needs of an expanding and changing economy ...[ leading both to a ] Protective response, the new version of 'moral rescue', very evident in the arguments for the 1870 Education Act . . . And the practical response, perhaps decisive, which led Foster in 1870 to use as his principal argument: 'upon the speedy provision of elementary education depends our industrial prosperity'. In the growth of secondary education this economic argument was even more central. [ Its ] great persuasiveness . . . led to the definition of education in terms of future adult work, with the parallel clause of teaching the required social character - habits of regularity. 'Self-discipline' , obedience and trained effort.