538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



called responsions, the exercise for the now perhaps forgotten 

 status of Generalis Sopliista, is now grotesquely performed on 

 lads not yet members of the university. In natural science, above 

 all, examinations and examiners multiply daily. The luxury, to 

 be sure, is a costly one ; it sometimes costs fifty or sixty pounds 

 to examine a single man ; but the thing must be done, under pain 

 of loss of character. For in the matter of what is now called 

 "science" — a word which used to have another meaning — the 

 many are in the hands of the few. A proposal for a new exami- 

 nation in any other branch is canvassed, perhaps thrown out, 

 because men have some notion what it means. But " science " is 

 shrouded in mystery. A new -ology is invented ; not a dozen 

 persons in the university know what the ology is about ; but no 

 one dares to oppose a fresh examination in it, for fear of being 

 called retrograde, obscurantist, opponent of the march of intel- 

 lect, any other anathema with which the Holy Office of " science " 

 may be ready. And so the thing goes on merrily ; everybody is 

 examining or being examined, save during the short intervals 

 allowed for forgetfulness between one examination and another. 



Now what has come of all this ? Simply the degradation of 

 university learning and teaching into a trade. Each undergradu- 

 ate seems to do a sum to find out what form of examination may 

 be most profitable to choose — profitable, that is, not to the under- 

 standing but to the pocket. I was not a little surprised when, 

 after my return to Oxford, I heard the words "the pecuniary 

 value of a first class." Such words were assuredly never heard in 

 my younger days. A man was rejoiced to get as high a class as 

 he could, both because of the credit of the thing itself and as an 

 augury of a coming fellowship ; but he never reckoned the exact 

 value of the class in pounds, shillings, and pence. Another 

 phrase that startled me was that of the " tutorial profession." A 

 college fellow who in my day undertook, most likely for a few 

 years only, the further duties of a college tutor, certainly never 

 thought that he was entering a special " profession." But, owing 

 partly to the growth of examinations, partly to the new position 

 of college fellows which has followed on the fatal ]3ermission of 

 marriage, the " tutor," if he can so be called, is now altogether 

 another kind of person. He reaches his fullest modern develop- 

 ment in the " combined lecturer," of whom, as he is powerful, one 

 must speak delicately. To him, teaching is strictly a calling ; it 

 is a calling and not an office , for he is ready to practice it wher- 

 ever he can find employment, and he is, moreover, a mere teacher, 

 not discharging any of the other duties of the old college tutor. 

 Without being a university professor or reader, he teaches men 

 from various colleges, but he does nothing except teach them. 

 And he is strongly tempted to teach them a great deal too much. 



