OXFORD AND GREEK 645 



Greek who came in from the History School and the School of 

 English Literature, not because Greek was required in these 

 courses but because they could not get on without it. 



A Natural History of Smalls 



In the older universities too, as in the schools, we have to 

 face the facts. And the central fact in Oxford is the examination 

 called Responsions or colloquially " Smalls." The latter name 

 dates from the first half of the last century when there were 

 only two examinations in the B.A. course and these were 

 " Smalls " and " Greats " or (as we should call them nowadays) 

 an Intermediate and a Final Examination. The old Final 

 Examination consisted of two collateral " Schools " or (as we 

 should now say) subjects of study — Classics and Mathematics. 

 The latter included Mechanics and in fact all the elements of 

 what was then understood as Natural Philosophy. Classes 

 were given in each and a very good candidate might thus obtain 

 a " Double First." But about half a century ago, the old rule 

 that a man must offer for his degree the non-classical as well as 

 the classical subject broke down at Oxford through the incapacity 

 of most college tutors to teach anything but classical scholarship 

 and the older sorts of " mathematics." By the irony of events, 

 the present Censor Natiivalis Philosophic at Christ Church is 

 Mr. John Murray. The crisis was embittered by the deep 

 prejudice which some new kinds of natural philosophy pro- 

 voked in minds not so much superstitious by nature as clerical 

 by statute. This deliberate repulse of the New Learning which 

 has shaped our time brought quick retribution in the shape 

 of new " Arts " courses ; in Classics without Mathematics of 

 any kind ; in Science without Philosophy ; in History without 

 Language and Literature ; in Law without anything. Except in 

 the Final Honour Schools of Theology and of Literae Humaniores 

 (under 200 students annually) and in the requirements for the 

 undifferentiated Pass Degree (some 400 students more), the study 

 of the Classics as an element in a liberal education disappeared 

 from Oxford before 1870. The scruples of the religious were 

 satisfied, as usual, by a mirage. They accepted and still tolerate 

 " Divvers " as a certificate of Hellenistic Greek in chemists 

 and biologists. 



The disastrous mistake of including all degree courses in 



