84 A LIBERAL EDUCATION; iv 



and adequate to his circumstances, though there 

 would be no extras and very few accomplish- 

 ments. 



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 

 consequences of actions ; or, in other words, by the 

 laws of 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 susceptible 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 arc all members Nature 

 having no Test- Acts. 



