dies," and of a "_liberal_ education," as the especial characteristic
or property of a University and of a gentleman; what is really meant by
the word? Now, first, in its grammatical sense it is opposed to _servile_;
and by "servile work" is understood, as our catechisms inform us, bodily
labour, mechanical employment, and the like, in which the mind has little
or no part. Parallel to such servile works are those arts, if they deserve
the name, of which the poet speaks,(15) which owe their origin and their
method to hazard, not to skill; as, for instance, the practice and
operations of an empiric. As far as this contrast may be considered as a
guide into the meaning of the word, liberal education and liberal pursuits
are exercises of mind, of reason, of reflection.

But we want something more for its explanation, for there are bodily
exercises which are liberal, and mental exercises which are not so. For
instance, in ancient times the practitioners in medicine were commonly
slaves; yet it was an art as intellectual in its nature, in spite of the
pretence, fraud, and quackery with which it might then, as now, be
debased, as it was heavenly in its aim. And so in like manner, we contrast
a liberal education with a commercial education or a professional; yet no
one can deny that commerce and the professions afford scope for the
highest and most diversified powers of mind. There is then a great variety
of intellectual exercises, which are not technically called "liberal;" on
the other hand, I say, there are exercises of the body which do receive
that appellation. Such, for instance, was the palaestra, in ancient times;
such the Olympic games, in which strength and dexterity of body as well as
of mind gained the prize. In Xenophon we read of the young Persian
nobility being taught to ride on horseback and to speak the truth; both
being among the accomplishments of a gentleman. War, too, however rough a
profession, has ever been accounted liberal, unless in cases when it
becomes heroic, which would introduce us to another subject.

Now comparing these instances together, we shall have no difficulty in
determining the principle of this apparent variation in the application of
the term which I am examining. Manly games, or games of skill, or military
prowess, though bodily, are, it seems, accounted liberal; on the other
hand, what is merely professional, though highly intellectual, nay, though
liberal in comparison of trade and m