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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 coarse 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.
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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 mode 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 anyone, 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.
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Those who take honors 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.
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Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as nature is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. But, like all compulsory legislation, that of nature is harsh and wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience—incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature’s discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your ears were boxed.
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The object of what we commonly call education—that education in which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial education—is to make good these defects in nature’s methods; to prepare the child to receive nature’s education, neither incapably nor ignorantly, nor with wilful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of her displeasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation of natural education. And a liberal education is an artificial education—which has not only prepared a man to escape the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards which nature scatters with as free a hand as her penalties.
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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 a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of nature and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.
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Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with nature. He will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely; she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious self, her minister and interpreter.
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Notes
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ideal, answering to our highest conception; perfect type; actual thing as standard for imitation.
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liberal education, education that is befitting or worthy of a man of free birth; education that is not restricted.
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discrepant, different; contrary; in disagreement.
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chess, a game of pure skill played upon a chessboard with chessmen, the players moving alternately until the king on one side is so attacked that he cannot escape. The chessmen are named king, queen, bishop, knight, castle （or rook）, and pawns.
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primary, chief; of first importance; of the greatest importance.
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the moves of the pieces, how to move the pieces, as each piece has a fixed path.
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notion of a gambit . Gambit is a chess opening in which the first player voluntarily gives up a pawn or a piece for the sake of an advantage in position. Hence, a person who possesses the notion of gambit is one who has the ingenious quality to grasp the opportunities of life.
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giving and getting out of check . Check is the word of warning denoting that the king is in danger. One who has a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check, therefore, is one who knows how to outdo an adversary when he is attacked, and how to surpass him in any situation.
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disapprobation, act of passing unfavorable judgment upon.
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never makes the smallest allowance for ignorance, one who never makes the smallest allowance for mistakes due to ignorance is one who never entertains the slightest error or wrong committed as a result of lack of knowledge or information on any subject.
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stakes, sum of money or its equivalent which is wagered or pledged between two parties in any gamble.
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checkmate is the exclamation made by a chessplayer when he makes a move that puts the opponent’s king in check from which there is no escape. Here, checkmate means complete defeat.
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metaphor, figure of speech by which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of subject or idea is applied to another by way of suggestion, a suggestion of likeness or analogy between them; a compressed simile.
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Retzsch, Moritz （1779-1857）, German painter, etcher, and designer.
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mocking fiend, the devil who is ridiculing contemptuously, who is defying, his opponent.
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Adam . According to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, “God created man in his own image” on the sixth day. This man was Adam.
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Eve . Later God took a rib from Adam and made of it a woman, to be the mate of man. “Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”
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