34 W*% Srnn0its, (fesns, mtb Jjkbiefos. [nt 



Thus the question of compulsory education is settled 

 so far as Nature is concerned. Her bill on that question 

 was framed and passed long ago. But, like all com- 

 pulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and wasteful 

 in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as 

 wilful disobedience incapacity meets with the same 

 punishment as crime. Nature's discipline is not even a 

 word and a blow, and the blow first ; but the blow 

 without the word. It is left to you to find out wi.y 

 your ears are boxed. 



The object of what we commonly call education that 

 1 education in which man intervenes and which I sh;dl 

 distinguish as artificial education is to make good thetfe 

 defects in Nature's methods; to prepare the child to 

 receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor igno- 

 rantly, nor with wilful disobedience ; and to understand 

 the preliminary symptoms of her displeasure, without 

 . waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all artificial 

 education ought to be an anticipation of natural educa- 

 tion. And a liberal education is an artificial education, 

 which has not only prepared a man to escape the 

 great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has 

 trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, 

 which Nature scatters with as free a hand as her 

 penalties. 



That man, I think, has had a liberal education, who 



"* has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready 



servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all 



the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of ; whose 



- intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts 



of equal strength, and in smooth working order ; ready, 



like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work, 



and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of 



the mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of 



the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the 



