IV AND WHERE TO FIND IT 83 



picture a calm, strong angel who is playing for 

 love, as we say, and would rather lose than win 

 and I should accept it as an image of human life. 



Well, what I mean by Education is learning the 

 rules of this mighty game. In other words, educa- 

 tion is the instruction of the intellect in the laws 

 of Nature, under which name I include not 

 merely things and their forces, but men and their 

 ways ; and the fashioning of the affections and of 

 the will into an earnest and loving desire to move 

 in harmony with those laws. For me, education 

 means neither more nor less than this. Anything 

 which professes to call itself education must be 

 tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the 

 test, I will not call it education, whatever may be 

 the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the 

 other side. 



It is important to remember that, in strictness, 

 there is no such thing as an uneducated man. 

 Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult 

 man, in the full vigour of his faculties, could be 

 suddenly placed in the world, as Adam is said to 

 have been, and then left to do as he best might. 

 How long would he be left uneducated ? Not five 

 minutes. Nature would begin to teach him, 

 through the eye, the ear, the touch, the properties 

 of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his 

 elbow telling him to do this and avoid that ; and 

 by slow degrees the man would receive an educa- 

 tion which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, 



