angry with them. For when I was young I was very much of what I
suspect is their opinion. I used to think one could get perfect
freedom, and social reform, and all that I wanted, by altering the
arrangements of society and legislation; by constitutions, and Acts
of Parliament; by putting society into some sort of freedom-mill, and
grinding it all down, and regenerating it so. And that something can
be done by improved arrangements, something can be done by Acts of
Parliament, I hold still, as every rational man must hold.

But as I grew older, I began to see that if things were to be got
right, the freedom-mill would do very little towards grinding them
right, however well and amazingly it was made. I began to see that
what sort of flour came out at one end of the mill, depended mainly
on what sort of grain you had put in at the other; and I began to see
that the problem was to get good grain, and then good flour would be
turned out, even by a very clumsy old-fashioned sort of mill. And
what do I mean by good grain? Good men, honest men, accurate men,
righteous men, patient men, self-restraining men, fair men, modest
men. Men who are aware of their own vast ignorance compared with the
vast amount that there is to be learned in such a universe as this.
Men who are accustomed to look at both sides of a question; who,
instead of making up their minds in haste like bigots and fanatics,
wait like wise men, for more facts, and more thought about the facts.
In one word, men who had acquired just the habit of mind which the
study of Natural Science can give, and must give; for without it
there is no use studying Natural Science; and the man who has not got
that habit of mind, if he meddles with science, will merely become a
quack and a charlatan, only fit to get his bread as a spirit-rapper,
or an inventor of infallible pills.