CORRESPONDENCE, 1846-55. 225 



meaning attached, are a worthy discipline. In learning languages 1853. 

 words are things ; they are the things to be studied, and the 

 student compares the unknown with the known, the strange 

 language with that which he has spoken all his life. In the 

 exact sciences the notions treated of are present and living 

 realities. In the common branches of physics the student has a 

 daily knowledge of the species of phenomena which he is to 

 study in their systematic relations ; he knows air and water, and 

 his stick is a lever. But in the physiology of the University of 

 London he has only words descriptive of what he neither knows 

 nor can know by words alone ; if there be any shadow of ad- 

 vantage to be gained, it is that species of advantage which he 

 gains to better purpose from ordinary physics. The great thing 

 wanted, the training of the faculty of observation in connection 

 with language and reason, is wholly left out of sight. 



Will it be replied that students cannot dissect ? that they have 

 no opportunities, that they have no skill ? that without such 

 teaching as they cannot get, and such time as they cannot 

 give, their researches into the textures would be of as much 

 avail as those which are made with a carving-knife upon the 

 roast or boiled joint ? I freely admit it all ; but I deny the con- 

 clusion that therefore the University of London should supplant 

 observation by reading. I say nothing is proved except that 

 physiology is a very unfit subject for the purpose, as seems to 

 me clearly proved on other grounds. 



The proposal for reform which I should submit is that actual 

 examination upon natural objects should be a part of the trial 

 for the B. A. degree ; and that the objects should be of the vege- 

 table world. These are accessible to all ; and the matter to be 

 tried should be, not whether the student has this or that amount 

 of acquirement, but whether he has gained the powers of 

 observing for himself, and stating and reasoning of the results. 

 There are various reasons why vegetable structure is better fitted 

 than animal for the commencing observer ; but it is enough that 

 the newly gathered plant is always within his reach, and that 

 the newly killed animal is not. 



The next point I will mention is that of the examinations for 

 honours. There are two systems in this country, that of 

 Oxford, in which the candidate for classical honours is examined 

 against his subject ; that of Cambridge, in which the candidate 

 for mathematical honours is examined against his competitors. 

 At Oxford, his class determines his qualification ; at Cambridge, 



Q 



