2i2 ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ix 



in conferring such elementary instruction as can 

 be obtained elsewhere; while, on the other hand, 

 it is no less desirable that the higher instruction 

 of the university should be made accessible to 

 every one who can take advantage of it, although 

 he may not have been able to go through any 

 very extended course of education. My own feel- 

 ing is distinctly against any absolute and defined 

 preliminary examination, the passing of which 

 shall be an essential condition of admission to the 

 university. I would admit to the university any 

 one who could be reasonably expected to profit by 

 the instruction offered to him; and I should be in- 

 clined, on the whole, to test the fitness of the stu- 

 dent, not by examination before he enters the uni- 

 versity, but at the end of his first term of study. 

 If, on examination in the branches of knowledge to 

 which he has devoted himself, he show himself 

 deficient in industry or in capacity, it will be best 

 for the university and best for himself, to prevent 

 him from pursuing a vocation for which he is 

 obviously unfit. And I hardly know of any other 

 method than this by which his fitness or unfitness 

 can be safely ascertained, though no doubt a good 

 deal may be done, not by formal cut and dried 

 examination, but by judicious questioning, at the 

 outset of his career. 



Another very important and difficult practical 

 question is, whetlier a definite course of study 

 shall be laid down for those who enter tlie 



