i'Ki;sii)i;.\ |- s .\i)i)Ki;ss. 3 



luiiiil." Tlic sprniscTS ot llic tuliire will si\- how lar ihc new 

 niiivcrsiiics ha\c nui ihcsc icsts. TIk' sjtcakcrs of lo-(la_\' agree 

 in statini^" that a ical fovwaid >t(.'i) has hi-'jn taken in i^'cttiny away 

 from an cxaniininj^ university ;iiebi as exists at present. 



That the present university has done mreat service to the 

 country no one has attempted to deny; it has been to the ])eople 

 a constant reminder of liigher education; the (|iiahhcations for 

 its certificates and dei^rees have Ljrown with the spread of higher 

 education; and. as far as examination alone can test, it lias done 

 its best to try the knowledge a -(luired. and so to stimulate the 

 teaching of higher subiccts and to luaintain in that teach.ing a 

 good standard. The degrees of the l'ni\ersiiy of the L':i])c of 

 Good >lope are certainly of real value. 



The craze for exaiuinations is a ])ro(luct of the nineteenth 

 century, and arose from the competitive examination systems 

 tleveloped between 1800 and 1850 in the Univer.sities of ( )xford 

 and Cambridge.* That the criticisms levelled against these uni- 

 versities as they existed early in the nineteenth century, though 

 certainly not all literally trtte, had good foundation is un(|ties- 

 tioned. and that they did luuch to rouse the universities and to 

 l)ave the way for the Inter reforms must be admitted. I.ater, 

 Cardinal Newmant wrote the following : " About 50 years since, 

 the English Uiuversity ((Oxford) of \\hich I was so long a 

 member, after a centtiry of inactivity, at length was roused, at 

 a time when (as I may say) it was giving no education at all to 

 the yotith committed to its keeping, to a sense of the responsibi- 

 lities which its profession and its station involved."' ( )ne of 

 the criticisms at the time appeared in a review of Laplace's 

 " Traite de Mecanique Celeste'' in iSoSi; "In one of these 

 ( ])ublic instittitions), where the dictates of Aristotle are still 

 listened to as infallible decrees, and where the infancy of science 

 is mistaken for its maturity, the mathematical sciences have 

 never flourished ; and the scholar has no means of advancing 

 beyond the mere elements of geometry. ... In the other 

 seminary the dominion of prejudice is not equally strong; . . . 

 mathematical learning is there tlie great object of study, but still 

 we must object to the method in which the object is pursued. . . 

 . . The pupil must study, not to learn the spirit of geometry. . 

 . . but to know . . . as a child knows his catechism, by heart, 

 so as to answer readily to certain interrogations." Such attacks 

 as this were vigorotisly repelled, but in one rejily by Dr. Coi)le- 

 ston§ of Oxford the following is stated about the exanu'na- 

 tion tests. " It nnist be well known to ever}one who has had 

 exi)erience in life, that notwithstanding this formidable array of 

 (prescribed) books and sciences, great numbers of candidates 



* In the latter tlie Mathematical Tripos had existed since 1747-8. 



t In the Discourse introductory to liis hook. "The Idea of a Univer- 

 sity.'' first published in 1852, under tlie title, " The Scope and Xature of 

 Cniversitv Education." 



% Edinburgh Rciieiv, \o\. XI.. p. 279. 



§ ■■ History of L'niversity Reform,'' In- A. T. Tillyard, p. 32. 



