LANGUAGE AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL SERVICE. i 59 



thus be entered to Lis credit. If, then, the study of Latin is found 

 the best means of securing good marks in English, it will be pursued 

 on that account ; if the candidate is able to discover other less labori- 

 ous ways'of attaining the end, he will prefer these ways. 



The same applies to all the other secondary ends of language. 

 Let them be valued in their own departments. Let the improvement 

 of the reasoning faculty be counted wherever that is shown in the ex- 

 amination. Good reasoning powers will evince themselves in many 

 places, and will have their reward. 



The principle is a plain and obvious one. It is the payment for 

 results, without inquiring into the means. There are certain extreme 

 cases where the means are not improperly coupled with the results in 

 the final examination ; and these are illustrations of the principle. 

 Thus, in passing a candidate for the medical profession, the final end 

 is his or her knowledge of diseases and their remedies. As it is 

 admitted, however, that there are certain indispensable preparatory 

 studies anatomy, physiology, and materia medica such studies are 

 made part of the examination, because they contribute to the testing 

 for the final end. 



The argument is not complete until we survey another branch of 

 the subject of examination in languages. It will be observed in the 

 wording of the programme that each separate language is coupled 

 with "literature and history." It is the language, literature, and his- 

 tory, of Rome, Greece, etc. And the examination-questions show the 

 exact scope of these adjuncts, and also the values attached to them, 

 as compared with the language by itself. 



Let us consider this matter a little. Take history first, as being 

 the least involved. Greece and Rome have both a certain lasting im- 

 portance attaching to their history and institutions; and these, ac- 

 cordingly, are a useful study. Of course, the extant writings arc the 

 chief groundwork of our knowledge of these, and must be read. But 

 at the present day all that can be extracted from the originals is pre- 

 sented to the student in English books ; and to these he is exclusively 

 referred for this part of his knowledge. In the small portion of 

 original texts that a pupil at school or college toils through, he 

 necessarily gets a few of the historical facts at first hand, but he 

 could much more easily get these few where he gets the rest, in the 

 English compilations. Admitting, then, that the history and institu- 

 tions of Greece and Rome constitute a valuable education, it is in our 

 power to secure it independently of the original tongues. 



The other branch literature is not so easily disposed of. In 

 fact, the separating of the literature from the language, you will say, 

 is a self-evident absurdity. That, however, only shows that you have 

 not looked carefully into examination-papers. I am not concerned 

 with what the a priori imagination may suppose to be literature, but 

 with the actual questions put by examiners under that name. I find 



