The object of a liberal education is to develop the whole mental system of man, and thus to bring it into consistency with itself;--to make his speculative inferences coincide with his practical convictions;--to enable him to render a reason for the belief that is in him, and not to leave him in the condition of Solomon's sluggard, who is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.
(William Whewell, "Thoughts on the Study of Mathematics," On the Principles of English University Education, p. 139.)
