230 UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL vm 



opinions to be serious mistakes : the latter, per- 

 haps, the more serious of the two. In the first 

 place, I do not believe that any one who is not, 

 or has not been, a teacher is really qualified to 

 examine advanced students. And in the second 

 place, Examination is an Art, and a difficult one, 

 which has to be learned like all other arts. 



Beginners always set too difficult questions 

 partly because they are afraid of being suspected 

 of ignorance if they set easy ones, and partly 

 from not understanding their business. Suppose 

 that you want to test the relative physical 

 strength of a score of young men. You do not 

 put a hundredweight down before them, and tell 

 each to swing it round. If you do, half of them 

 won't be able to lift it at all, and only one or two 

 will be able to perform the task. You must give 

 them half a hundredweight, and see how they 

 manoeuvre that, if you want to form any estimate 

 of the muscular strength of each. So, a practised 

 Examiner will seek for information respecting the 

 mental vigour and training of candidates from the 

 way in which they deal with questions easy 

 enough to let reason, memory, and method have 

 free play. 



No doubt, a great deal is to be done by the 

 careful selection of Examiners, and by the copious 

 introduction of practical work, to remove the evils 

 inseparable from examination ; but, under the 

 best of circumstances, I believe that examination 



