Method of Exposition 211 



time the race has outgrown the current answers, ceas- 

 ing to take comfort from them. 



"In a well-worn metaphor a parallel is drawn between the 

 life of man and the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a but- 

 terfly ; but the comparison may be more just as well as more 

 novel, if for its former term we take the mental progress of the 

 race. History shews that the human mind, fed by constant 

 accessions of knowledge, periodically grows too large for its 

 theoretical coverings, and bursts them asunder to appear in 

 new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at intervals, 

 casts its too narrow skin and assumes another, itself but temp- 

 orary. Truly, the imago state of man seems to be terribly 

 distant, but every moult is a step gained, and of such there 

 have been many." 



As another instance, the following from his address on 

 a " I^iberal Education " may be taken. He had been 

 discussing the intellectual advantage to be derived 

 from classical studies, and had been comparing, to the 

 disadvantage of the latter, the intellectual discipline 

 which might be got from a study of fossils with the 

 discipline claimed by the ordinary experts upon edu- 

 cation to be the restilts of classical training. He 

 wished to anticipate the obvious objection to his 

 argument : that the stibject-matter of palaeontology 

 had no direct bearing on human interests and emo- 

 tions, while the classical authors were rich in the 

 finest humanity. 



"But it will be said that I forget the beauty "and the human 

 interest, which appertain to classical studies. To this I reply 

 that it is only a very strong man who can appreciate the 

 charms of landscape as he is toiling up a steep hill, along a bad 

 road. What with short-windedness, stones, ruts, and a pervad- 

 ing sense of the wisdom of rest and be thankful, most of us 

 have little enough sense of the beautiful under these circum- 

 stances. The ordinary schoolboy is precisely in this case. He 



