912 THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM AND THE 



alluded. Examining is scientific work; indeed, in these days, it Is 

 a work which occupies a very large portion of the time of many a 

 scientific man, whether to his benefit or that of science I do not 

 stop to discuss. But I submit, and without any fear of contradic- 

 tion, that there is no work which calls for more exercise of conscience ; 

 no work — not even that of the judge on the bench — which, when well 

 done, illustrates more completely the truth of the old doctrine, ' In 

 justice, all moral virtue lies involved.' An examiner has many 

 temptations to strive against : the temptation to idleness; to give 

 way to weariness ; to meet the sameness of his subject-matter with 

 perfunctoriness in dealing with it ; to give way to feelings of pique 

 when he finds that his own pet views or papers are entirely un- 

 known to the examinee. Of course a strong and upright man 

 resists all these temptations ; but strength and uprightness are 

 largely or entirely moral qualities. I need not labour, however, at 

 what is self-evident. Let me say a few words about the way in 

 which a man's moral nature is, or ought to be, called into activity, 

 not now when he is engaged in testing, but when he is engaged in 

 communicating or acquiring, knowledge. As regards the duties of 

 a teacher when teaching, he is bound to beware of leaving any one 

 side of a question, any one set of facts, in neglect and inadequately 

 expounded. Imperfection of exposition in a teacher, not only pro- 

 duces, in the second generation, so to say, imperfection of investi- 

 gation in the hearer, but — as words terribly shoot back, like the 

 Tartar's bow, mightily entangling and perverting the judgment — 

 such imperfection and want of fulness in the communication reacts 

 by producing imperfection and want of fulness in investigation in 

 the teacher himself. It is (trite remark) difficult to estimate the 

 consequences of any one action ; but it is easy to see .that an ex- 

 ample set by a person, himself set in authority, of slovenliness and 

 inadequacy in his methods of woik may hurt the consciences of his 

 younger brethren, and have widely and lengthily ramifying conse- 

 quences in neutralising chances for neutralising evil and suffering. 



I have said thus much about the responsibilities of students and 

 teachers in praesenti. I will, with your permission, say a little 

 more upon the responsibilities which will gather round the former 

 in/uturo. 



Of the students of any hospital at any one time we may safely 

 say that, making a small deduction for accidental relinquishments 



