PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 765 
aminers ; and that the chief quality fostered and encouraged 
by this kind of reading is a kind of sharpness which may be 
called ‘“‘examinee’s cunning,’ and is only accentuated, 
aggravated, and acidulated by the emulative instinct which 
must always accompany the expectation of a list of marks 
or “examination result.” I should weary you if I should 
endeavour to describe fully what I believe to be the effect 
of this kind of reading with a view to a competitive test. 
I wall say briefly that it is benumbing to all the higher 
faculties, that it encourages feelings and instincts which 
need no encouragement, and that it would be quite im- 
possible for any pupil to gain, from the reading of English 
poetry, under this system, any of the great advantages 
which I have spoken of as likely to result from the study of 
it when fitly and decently encouraged. 
I suggest, therefore, that the reading of English poetry 
by schoolboys and girls should be interfered with as little 
as possible by teachers, and that no examination of any 
kind should be held in this subject. I think that some 
way might be devised by which the reading of certain books 
might be encouraged without the possibility of reward or 
punishment in case of industry or neglect. Many and 
many an English schoolmaster has made his pupils genuine 
lovers of English literature, and of English poetry 
especially, by simply reading to them, out of school hours, 
the right books in the right way; or by merely lending his 
books judiciously. It is in some such unofficial way as this 
that I should like this all-important kind of soul-food to be 
unobtrusively and unostentatiously communicated to the 
young. Pupils should by no means be compelled, and in 
some cases they should not even be encouraged, to write 
essays or compositions upon the poetry they have read. 
Anyone who has had the misfortune to be obliged to read 
a number of such productions for examination or other 
purposes will feel the full force of this remark, and, I am 
sure, will agree with me in it. It is almost impossible to 
keep certain critical text-books and histories of English 
literature out of the hands of the young, and their jargon 
is only too easily acquired. I believe that there are thou- 
sands of miles of criticism, plausible, glib, and even correct 
enough in a sense, written every year in the English 
language by young people who have not read a line of the 
works they criticise. And I cannot but think this is 
undesirable, dishonest, and hostile to the best interests 
which the best teacher should have at heart. I do not 
myself think that any criticism of poetry should be required 
under any circumstances from the young. Critical taste 
