EDITOR'S TABLE. 



241 



"cram" will become "good cram," 

 and a plausible excuse be thrown over 

 one of the most extensive vices of edu- 

 cation. 



Prof. Jfcvons's object is to defend 

 competitive examinations ; and there is 

 a painful significance in the fact that 

 he admits the system to be so involved 

 and bound up with the practice of 

 "cram," that nothing remains but to 

 w^est the word from its established 

 meaning, and give it a new and re- 

 spectable meaning. His tactics are in- 

 genious, but nothing is gained by them. 

 However the words are altered, the facts 

 will remain. 



Prof. Jevons strives to strengthen 

 his view by carrying it out into the ap- 

 plication of practical life, which he 

 maintains to be little else than a sphere 

 of incessant "cram." He says: "The 

 actual facts which a man deals with in 

 life are infinite in number, and cannot 



be remembered in a finite brain 



In some cases we require to remember 

 a thing only a few moments or a few 

 minutes; in other cases a few hours or 

 days ; in yet other cases a few weeks or 

 months; it is an infinitesiraally small 

 part of all our mental impressions 

 which can be profitably remembered 

 for years. Memory may be too reten- 

 tive, and facility of forgetting and of 

 driving out one train of ideas by a new 

 train is almost as essential to a well- 

 trained intellect as faculty of retention." 

 He then goes on to say that the lawyer, 

 the physician, the merchant, " deal every 

 day with various combinations of facts 

 which cannot all be stored up in the 

 cerebral framework, and certainly need 

 not be so The practical barris- 

 ter 'crams 'his brief;" and "what is 

 ' cram ' but the rapid acquisition of a 

 series of facts, the vigorous getting up 

 of a case?" 



Now the upshot of all this is, that in 

 life we have constantly to make tempo- 

 rary acquisitions, and which often re- 

 quire vigorous exertion. But will it be 

 pretended that the making of temporary 



acquisitions is the legitimate work of 

 education ? A lawyer may " cram " his 

 case, but if he succeeds with it he must 

 not have crammed his law. There is 

 undoubtedly a varying value in mental 

 acquisitions ; some are not worth retain- 

 ing, and others are of lasting impor- 

 tance. But there are facts, truths, prin- 

 ciples, that should be indelibly engraved 

 upon the minds of students: these 

 should be the staple of education, and 

 be the means of that deliberate dis- 

 cipline which it is the chief object of 

 education to impart. Our educational 

 system is virtually at fault in not having 

 yet organized a curriculum in which ac- 

 quisitions of permanent value are made 

 fundamental. Prof. Jevons says: "If 

 things taught at school and college are to 

 stay in the mind, to serve us in the busi- 

 ness of life, then almost all the higher 

 education yet given in this kingdom has 

 missed its mark." Exactly; and for 

 this reason the system is under sharp 

 arraignment, and a " new education " is 

 demanded. Prof. Jevons's assertion that 

 many things are not worth retaining in 

 the mind, naturally leads to the vital 

 question, "What knowledge is of most 

 worth ? " To make his argument good, 

 that knowledge may be crammed be- 

 cause of its worthlessness, he must 

 show that no knowledge is worth re- 

 taining, and all is to be stuffed with 

 a view to getting rid of it. 



A BASELESS RUMOR. 



The Rev. Moncure D. Conway writes 

 gossipy letters from London to the Cin- 

 cinnati Commercial, and in his eager- 

 ness for sensational statements, as is 

 usually the case with gossips, is quite 

 too careless of their truth. He has 

 started the story tliat the closing por- 

 tions of Mr. Herbert Spencer's " Prin- 

 ciples of Sociology " are so loosely and 

 badly written as to indicate that Spen- 

 cer is showing a decline of his mental 

 powers. This has created anxiety in 

 the minds of many, and we have re- 



VOL. XI. 16 



