544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The student may be writing down mere "tips" from memory; 

 but if be makes no slijD, and be bas been carefully crammed, tbe 

 examiner bas to admit that be bas got bis marks. Tbe examiner 

 may doubt if tbe knowledge is real, or is wortb anytbing. He 

 can not state tbat tbe man bas failed. If be bad time and oppor- 

 tunity, be could easily ascertain. But in many examinations tbere 

 is no viva voce allowed; in most examinations tbe public viva 

 voce is not tbougbt decisive, owing to nervousness, temper, acci- 

 dent, and various points of temperament and manner. Few exam- 

 iners now care to decide by viva voce ; wbicb in any case is done 

 in a burry and under disturbing conditions tbat destroy its value 

 as a real test. An examiner bas rarely tbe cbance of trying a 

 candidate witb a fresb paper, or of giving bim as many quiet ver- 

 bal questions from time to time as be migbt like. Tbere is no 

 time, tbere is no opportunity. There are tbe rigid rules ; the can- 

 didate is not accessible at the time wanted ; be can not be got into 

 a state perfectly composed, easy, and master of himself. A quiet 

 afternoon or a morning's walk would settle it all. But the clock 

 goes round ; the machine grinds on ; tbe list must be out in a few 

 hours ; the examiners can not sit disputing forever ; an average 

 must be struck, time is called, and down goes the candidate's 

 name — usually, be it said, " with the benefit of tbe doubt." 



This is no fault of the examiner. His task is very difficult, 

 trying, and irksome. None but trained men can perform it ; and 

 it is wonderful how much trained men can do, and with what 

 patience and conscience they make up their lists. But the higher 

 examiner now bas to mark on an average, in a week, from 2,000 

 to 3,000 answers, perhaps from 4,000 to 5,000 pages of manuscript. 

 In this mass he has to weigh and assess each answer, and to keep 

 each candidate clear in his mind, throughout eight or ten sets of 

 papers. He is lucky if he can do this witb less than ten hours 

 per day of work at high pressure — reading in each hour, say, from 

 fifty to a hundred pages of manuscript. He can no more waste 

 an hour, or follow up a thought, than the cai)tain of an Atlantic 

 liner can linger in bis ocean-race. The huge engine revolves in- 

 cessantly ; the examiner's mark-sheet slowly fills up hour by hour 

 till it looks like a banker's ledger ; some fifty or a hundred candi- 

 dates get into groups, of Jones, Smith, Brown, etc., or else Nos. 

 7695, 7696, 7697, etc., and soon Jones, Smith, Brown are labeled 

 for life. 



What a farce to call this examination ! Any sensible man 

 who wanted to engage a confidential secretary, or a literary assist- 

 ant, or a man to send on some responsible mission, would not trust 

 to a mark-sh&et so mechanical, so hurried. He would see each 

 candidate once or twice alone for an hour or two, talk quietly to 

 him, get bim to talk quietly, leave him to write a short piece, set 



