was a chimney-sweep, who saved up his earnings to spend his holidays
regularly there.

The success of the Workers' Educational Association shows both the
strength of the demand among the workmen, and sometimes, too, among
working women, for intellectual life and their capacity to make use of
any opportunities offered for regular study. It is to be hoped that its
promoters will not forget that some branches of natural science and
literature, opening new realms of interest removed from the ordinary
cares of life, are at least as important subjects for study as economic
and social problems, and that one of the most important of such problems
is how to give those who must earn their daily bread by work that is
often dull and wearisome, the opportunity of sharing as far as possible
in the intellectual life. We may well wish Mr. Mansbridge and his
friends success as pioneers in the work of reconstruction, and renewed
and extended activity when the pressure of War requirements is removed.
It is to be hoped that the original ideals of the Association may never
be forgotten.

The aim of the Association is neither technical, i.e., to make workmen
better qualified for their special work, nor to attain a higher general
education with a view to their obtaining employment of a different class
and ceasing to be manual workers. It is to enable them, while continuing
to earn their living by manual work, to participate in the fuller life
given by intellectual activity. There are some subjects which can be
pursued and studied _thoroughly_ with pleasure and profit without any
long or exact preliminary training. With some wise guidance in reading
and some stimulating criticism to help him, the workman can really
obtain all that is important from the study of the literature of his own
language--to learn to know and to enjoy the best that has been written.