UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 67 



endowments ; and, unlike the English Universities, have 

 no moral claim on the funds of richly endowed bodies 

 to supply their wants. 



Examination thorough, searching examination is an 

 indispensable accompaniment of teaching ; but I am al- 

 most inclined to commit myself to the very heterodox 

 proposition that it is a necessary evil. I am a very old 

 Examiner, having, for some twenty years past, been oc- 

 cupied with examinations on a considerable scale, of all 

 sorts and conditions of men, and women too, from the 

 boys and girls of elementary schools to the candidates 

 for Honours and Fellowships in the Universities. I will 

 not say that, in this case as in so many others, the ad- 

 age, that familiarity breeds contempt, holds good ; but 

 my admiration for the existing system of examination 

 and its products, does not wax warmer as I see more of 

 it. Examination, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad 

 master; and there seems to me to be some danger of 

 its becoming our master. I by no means stand alone in 

 this opinion. Experienced friends of mine do not hesi- 

 tate to say that students whose career they watch, ap- 

 pear to them to become deteriorated by the constant 

 effort to pass this or that examination, just as we hear 

 of men's brains becoming affected by the daily necessity 

 of catching a train. They work to pass, not to know ; 

 and outraged Science takes her revenge. They do pass, 

 and they don't know. I have passed sundry examina- 

 tions in my time, not without credit, and I confess I 

 am ashamed to think how very little real knowledge 



