n and thought cover the ground is to be spiritual and
spontaneous and thorough with what we have. The one practical and
economical way to do this is to leave things free, to let the natural
forces in men's lives find the places that belong to them, develop the
powers that belong to them, until power in every man's life shall be
contagious of power. In the meantime, having brought out the true and
vital energies of men as far as we go, if we are obliged to be
specialists in knowledge we shall be specialists of the larger sort. The
powers of each man, being actual and genuine powers, shall play into the
powers of other men. Each man that essays to live shall create for us a
splendour and beauty and strength he was made to create from the
beginning of the world.

To those who sit in the seat of the scornful the somewhat lyrical idea
of an examination in joy as a basis of admission to the typical college
appeals as a fit subject of laughter. So it is. Having admitted the
laugh, the question is,--all human life is questioning the college
to-day,--which way shall the laugh point?

If the conditions of the typical college do not allow for the working of
the laws of nature, so much the worse for the laws of nature, or so much
the worse for the college. In the meantime, it is good to record that
there are many signs--thanks to these same laws of nature--that a most
powerful reaction is setting in, not only in the colleges themselves,
but in all the forces of culture outside and around them. The
examination in joy--the test of natural selection--is already employed
by all celebrated music masters the world over in the choosing of
pupils, and by all capable teachers of painting; and the time is not far
off when, so far as courses in literature are concerned (if the teaching
of literature is attempted in crowded institutions), the examination in
joy will be the determining factor with all the best teachers, not only
in the conduct of their classes, but in the very structure of them.
Structure is the basis of conduct.

VII

The Emancipation of the Teacher

The custom of mowing lawns in cities, of having every grass-blade in
every door-yard like every other grass-blade, is considered by many
persons as an artificial custom--a violation of the law of nature. It is
contended that the free-swinging, wind-blown grasses of the fields are
more beautiful and that they give more various and infinite delight in
colour and line and mov