A Liberal Education 49 



is the doctrine of the squires applied by the artisans. Why 

 should we be worse off under one regime than under the 

 other? 



Again, this skeptical minority asks the clergy to think 

 whether it is really want of education which keeps the 5 

 masses away from their ministrations whether the most 

 completely educated men are not as open to reproach on 

 this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, this 

 may not indicate that it is not education which lies at 

 the bottom of the matter. 10 



Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, 

 venture to doubt whether the glory, which rests upon 

 being able to undersell all the rest of the world, is a very 

 safe kind of glory whether we may not purchase it too 

 dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to 15 

 be directed to the making of men, to be diverted into a 

 process of manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit 

 in the exercise of some technical industry, but good for 

 nothing else. 



And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the 20 

 masses alone who need a reformed and improved educa- 

 tion. They ask whether the richest of our public schools 

 might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well as 

 gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent 

 proficiency in cricket. They seem to think that the noble 25 

 foundations of our old universities are hardly fulfilling 

 their functions in their present posture of half-clerical 

 seminaries, half racecourses, where men are trained to win 

 a senior wranglership, or a double-first, as horses are 

 trained to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs 30 

 of after-life in the case of the man as in that of the racer. 

 And, while as zealous for education as the rest, they 

 affirm that, if the education of the richer classes were 

 such as to fit them to be the leaders and the governors 



