Teachings of Thomas Huxley 47 



so far as such relation is demonstrable. Then, 

 too, examinations do little or no good if false 

 or incorrect statements are not subsequently 

 corrected. The method of grading papers and 

 throwing them away is most reprehensible and 

 cannot be too strongly condemned. Grades or 

 percentages indicate in an imperfect way the 

 degree by which one student's understanding of 

 a subject exceeds that of another, but they do 

 not explain any mistakes and do not educate. 



SCIENCE AND CULTURE. 



Is it possible to be cultured without a train- 

 ing in the classics ? That is a question which 

 of late years has been open to no end of dis- 

 cussion, and is bv no means settled. Huxlev 

 thinks that the majority of educated English- 

 men hold that the man who has learned Latin 

 and Greek, however little, is educated — a state- 

 ment which is absolutely devoid of sense so far 

 as the Englishmen are concerned. I hold that 

 culture in its essentials is an inborn trait, and 

 that it is just as impossible for some men to 

 profit by cultural studies as it is impossible 

 for the lower order of animals to profit by 

 them. Matthew Arnold tells us that culture 

 means "to know the best that has been said 

 and thought in the world," but he would have 

 come nearer the truth if he had said to know 

 and to do the best that has been thought and 



