258 SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNDERGRADUATE. 



less victim of Examination's wonderfully-ingenious machinery. 

 Examinations would still exist, but in a perfectly normal and 

 eminently rational form. Their work would be not to discover 

 how much of knowledge our Undergraduate does not know that 

 he may be ignominiously ploughed, but rather to discover the 

 " inner man " behind the mask which he usually dons when up 

 against the Opposition ; and his final position would be deter- 

 mined not by his facility in "gaining marks," but by the amount of 

 intelligence he owns, and by his value in terms of character as an 

 asset of the community. We make bold to say that there is a 

 mine of intelligence in our South African youth, whose rich veins 

 we discover only when we detach him from the Examination 

 syllabus, and a mine of character which only needs to be touched 

 by some lofty ideal to prove him equal to his burden. 



Given such surroundings and such an atmosphere, the educa- 

 tion of our Undergraduate would be marked by a zuider Culture 

 — a Culture which the multiplicity of his Examinations at 

 present tends to stifle. What is this " Culture " ? Is it a true 

 aim in Education? If so, how is it to be attained? The term 

 Culture is often subjected to much contempt. It is regarded by 

 strong men, who rejoice in their crudities, as a sign of effeminacy. 

 It is held by many to be a thing apart from Character. There 

 can be no greater mistake. The cultured man is often aj stronger 

 man than he whose physical courage has made him famous, inas- 

 much as his moral courage is of a higher development. This 

 culture we regard as the fine flower of all Education ; it is the 

 result of the full development and the just balance of a man's 

 higher powers. How, then, is it to be attained? It is not 

 attained through " hard-reading " and studious isolation alone : 

 it is not attained through hard cramming for University degree, 

 for an ounce of honest thought is worth a ton of " cram." Tt is 

 attained rather through constant association with those who are 

 greater and wiser than ourselves, through interchange of ideas, 

 through working up from bed-rock principles in all our thinking, 

 through getting wisdom in our understanding, and through fol- 

 lowing a high line of conduct in all we do. To-day our Under- 

 graduate has no time to think. 



Patriotism. 



Given such surroundings and such an atmosphere the Educa- 

 tion of our Undergraduate would be hall-marked by a lofty 

 Patriotism — a collective patriotism which would be a force impel- 

 ling him to do great things ; a patriotism which would stir the 

 National spirit to a true understanding of its National work, and 

 which would sink the interests of the individual in the needs of 

 the Race. Such was the patriotism of Rome. This patriotism 

 inspired her in her serenest hour of peace ; but its fires never 

 burned more steadily and brightly than when the clouds of 

 National disaster lowered upon her people. It was in such an 

 hour that the cry " Pro Patria ! " rang through the land like a 



