46 Teachings of Thomas Huxley 



to the student but to the investigator himself; 

 for there is no better way to the thorough 

 understanding of a subject than the effort to 

 explain it to others in language easy of com- 

 prehension. •" He did not think much of the 

 methods of examination now in use because 

 they "tend to detoriate students by giving 

 them a false idea of the purposes and uses of 

 knowledge." "Students work to pass, not to 

 know. I believe that examinations will re- 

 main but an imperfect test of knowledge, and 

 a still more imperfect test of capacity, while 

 they tell next to nothing about a man's power 

 as an investigator." But, we may ask with 

 reason, Is the sole purpose of education to 

 make every man an investigator? Most as- 

 suredly not, for few there be who have the 

 necessary qualifications for work of so exact- 

 ing a nature, and most of us have to be content 

 with the remoulding of other people's ideas. 

 As a mental exercise I do not think examina- 

 tions can be excelled. They should, however, 

 be frequent enough to cover an entire subject 

 and throw light upon it from every possible 

 source. It is of little use to sit down and com- 

 mit a lecture or a text-book to niemorv. It is 



t/ 



nut memory but. reason that needs to be cul- 

 tivated, and the student who insists upon get- 

 ting a satisfactorv answer to his "Whvs?" will 

 ><and nearest the head of the class because he 

 knows the relation between cause and effect in 



