36 SELECTIONS FROM HUXLEY 



In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation of 

 natural education. 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 



5 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, 



10 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 



15 knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and 

 of the laws of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is 

 full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to 

 heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience ; 

 who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of 



20 art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. 



Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal 

 education ; for he is, as completely as a man can be, in har- 

 mony with Nature. He will make the best of her, and she of 

 him. They will get on together rarely ; she as his ever benefi- 



25 cent mother ; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her 

 minister and interpreter. 



Where is such an education as this to be had ? Where is 

 there any approximation to it ? Has any one tried to found 

 such an education ? Looking over the length and breadth of 

 30 these islands, I am afraid that all these questions must receive 

 a negative answer. Consider our primary schools, and what 

 is taught in them. A child learns : - 



i. To read, write, and cipher, more or less well; but in 

 a very large proportion of cases not so well as to take pleasure 



