COM PETITIVE EXAMINATION. 171 



anything which will really diminish it ? I should like to 1848. 

 hear how any attempt of this kind prospers. I think the *kj- Dr - 

 object an excellent one, and have some notions of my own 

 as to the way in which it may be forwarded.' Such 

 declarations of opinion from such men ought to have 

 weight with their successors. 



Mr. De Morgan, while fully agreeing with Mr. Baden 

 Powell on the wisdom of letting the student show what 

 he can do by his original work, did not disapprove of 

 examinations, not competitive ones, to test the amount of 

 knowledge really gained. At that time his arguments 

 were unheeded. The torrent of competition carried all 

 before it, and not seldom swept down its victims to de- 

 struction. Wiser notions are coming into men's minds, 

 and the evil is acknowledged, though, from what I hear 

 of the state of things at Cambridge, better methods are 

 not yet found. Educators have to learn that the aim of 

 education is to develop power, not to cram knowledge; 

 and also, what is now never thought of, that mental and 

 moral faculties come into activity at different times in 

 different individuals, and that a talent which is inert or 

 unnoticed in a boy of twelve, may be a brilliant element 

 of the mind at twenty, if not forced up or crushed out by- 

 mismanagement. 



The Astronomical Society's difficulties in obtaining Astrono- 

 good and efficient chief officers were not over. It is so ety. 

 long ago that I can betray no confidence by telling of 

 these embarrassments in Captain Smyth's language : 



SIR AND SEC., I am but a temporary V.P., it is true, and 

 therefore have little authority to shove my oar into others' row- 

 locks, but the Sulus Eeipublicce shakes me to the centre. . . . 



The anniversary approaches, and so do our difficulties. The 

 last time I saw friend Galloway he swore like a Flanders soldier 

 that he would not serve another year ! This oath fills me with 

 consternation, and my eloquence having failed, will you exert 

 yours ? 



Then, again, there's the Council ! Did you ever ? Pray 



