in.] A LIBERAL EDUCATION. 33 



narrow, would be thorough, real, and adequate to his 

 circumstances, though there would be no extras and very- 

 few accomplishments. 



And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam, 

 or, better still, an Eve, a new and greater world, that of 

 social and moral phenomena, would be revealed. Joys 

 and woes, compared with which all others might seem 

 but faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. 

 Happiness -and sorrow would take the place of the 

 coarser monitors, pleasure and pain ; but conduct would 

 still be shaped by the observation of the natural conse- 

 quences of actions ; or, in other words, by the laws or 

 the nature of man. 



To every one of us the world was once as fresh and 

 new as to Adam. And then, long before we were sus- 

 ceptible of any other mode of instruction, Nature took 

 us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its 

 educational influence, shaping our actions into rough 

 accordance with Nature's laws, so that we might not be 

 ended untimely by too gross disobedience. Nor should 

 I speak of this process of education as past, for any one, 

 be he as old as he may. For every man, the world is as 

 fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold 

 novelties for him who has the eyes to see them. And 

 Nature is still continuing her patient education of us in 

 that great university, the universe, of which we are all 

 members — Nature having no Test-Acts. 



Those who take honours in Nature's university, 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 arc the " Poll," who 

 pick up just enough to get through without much dis- 

 credit. Those who won't learn at all arc plucked ; and 

 then you can't come up again. Nature's pluck means 

 extermination. 



