242 ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION is 



in conferring such elementary instruction as can 

 be obtained elsewhere; while, on the other hand, 

 it is no less desirable that the higher instruction 

 of the university should be made accessible to 

 every one who can take advantage of it, although 

 he may not have been able to go through any 

 very extended course of education. My own 

 feeling is distinctly against any absolute and defined 

 preliminary examination, the passing of which shall 

 be an essential condition of admission to the 

 university. I would admit to the university any one 

 who could be reasonably expected to profit by the 

 instruction offered to him ; and I should be inclined, 

 on the whole, to test the fitness of the student, 

 not by examination before he enters the university, 

 but at the end of his first term of study. If, on 

 examination in the branches of knowledge to which 

 he has devoted himself, he show himself deficient 

 in industry or in capacity, it will be best for the 

 university and best for himself, to prevent him 

 from pursuing a vocation for which he is obviously 

 unfit. And I hardly know of any other method 

 than this by which his fitness or unfitness can be 

 safely ascertained, though no doubt a good deal may 

 be done, not by formal cut and dried examination, 

 but by judicious questioning, at the outset of his 

 career. 



Another very important and difficult practical 

 question is, whether a definite course of study 

 shall be laid down for those who enter the 



