540 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion ; (2) an examination for B. A. much on the lines of the old 

 one before tinkering began about 1849 ; (3) an examination (or 

 other exercise) for the degree of M. A. of as varied a kind, and, at 

 the same time, of as " specialised " a kind in each case as anybody 

 can want. The complete degree should be given only to those 

 who show real proficiency in some subject, the last " -ology " 

 counting as one. Thus only can real learning, as distinguished 

 from cram, at least cease to be penal. Whether it will ever reach 

 to a " pecuniary value," I do not presume to guess. 



May I end with my own personal experience in a time now 

 far distant ? I have deeply to thank my Oxford undergraduate 

 course for causing me carefully to read several books, Aristotle's 

 " Ethics " at their head, which I otherwise might not have read 

 at all or might have read less thoroughly. But I do not thank it 

 at all for examining me in anything. I do not mean because I got 

 only a second class ; for I got the " pecuniary value " of a first 

 class in the shaj^e of a fellowship. What I do mean is that I read 

 with very little comfort or pleasure, while there was before me 

 the specter of an examination, deadening everything and giving 

 a wrong motive for one's work. When I had got my degree and 

 my fellowship, I said, " Now I will begin really to read." I began 

 in October, 1845, and I have never stopped yet. 



Mr. FEEDERIC IIAEEISON. 



My point in this discussion is : That, having been called in to 

 aid education, examination has grown and hardened into the mas- 

 ter of education. Education is becoming the slave of its own 

 creature and servant. I do not deny that examination has its 

 uses : I do not say that we can do without it. I say that it is a 

 good servant, but a bad master ; and, like good servants turned 

 bad masters, it is now bullying, spoiling, and humiliating edu- 

 cation. 



Those who teach are the proper judges of what should be 

 taught, how it should be taught, and what are the results of 

 teaching. One of the methods by which they have sought to 

 test the results of their own teaching was by examination — one 

 of the methods, an instrument to be used with discretion, modera- 

 tion, and freedom. This expedient (a mere subordinate expedient) 

 has silently grown into a system ; it has perpetually enlarged its 

 own jurisdiction ; it has stiffened into a special profession ; it has 

 created a body of specialists called examiners. As a body, the 

 class of special examiners are younger men, of less experience, 

 and, except in elementary schools, of inferior learning, as com- 

 pared with teachers, as a class. They very soon evolve an arti- 

 ficial and professional skill, and set up hard, narrow, technical 

 tests. Their business is not to teach : but to test whether the 



