20 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



that sort of overflowing generosity with which the 

 strong shows delight in strength. And one who 

 plays ill is checkmated without haste, but without 

 remorse. 



Education 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. 



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 contin- 

 uing 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 are 



