210 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



Virtue pursued with the direct object of gain is a poor thing ; 

 indeed it can hardly be termed virtue, if it is dimmed by a motive. 

 So philosophy, if followed after for profit, loses its meaning. 



Of course it is necessary for a student to learn so far as is 

 possible, what has already been done. I would not urge that a 

 young man should not master, or at all events study, a great 

 deal of what has already been discovered before he attempts 

 to soar on his own wings. But there is all the difference in the 

 world between the point of view of the student who reads in 

 order to qualify for an examination, or to gain a prize or a scholar- 

 ship, and the student who reads because he knows that thus he 

 will acquire knowledge which may be used as a basis of new 

 knowledge. It is that spirit in which our Universities in England 

 are so lamentably deficient : it is that spirit which has contri- 

 buted to the success of the Teutonic nations, and which is begin- 

 ning to influence the United States. For this condition of things 

 our examinational system is largely to blame. Originally 

 started to remedy the abuses of our Civil Service, it has eaten 

 into the vitals of our educational system like a canker ; and it 

 is fostered by the further abuse of awarding scholarships as the 

 results of examinations. The pauperisation of the richer classes 

 is a crying evil ; it must some day be cured. Let scholarships 

 be awarded to those who need them, not to those whose 

 fathers can well afford to pay for the education of their 

 children. ' Pothunting ' and philosophy have absolutely nothing 

 in common. 



There are some who hold that the time of an investigator is 

 wasted in teaching the elements of his subject. I am not one of 

 those who believe this doctrine, and for two reasons : first, it is 

 more difficult to teach the elements of a subject than the more 

 advanced branches ; one learns the tricks of the trade by long 

 practice, and the tricks of this trade consist in the easy and 

 orderly presentment of ideas. And it is the universal experience 



