The Object of a Liberal Education
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.
From ‘A Liberal Education: and Where to Find It — An Address to the South London Working Men’s College’ in ‘Science and Education: Essays’ (1897), by T. H. Huxley (1825-1895). The lecture was delivered in 1868.
* See also Edmund Burke There is No Liberty without Self-Control, and Edmond Holmes on being Free to Grow.