The Teachings of Thomas Henry Huxley

d perhaps other questions should be answered satisfactorily before setting out to describe what does and what does not belong under the classification. The term liberal means, of course, broad in the sense that its possessor must know something of the chief branches of general loarning. He must have read history, studied literature, discussed politics intelligently, road of and seen examples of the chief masterpieces in painting and sculpture, and finally must be a man of the world interested in all things concerning the welfare of the commonwealth as well as those concerning the development of his powers of mind and body. Thisseems 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 education 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 family. 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 ...