202 Thomas Henry Huxley 



He compared his own handicraft as an anatomist 

 witli the handicrafts of artisans, and declared that the 

 kind of preliminary training he would choose for him- 

 self or for his pupils was precisely the training he 

 would provide for them. He did not wish that one 

 who proposed to be a biologist should learn dissection 

 during his school-days; that would come later, and, 

 in the meantime, broader and deeper foundations had 

 to be laid. These were the ordinary subjects of a 

 liberal education : physical training, drawing, and a 

 little music, French and German, the ordinary Eng- 

 lish subjects, and the elements of phj^sical science. 

 Against such costly schemes of education for the whole 

 population of a nation, many objections have been 

 urged. Of these, perhaps the chief is that the major- 

 ity of human beings even in the most civilised country 

 are not capable of profiting bj^ or taking an interest in, 

 or certainly of advancing far in, most subjects. Hux- 

 le}' met such objections in a spirit of the widest states- 

 manship. There were two reasons for making the 

 general education of all what he called a liberal educa- 

 tion. The first was that, even in a liberal education 

 such as he advocated, no subject was pursued beyond 

 the broad elementary stages, and that during the early 

 3'ears of life, while the framework and the character 

 were forming, it was of first-rate importance not to 

 stunt either by lack of material. The second great 

 principle was, that until any individual had had the 

 opportunity, it was impossible to say whether or no he 

 would profit much or little, and the gain to the whole 

 nation by not missing au)^ of tho.se who were born with 

 unusual natural capacity was more than worth the cost 

 of affording opportunities to all. 



"The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, nor 



