672 



NATURE 



[February 17, 1916 



bear much the same relationship to the older uni- 

 versities that the universities bear to the Public 

 Schools. Candidates for appointments in the Home 

 and Indian Civil Services, and for Eastern Cadet- 

 ships, are at liberty to select any of thirty-eight 

 subjects, provided that the total number of marks 

 carried by the subjects does not exceed six thou- 

 sand. At least ten or twelve subjects must be 

 taken, and a high standard reached in them, in 

 order that a candidate may have a reasonable 

 chance of success. The majority of the successful 

 candidates select Greek and Latin, English history, 

 language and literature, mental and moral science, 

 and political economy. Occasionally, a brilliant 

 mathematician will secure a good total of marks, 

 but candidates who specialise in science rarely 

 obtain a high place. 



The considerations which determine largely the 

 nature of the subjects selected are the relative 

 number of marks obtainable and the attention 

 given to different branches of study at the Public 

 Schools and the older universities. Greek and 

 Latin languages and literature have each eleven 

 hundred marks, and five hundred each in addition 

 for Greek and Roman history. The only subjects 

 which compare with these as regards allocation 

 of marks are included in the groups Lower and 

 Higher Mathematics, each of which has a maxi- 

 mum of twelve hundred. Chemistry, physics, 

 geology, botany, zoology, animal physiology, and 

 geography carry six hundred marks each, but not 

 more than four science subjects can be offered — 

 the candidate who will present himself for exam- 

 ination in more should certainly not be encouraged 

 — or three if both Lower and Higher Mathematics 

 are taken, 



A fairly high standard of attainment is thus 

 required in four separate branches of science in 

 order to hope for the same number of marks as can 

 be obtained for a knowledge of Greek and Latin 

 language and literature. This fact, and the pre- 

 dominance of classical studies and interests in the 

 educational institutions most favoured by the 

 wealthier classes, is responsible for the selection of 

 subjects by candidates who present themselves for 

 examination. At the examination held just before 

 the war began there were 206 candidates for 

 78 appointments. Of those who were successful 

 only four offered science subjects without mathe- 

 matics or classics, and seventeen owed their posi- 

 tion to marks from mathematics with science. 

 Forty-five specialised in Greek and Latin, and the 

 remainder presented themselves in other literary 

 subjects, with or without mathematics. 



This analysis is typical of results of examina- 

 NO. 2416, VOL. 96] 



tion for Clerkships (Class I.), and it shows that 

 the great majority of the men appointed to the 

 highest positions in the Civil Service, and by whom 

 national affairs are to be administered, are 

 specialists in classics without an elementary know- 

 ledge of science, and with no conception, therefore, 

 of the meaning of scientific method. It follows 

 almost naturally that nearly all the successful 

 candidates are from the universities of Oxford 

 and Cambridge, and especially from Oxford. It 

 is possible that the Civil Service Commissioners 

 believe that their system of marking gives an open 

 field to all students — whether classical, scientific, 

 or linguistic — but the result is the same as that 

 from the selection of scholarship candidates, 

 namely, the appointment of few men of scientific 

 attainments ; and the cause of it all is the neglect 

 of science, and the predominance of classics, in 

 the curriculum of the Public Schools. 



In 1914 the Royal Commission on the Civil 

 Service recommended the Government to appoint 

 a committee with the object of ascertaining 

 whether there is any substantial foundation for the 

 view which certainly prevails that the scheme for 

 examination for Class I. unduly favours the curri- 

 cula of the older universities and handicaps those 

 of the newer. It was suggested that, should it be 

 found any change is desirable, the committee, 

 while maintaining the high standard necessary 

 for the examination, should revise and rearrange 

 the syllabus, weighing the educational value of 

 classical learning against those of modern and 

 scientific studies. The committee has not, so far 

 as we know, yet been appointed, and we are not 

 very sanguine as to the effect of any changes 

 which it might recommend, while the work of our 

 Public Schools remains almost entirely in the 

 hands of classical headmasters. They and the 

 parents trained on the Chinese method seem to be 

 incapable of understanding why the needs of the 

 present day differ from those of past centuries. 



Latin and Greek were first introduced into our 

 schools as a means of acquiring new knowledge, 

 and not because of their supposed formative influ- 

 ence upon character. When Augustine established 

 the first grammar school in England, at the end 

 of the sixth century, Latin was taught in order 

 that the native priests, and converts of the upper 

 classes, might understand the rudiments of the 

 new religion. From that time to the Renaissance 

 and onward, the learning of Latin was the whole 

 aim and end of education in schools ; because the 

 language was the living tongue of scholars. For, 

 as the late Mr. A. F. Leach points out in his 

 "Schools of Medieval England," people wanted to 



