The New Education

Excerpt from The New Education: A Lecture The smith was a mighty man in England in the early time. In the royal court of Wales he sat in the great hall with the king and queen, and was entitled to a draught of every kind of liquor served. His person was sacred; his calling placed him above the law. He was necessary to the feudal state; he forged sword's fon the temper of which life, honor, and vic tory in battle depended. The smith after the Norman invasion gained in importance in England. He was the chief man of the village, its oracle, and the most cunning workman of the time. His name descended to more fami lies than that oi any other profession - for the origin of the name Smith is the hot, dusty, smoky smithy, and however it may be disguised in the spell ing it is entitled to the proud distinction which its representatives some times seek to conceal. Thus is the familiar calumny refuted that the Lord after naming everybody of importance called all the rest Smith. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.