Essays on Life 



says that having brought down her boy she 

 looked round the hall in triumph, and then 

 after a moment's lull said, " Young gentlemen, 

 prayers are excused," and left them. 



I have sometimes thought that, after all, 

 the main use of a classical education consists 

 in the check it gives to originality, and the 

 way in which it prevents an inconvenient 

 number of people from using their own eyes. 

 That we will not be at the trouble of looking 

 at things for ourselves if we can get any one 

 to tell us what we ought to see goes without 

 saying, and it is the business of schools and 

 universities to assist us in this respect. The 

 theory of evolution teaches that any power 

 not worked at pretty high pressure will 

 deteriorate : originality and freedom from 

 affectation are all very well in their way, 

 but we can easily have too much of them, 

 and it is better that none should be either 

 original or free from cant but those who insist 

 on being so, no matter what hindrances ob- 

 struct, nor what incentives are offered them 

 to see things through the regulation medium. 

 To insist on seeing things for oneself is to be 



66 



