BRAIN-POWER IN EDUCATION. 541 



and is considered, as far as this test is concerned, to possess brain- 

 power far beyond that of the unfortunate Brown, who was nearly last 

 in this same examination. 



Twenty years elapse, and Smith and Brown meet. Smith has 

 jogged on in the usual routine ; he may have never either said or done 

 a foolish thing. Brown, on the other hand, is a man of wide reputa- 

 tion, has written clever books, and done many clever things ; yet peo- 

 ple who know his early history say how strange it was that he was 

 so stupid when he was young, for he was ignominiously "spun" at 



Woolwich ! 



Those who thus speak imagine that the examination at which 

 Smith succeeded and Brown failed was a test of their brain-power. 

 It was in reality nothing of the kind ; it was merely a test of the rela- 

 tive experience of those who trained Smith and Brown. 



Even thus far it will be evident that our present supposed tests are 

 not infallible ; but we will go even further, and will examine the act- 

 ual work itself which is supposed to be the great test of mental capac- 

 ity, and we can divide this work into two classes namely, acquired 

 knowledge, and the power to reason. In nearly every case, the train- 

 ing which enables a youth to pass a competitive examination belongs 

 to the first class acquired knowledge. It consists of a knowledge of 

 mathematical rules and formula, classics, modern languages, history, 

 and geography. Mathematics, if properly taught,. and especially ge- 

 ometry, tends to strengthen the mind and fit it to reason ; but it too 

 often happens that a youth is crammed with mathematics for a particu- 

 lar examination, and he has not mentally digested what he has thus 

 been crammed with ; and consequently, instead of his mind having 

 been strengthened by this process, it has in reality become weakened ; 

 and ten or fifteen years after the examination, the man then in his 

 maturity derives no advantage from his formerly acquired knowl- 

 edge, because he has forgotten it. He merely suffers from the mental 

 repletion of his younger days, and dislikes mathematics ; just as a 

 pastry-cook's boy is said to abhor tarts and buns, because he was 

 crammed with them when he first was placed among such temptations. 

 A knowledge of modern languages is useful to those who travel, or 

 who wish to become acquainted with the literature of other countries ; 

 but, as a test of brain-power, the acquisition of any language fails. 

 There is no language in use which is based on anything but arbitrary 

 rules ; reason has no influence on languages. The selection in French, 

 for example, of masculines and feminines, is most unreasonable. Why 

 should a chair in French be given petticoats, and a stool placed in 

 breeches? Why should the sun be considered masculine, and the 

 moon feminine ? In German, the same arbitrary rules exist the mas- 

 culines, feminines, and neuters have no reason to guide them. Take a 

 child of five yeai's old, and a clever man of twenty-five let each use 

 only the same exertion to acquire a knowledge of any spoken language, 



