in Teachings of Thomas Huxley 



seems indeed a task so great as to bar out 

 nearly every one from the distinction which its 



completion would offer; but, however difficult, 

 two factors only are indispensable: the man 

 and the opportunity. Of these by far the more 

 important is the man; for with a fair degree 

 of health and suitable conditions of life he can, 

 by his own effort, force the opportunity and 

 carry forward his work. He who complains 

 that he never had a chance to obtain an educa- 

 tion deserves little sympathy. It is not the 

 chance that he lacked but the inspiration and 

 the energy, provided he had merely himself 

 to think of and not the needs of a farailv. 

 Hear the words of Huxley on this subject, than 

 which I do not think a better definition of a 

 liberal education exists: "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 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 

 knowledge of the great and fundamental truths 

 of Nature and of the laws of her operations; 

 who has learned to love all beauty, whether of 

 nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to 



