96 A LIBEILVL EDUCATION; iv 



Commons. You will have to take your share in 

 making laws which may prove a blessing or a 

 curse to millions of men. But you shall not hear 

 one word respecting the political organisation of 

 your country; the meaning of the controversy be- 

 tween free-traders and protectionists shall never 

 liave been mentioned to you; you shall not so 

 much as know that there are such things as eco- 

 nomical laws. 



" The mental power which will be of most im- 

 portance in your daily life will be the power of 

 seeing things as they are without regard to au- 

 thority; and of drawing accurate general conclu- 

 sions from particular facts. But at school and at 

 college you shall know of no source of truth but 

 authority; nor exercise your reasoning faculty 

 upon anything but deduction from that which is 

 laid down by authority. 



" You will have to weary your soul with work, 

 and numy a time eat your bread in sorrow and 

 in bitterness, and you shall not have learned to 

 take refuge in the great source of pleasure with- 

 out alloy, the serene resting-place for worn human 

 nature, — the world of art." 



Said I not rightly that we arc a wonderful 

 people? I am quite prepared to allow, that edu- 

 cation entirely devoted to these omitted subjects 

 might not be a completely liberal education. 

 But is an education which ignores them all a 

 liberal education? Nay, is it too much to say 



