134 



A LIBERAL EDUCATION 



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 

 instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under 

 which name I include not merely things and their forces,, 

 but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the affec- 

 tions and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to 

 move in harmony 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 ex- 

 treme case. Suppose that an adult man, in the full vigour 

 Grills' 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, 

 I 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, which, if narrow, would 

 be thorough, real, and adequate to his circumstances, 

 though there would be no extras and very few accom- 

 plishments. 



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 



