EDITOR'S TABLE. 



239 



So many excellent things have been 

 constantly slipping by us for which 

 there was no room in the pages of The 

 Monthly so many sterling papers 

 which our readers would prize, and 

 have often called for that we find our- 

 selves now compelled to resort to the 

 issue of supplements in order to ac- 

 complish the purpose at first had in 

 view. The volumes that we have thus 

 far furnished undoubtedly contain the 

 largest amount of varied and valuable 

 mental work to be found within equal 

 limits in any periodical of any country, 

 and we now intend to increase its scope 

 and influence by the help of these sup- 

 plementary issues, so as to meet the 

 augmenting requirements of the times, 

 and make this publication the com- 

 pletest reflection of the scientific and 

 philosophic progress of the age that can 

 be anywhere obtained. It will represent 

 the course of contemporary thought 

 on subjects of leading interest, preserve 

 its most permanent elements, and form 

 a comprehensive and independent sci- 

 entific library, well suited to the wants 

 of non-scientific people. 



During the ensuing year The Popu- 

 lar Science Supplements will appear 

 once a month, containing, each, ninety- 

 six pages, price twenty-five cents ; and 

 they will contain the freshest and most 

 important articles that appear abroad, 

 of the same general character as the 

 past contents of The Populap. Science 

 Monthly. Objection has sometimes 

 been made that The Monthly is high- 

 priced, but it has been furnished as 

 cheaply as the nature of the enterprise 

 would allow. There is no maxim of 

 trade more sound and practical than 

 that value must be paid for, and that 

 the lowest-priced goods are always the 

 poorest, and but rarely the cheapest. 

 Quality should certainly be taken into 

 account in our mental nutriment if 

 anywhere, and The Popular Science 

 Monthly and its Supplements will 

 furnish the cheapest first-class reading 

 in the United States. 



JEVONS OK "-CRAM." 



Prof. Jevons has contributed an 

 article to Mind (copied into The Pop- 

 ular Science Supplement, No. 1), in 

 which he attempts a defense of " cram " 

 in connection with the system of com- 

 petitive examinations. Such is the 

 w'orking of that system, and so inevita- 

 bly does it lead to cramming, that it is 

 not difficult to see either that the sys- 

 tem must be abandoned or " cram " 

 defended ; and Prof. Jevons intrepidly 

 takes the latter alternative. We ad- 

 mire his pluck but condemn his logic. 

 Clear thinker as he is, in this brilliant 

 and specious paper he has simply con- 

 fused an important subject in tlie inter- 

 est of a questionable cause. 



He makes his case by drawing a dis- 

 tinction between two sorts of "cram," 

 which he calls " good cram " and " bad 

 cram." He says : " A candidate, pre- 

 paring for an important competitive 

 examination, may put himself under a 

 tutor well skilled in preparing for that 

 examination. The tutor looks for suc- 

 cess by carefully directing the candi- 

 date's studies into the most 'paying' 

 lines, and restricting them rigorously to 

 those lines. The training given may 

 be of an arduous, thorough character, 

 so that the faculties of the pupil are 

 stretched and exercised to their utmost 

 in those lines. This would be called 

 'cram,' because it involves exclusive 

 devotion to the answering of certain 

 examination-papers. I call it 'good 

 cram,' 



" ' Bad cram,' on the other hand, con- 

 sists in temporarily impressing upon 

 the candidate's mind a collection of 

 facts, dateSj or formula, held in a wholly 

 undigested state, and ready to be dis- 

 gorged in the examination-room by an 

 act of mere memory. A candidate un- 

 able to appreciate the bearing of Eu- 

 clid's reasoning in the first book of 

 his 'Elements,' may learn the propo- 

 sitions off by heart diagrams, letters, 

 and all like a Sunday-scholar learning 



