A LIBERAL EDUCATION 41 



treme 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 education 

 which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and ade- 

 quate to his circumstances, though there would be no 

 extras and very few accomplishments. 



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 modes 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 



