84 THE BOD Y AND EDUCA TION. 



Descartes is, therefore, condemned by Mr. Huxley, for pre- 

 tending that he does not " apply his views to the human 

 body, but only to an imaginary machine." This, says his 

 commentator, " is throwing a sop to Cerberus unworthily, 

 and uselessly, because Cerberus was by no means stupid 

 enough to swallow it." Whatever difference of opinion may 

 be entertained concerning the wisdom displayed by Cerberus 

 in that particular instance, there can be little doubt as 

 to his extreme stupidity, if it is to be estimated by his 

 powers of swallowing the newly-concocted sops which are 

 thrown to him in profusion. But even the powers of deglu- 

 tition possessed by Cerberus must be limited ; and when the 

 poor animal discovers that he is becoming exhausted, with- 

 out his hunger being in any way appeased by the puffs he 

 has been induced to swallow, it is not unlikely that the 

 sops that may be thrown to him hereafter will increase his 

 rage instead of rendering him less savage. 



" It is because the body is a machine, that education 

 (the formation of habits) is possible," is one of the confident 

 assertions of Mr. Huxley ; and some of those who know very 

 little about the body, nothing about machines, and are igno- 

 rant of the meaning of education, may not be indisposed 

 to accept his dictum. But, indeed, it is quite time that 

 public attention was directed to the new method of edu- 

 cating machines. Without doubt, it would be interesting to 

 watch the progress of education (the formation of habits) in 

 the case of such highly intelligent pupils as windmills, 

 steam-engines, clocks, and watches, &c. As soon as the 

 education of several such machines was sufficiently ad- 

 vanced, they might be publicly examined. A highly 

 instructive generalization might be arrived at if they were 



