to a tradesman in thus having a general
knowledge of the terms of art, and the cant, as I call it, of every
business; and particularly this, that they could not be imposed upon so
easily by other tradesmen, when they came to deal with them.

If you come to deal with a tradesman or handicraft man, and talk his own
language to him, he presently supposes you understand his business; that
you know what you come about; that you have judgment in his goods, or in
his art, and cannot easily be imposed upon; accordingly, he treats you
like a man that is not to be cheated, comes close to the point, and does