hemes of education for the whole population of a
nation, many objections have been urged. Of these, perhaps the chief
is that the majority of human beings even in the most civilised
country are not capable of profiting by or taking an interest in, or
certainly of advancing far in, most subjects. Huxley met such
objections in a spirit of the widest statesmanship. There were two
reasons for making the general education of all what he called a
liberal education. The first was that, even in a liberal education
such as he advocated, no subject was pursued beyond the broad
elementary stages, and that during the early years of life, while the
framework and the character were forming, it was of first-rate
importance not to stunt either by lack of material. The second great
principle was that until any individual had had the opportunity, it
was impossible to say whether or no he would profit much or little,
and the gain to the whole nation by not missing any of those who were
born with unusual natural capacity was more than worth the cost of
affording opportunities to all.

"The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, nor the
aptitude, for either literary or scientific or artistic pursuits;
nor, indeed, for excellence of any sort. Their ambition is to go
through life with moderate exertion and a fair share of ease,
doing common things in a common way. And a great blessing and
comfort it is that the majority of men are of this mind; for the
majority of things to be done are common things, and are quite
well enough done when commonly done. The great end of life is not
knowledge but action. What men need is as much knowledge as they
can assimilate and organise into a basis for action; give them
more and it may become injurious. One knows people who are as
heavy and stupid from undigested learning as others are from
over-fulness of meat and drink. But a small percentage of the
population is born with that most excellent quality, a desire for
excellence, or with special aptitude of some sort or another....
Now, the most important object of all educational schemes is to
catch these exceptional people, and turn them to account for the
good of society. No man can say where they will crop up; like
their opposites, the fools and the knaves, they appear sometimes
in the palace, and sometimes in the hovel; but the great thing to