COMMENTS ON THE '^ SACRIFICE OF EDUCATION:' 539 



and in the wrong way. When examination after examination 

 becomes the main object, there is sure to be a great deal too much 

 teaching, so much as to leave no time for learning on the part of 

 either teacher or taught. The legitimate duty of a university 

 teacher is to guide his pupil to the right books, the great books of 

 the subject in hand, and to act as a commentator on them. But 

 this implies that the object is, not the passing of an examination, 

 but the study of a subject. When the teacher's business is under- 

 stood to be to " get a man through " an examination — whether the 

 result of that examination is to be a mere pass or a first class 

 with its " pecuniary value " — study of the subject, study of the 

 great books on the subject, passes away. The teacher puts himself 

 in stead of the books ; the thing becomes, in j)lain words, cram. 



This is the tende7icy of the modern fancy for endless examina- 

 tions. Of course it does not prevail equally in all subjects or with 

 all teachers. It can not prevail so fully with the older subjects, 

 where something of the better tradition of the past is still kept 

 up, as it does with subjects of later introduction. Every man sees 

 his own grievances more clearly than those of his neighbor, and 

 to me it seems that what is called " modern " history is the worst 

 off of all. It is at least worse off than " ancient " history, from 

 which it is so senselessly parted in a separate school, to the great 

 damage of both. For about " ancient " history there still clings 

 something of the traditions of better times, times when men read 

 great books with a tutor instead of filling their note-books with 

 the tips of a crammer. I once asked a man who came to my lect- 

 ures, " Have you a book ? " meaning, in my ignorance, a copy of 

 the author whom we were going to read. He answered, " I have a 

 note-book." That seems to be the net result of forty years' tink- 

 ering of everything, of multiplied examinations and multiplied 

 teaching, to drive away '' books " and to bring in " note-books." 

 And the professor can do nothing ; he can only work away in a 

 corner with a few who are still ready to toil at the text of books, 

 while the combined lecturer flourishes amid a whole library of 

 open note-books. For the professor is useful only to those who 

 seek for knowledge ; the combined lecturer, it is fully believed, 

 can guarantee " the pecuniary value of a first class." 



Every examination is in itself an evil, as making men read, not 

 for the attainment of knowledge, but for the object of passing the 

 examination, perhaps of compassing its " pecuniary value." But 

 it may be hoping too much to hoj^e that examinations can ever be 

 got rid of altogether. If they must be, then, instead of being 

 many and piecemeal, they should be few and searching. Instead 

 of giving a man time to forget his various subjects one by one, 

 they should make it needful for him to remember his work as a 

 whole. In Oxford we ought to have (1) a matriculation examina- 



