A LIBERAL EDUCATION 41 



est allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well, 

 the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of overflowing 

 generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. 

 And one who plays ill is checkmated — without haste, but 

 without remorse. 



My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous 

 picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at 

 chess with man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking 

 fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel who is playing for 

 love, as we say, and would rather lose than win — and I 

 should accept it as an image of human life. 



Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of 

 this mighty game. In other words, education is the instruc- 

 tion of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which 

 name I include not merely things and their forces, but man 

 and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of 

 the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in har- 

 mony with those laws. For me, education means neither 

 more nor less than this. Anything which professes to call 

 itself education must be tried by this standard, and if it 

 fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever 

 may be the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the 

 other side. 



It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is 

 no such thing as an uneducated man. Take an extreme 

 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 



