A LIBERAL EDUCATION 135 



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 sus- 

 ceptible of any other mode of instruction, Nature took 

 us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its 

 educational influence, shaping our actions into rough ac- 

 cordance 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. 3 



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," 4 who 

 pick up just enough to get through without much dis- 

 credit. Those who won't learn at all are plucked; and 

 then you can't come up again. Nature's pluck means 

 extermination. 



3 The Test Acts excluded from public office in England and 

 Scotland all persons who did not profess the established religion. 

 Similar religious tests were required in English universities until 

 1871. 



4 At the University of Cambridge the "pass-degree," without 

 honours, is called the "poll-degree" and the term "poll" is said 

 to come from oiTroAAot, "the many, the common people." 



