June i6, 1904] 



NA TURE 



147 



mental freedom and elasticity. We get into a habit of 

 looking at knowledge in terms of examination. ..." 



The really important subject in the essay — for 

 Oxford — is first touched upon in a P.S. by Jim, who 

 says : — • 



" I have been looking into the ' Crossways ' again. 

 What does he mean when he says that everyone ought 

 to do a piece of first-hand work ? A piece of work that 

 no one has done before? I am so ignorant that this 

 puzzles me. Have you ever done such a thing? " 



The sweet innocency of the young English graduate 

 is well displayed in this passage. Mr. Slade is clearly 

 cornered; he answers : — 



" Excuse my saying that you are an ' enfant ter- 

 rible.' You ask me if I have ever done a piece of 

 first-hand work ? . . . I decline altogether to answer 

 the question. But I will tell you that the joy of dis- 

 covering something that you did not know before is 

 in mv experience very great, and that the joy of find- 

 ing that so far as your knowledge goes no one ever 

 found it out before is far greater. I have not ever 

 dug up anything, or caught any insect, as yet un- 

 known to the world : but I do know how the world 

 feels to you when you have found a new clue to an old 

 mystery.' But what Gardner meant, I think, is this : 

 that every real student who means to occupy himself 

 with subjects proper to a University in these days 

 should not delay too long to try his hand at a piece 

 of original work, suggested perhaps by a Professor 

 or someone of real learning and certainly supervised 

 by him : so that he may not waste time in doing what 

 other people have done before, or in going to work 

 the wrong way for want of knowledge of the right 

 wav to set aliout it. . . . The wares of German 

 workers have become part of our stock-in-trade in 

 Oxfordand we /etail them often without even marking 

 them as ' ma 'e in Germany.' You take them all from 

 us without questioning, without testing them, and 

 when the examination is over you let them moulder 

 awav in obsolete note-books and sell such few books 

 as you do possess to second-hand booksellers. Why 

 could not "wc, too, do something in the way of investi- 

 gation ? No doubt some of us do, but we do it under 

 great disadvantages, because we have no pupils who 

 help us, or want supervision in such work themselves, 

 and so keep us at the boiling-point. We are so many 

 kettles that never quite get to the boiling point. . . . 

 Yes, the tea that we make is generally weak — made 

 with water out of kettles that have never got beyond 

 a gentle singing on the hob. Now do you under- 

 stand what Gardner wants? I daresay he is thinking 

 of his own .^rchiEology, in which original work and 

 good training are essential, and more obviously so 

 perhaps than in some classical departments: but vou 

 may take my word for it that in every department 

 of learning the same thing holds good and that a 

 University that does not find some room for original 

 work, but insists upon foreign supplies, is pretty sure 

 to lose its reputation sooner or later." 



Jim settles down to work at Zurich; but somehow 

 it doesn't seem like work : he finds that a student 

 there is a student, not a gamester ; and is led to believe 

 that the professor of architecture is really keen that 

 he should do something worth doing. His tutor, in 

 replying, expresses his delight at hearing that he is 

 starting work with a sense of its not being work — or 

 at any rate grind ; then he enters on a dissertation to 

 explain why work is grind for so many Oxford men : — 

 " .\ few men," he says, " of course are ' keen,' but 

 not nearly enough for a great Univsrsity. Is it the 



NO. 1807, VOL. 70] 



examination system, or the charms of out-door 0,\ford, 

 or national feebleness, or overwork at school (includ- 

 ing games), dullness of lecturers, or over-conscientious- 

 ness on the part of tutors, who do so much for their 

 pupils that they extinguish the desire, natural (I 

 should imagine) to human beings, as to cats and dogs, 

 to find out things for themselves? Or is it a disease 

 accompanied by so many symptoms that it is impos- 

 sible to tell which is the primary one, or where the 

 doctor is to begin operations? " 



At the end of two months Jim is sent by his pro- 

 fessor to survey the houses in a certain district near 

 to the Austrian frontier, to see if they are really as 

 primitive as they are reported to be. He goes off with 

 knapsack and camera ; after a few days he returns 

 with a number of photos, measurements and a report 

 in English : being no longer hampered by " want of 

 stuff " he is able to write. The reception he meets 

 with somewhat startles him : after examining the 

 photos for a minute, the professor embraces him f 

 what happens as he reads the report, modesty forbids 

 Jim to tell — but his description of the interview is. 

 none the less graphic : — 



" I never yet saw a college tutor go and fetch twO' 

 bottles of beer while reading a man's essay, to over- 

 come his feelings. The fact is that the poor man does 

 not get pupils who can write, and as I had put down 

 exactly what I saw and what I thought to the best of 

 my ability and in my own tongue, it was something 

 quite new to him. We had to clink glasses so often 

 that I began to be afraid I should be up all night and 

 ill the ne.xt morning. . . . Before we parted he- 

 uttered these memorable words : ' You are a very re- 

 markable young man.' No, I am not a very remark- 

 able young man, but I have found out that I can take 

 a tremendous interest in a bit of work when it is new 

 and with some relation to my life's work as it is to be. 

 And I think I can put a fair amount of intelligence 

 into it. Is this what Gardner means by first-hand 

 work? If so I am a convert to his views." 



There is no need to point the moral of Jim's con- 

 version : we can scarcely doubt what the result would 

 be if professors at Oxford could be got up to the beer 

 point of enthusiasm — many of the graduates might 

 then " find themselves " while at the university, and 

 would receive the most efficient preparation possible 

 for the work of life. It is only necessary to visit, for 

 example, the Hope collections at the museum in com- 

 pany with their curator to see how " a vehement 

 spirit of search " can be developed even by the study 

 of a few butterflies. But the iron grasp of examina- 

 tions must br relaxed to make progress possible. 



It is a significant fact that Mr. Warde Fowler's 

 book should follow so closely that of Prof. Gardner — 

 by which it is obviously inspired. We have to recol- 

 lect also the correspondence on research at Oxford 

 printed in The Times last summer. The " spirit of 

 search " is clearly hovering over the university : we 

 may hope that it will, ere long, descend upon it and 

 dominate every branch of its work. The remarkable 

 passage at the head of this article is printed by Prof. 

 Gardner on the title-page of his " Oxford at the Cross 

 Roads "; it expresses the opinion not of a writer on 

 any branch of experimental science but of a literary 

 authority, Mr. John Morley, being taken from his 

 " Rousseau." It may be said without hesitation to 



