228 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL vill 



teaching, is a difficulty in the way of giving proper 

 instruction in Physical Science in such Universi- 

 ties as that of Aberdeen, which are devoid of 

 endowments ; and, unlike the English Universities, 

 have no moral claim on the funds of richly 

 endowed bodies to supply their wants. 



Examination thorough, searching examination 

 is an indispensable accompaniment of teaching ; 

 but I am almost inclined to commit myself to the 

 very heterodox proposition that it is a necessary 

 evil. I am a very old Examiner, having, for some 

 twenty years past, been occupied with examinations 

 on a considerable scale, of all sorts and conditions 

 of men, and women too, from the boys and girls 

 of elementary schools to the candidates for Honours 

 and Fellowships in the Universities. I will not 

 say that, in this case as in so many others, the 

 adage, that familiarity breeds contempt, holds 

 good ; but my admiration for the existing system 

 of examination and its products, does not wax 

 warmer as I see more of it. Examination, like 

 fire, is a good servant, but a bad master ; and there 

 seems to me to be some danger of its becoming our 

 master. I by no means stand alone in this opinion. 

 Experienced friends of mine do not hesitate to say 

 that students whose career they watch, appear to 

 them to become deteriorated by the constant effort 

 to pass this or that examination, just as we hear of 

 men's brains becoming affected by the daily neces- 

 sity of catching a train. They work to pass, not 



