IV AND WHERE TO FIND IT 85 



Those who take honours in Xature's imiversitv, 

 who learn the laws which govern men and things 

 and obey them, are the really great and successful 

 men in this world. The great mass of mankind 

 are the " Poll/' who pick up just enough to get 

 through without much discredit. Those who won't 

 learn at all are plucked; and then you can't come 

 up again. Nature's pluck means extermination. 



Thus the question of compulsory education is 

 settled so far as Xature is concerned. Her bill on 

 that question was framed and passed long ago. 

 But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature 

 is harsh and wasteful in its operation. Ignorance 

 is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience — inca- 

 pacity meets with the same punishment as crime. 

 Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, 

 and the blow first; but the blow without the word. 

 It is left to you to find out wh}' your ears are 

 boxed. 



The object of what we commonly call educa- 

 tion — that education in which man intervenes and 

 which I shall distinsiuish as artificial education — is 

 to make good these defects in Nature's methods; 

 to prepare the child to receive Nature's education, 

 neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with wilful 

 disobedience; and to understand the preliminary 

 symptoms of her pleasure, without waiting for the 

 box on the ear. In short, all artificial education 

 ought to be an anticipation of natural education. 

 And a liberal education is an artificial education 



