246 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



grasp of his subject, and in the long-run would display 

 more talent. Let us take comfort, however, in the 

 thought, that the day of examinations, for the sake of 

 examinations, is approaching an end. 



It may surprise many to learn that the suggestion that 

 in England teachers do not usually examine their own 

 pupils for degrees, is, abroad, received in a spirit of sur- 

 prise not unmixed with incredulity. Americans and 

 Germans to whom I have mentioned this state of matters, 

 cannot realise that the teacher is not considered fit to be 

 trusted to examine his own pupils, and, singular to state, 

 they maintain that no one else can possibly do so with 

 any attempt at fairness ; it appears to them, as it appears 

 to me, an altogether untenable position to hold that a 

 man selected to fill an important professorship, after many 

 years' trial in a junior position, should be suspected of 

 such (shall I say) ambiguous ideas regarding common 

 honesty, that he will always arbitrate unfairly in favour of 

 his own pupils. Such a supposition is an insult to the 

 professor ; and the exclusion of the teacher elevates 

 examination to the position of a fetish ; it is that, together 

 with the spirit of emulation and competition, which has 

 done so much to ruin our English education. The idea of 

 competitive examination is so ingrained in the minds of 

 Englishmen, that it is difficult for them to realise that 

 the object of a University is not primarily to examine its 

 pupils, but to teach them to teach themselves ; and also 

 they have still to acquire the conviction that students 

 should be found not merely among the alumni of the 

 University but also among all members of the staff. The 

 spirit which should prevail with us should be the spirit 

 of gaining knowledge gaining knowledge not for the 

 satisfaction of one's own sense of acquisitiveness, but in 

 order to be able to increase the sum- total of what is 

 known. All should work together, senior and junior staff, 



