42 SELECTED ESS A YS FROM LA Y SERMONS 



which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and adequate 

 to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and 

 very few accomplishments. 



And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam, or, 

 better still, an Eve, a new and greater world, that of social 

 and moral phenomena, would be revealed. Joys and woes, 

 compared with which all others might seem but faint 

 shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness 

 and sorrow would take the place of the coarser monitors, 

 pleasure and pain; but conduct- would still be shaped by 

 the observation of the natural consequences of actions; or, 

 in other words, by the laws of the nature of man. 



To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new 

 as to Adam. And then, long before we were susceptible 

 of any other modes of instruction. Nature took us in hand, 

 and every minute of waking life brought its educational 

 influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with 

 Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by 

 too gross disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process 

 of education as past for any one, be he as old as he may. 

 For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first 

 day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the 

 eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her patient 

 education of us in that great university, the universe, of 

 which we are all members — Nature having no Test-Acts. 



Those who take honours in Nature's university, who 

 learn the laws which govern men and things and obey them, 

 are the really great and successful men in this world. The 

 great mass of mankind are the "Poll," who pick up just 

 enough to get through without much discredit. Those 

 who won't learn at all are plucked; and then you can't 

 come up again. Nature's pluck means extermination. 



Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so 



