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[| Marcu 11, 1897 
hundred and thirty-five professors are said to have been 
sent from this Seminarium during his presidency. These 
things we state without commentary ; we believe that 
the experience ofall English and Scotch and Irish univer- 
sity-men will, of itself, furnish one. The state of educa- 
tion in Germany, and the structure of the establish- 
ment for conducting it, seems to us one of the most 
promising inquiries that could at this moment be entered 
on.” 
So wrote Carlyle in 1828! In truth, a lesson is slowly 
learnt in this country. And how many of us even now 
are able to appreciate the value of the services rendered 
to their nation by Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt 
and by Liebig, and the way in which they have been the 
true founders of Germany’s industrial success—the 
Moltkes of scientific method. 
One of the requirements of a teacher who Its a candi- 
date for the Government certificate of Oderlehrer in 
Germany is that he has spent a¢ /east¢ three years in study 
at one or more of the Universities ; and in the memor- 
andum submitted by Mr. Findlay to the late Secondary 
Education Commission, we are told that most candidates 
spend four, many five years there, before presenting them- 
selves for the test. I cannot discover that they are re- 
quired to prove capacity to take part in the school games 
—either cricket or football—the primary qualification in 
an English secondary schoolmaster, if I am not wrongly 
informed. The difference appears marvellous when we 
note the extraordinary extent to which the teacher is 
required to prepare himself for his office in Germany 
and then reflect on the conditions prevailing here— 
on the fact that but a few months ago, through a great 
Royal Commission, we openly confessed to the world 
that we had absolutely no organisation of secondary 
education, no check whatever on the competency of the 
teachers in our schools ; and the indifference with which 
such disclosures have been received, shows what is still 
worse—that as yet we have no public opinion formed 
throughout the country which can be brought into opera- | 
tion to enforce the necessary changes. 
Nor is this surprising when we consider what our 
Universities have done for us. To take the case of 
Oxford. At the close of last century, owing to the opera- 
tion of causes which cannot be considered here, both 
teachers and students were thoroughly demoralised, and 
it became necessary to introduce drastic reforms : exam- 
inations having proved useful in some few of the colleges 
in maintaining orderly habits, to improve matters, in 
1800 an examination statute was enacted for the Uni- 
versity ; but it soon turned out that this had been so 
framed that it was to be worked by the College tutors, 
on whose behalf the range of studies was advisedly 
restricted, all the more progressive branches of know- 
ledge being excluded. As Lyell tells us, the new statute 
did not pass without a severe struggle. The rector of 
Lincoln College, in particular, opposed it, as a measure 
that would extinguish all “thirst of knowledge.” ‘ There 
would thenceforth,” he said, “be no Uzzversity at all, 
but a system of cramming and partial teaching, after 
which the student would go out into the world with a 
narrow mind and darker understanding.” Never was 
prediction more thoroughly fulfilled ! 
It is clear, indeed, that there 
NO. 1428, VOL. 55 | 
was “wisdom” at 
disposal even in those black days; and had wisdom 
been allowed to govern, the nation might now have been 
in a very different position. Instead, the horrible system 
of competitive examinations was allowed to grow up, and 
worst of all, a new aborted species of teacher, the 
“coach” or ““crammer” »was evolved, and the highly 
lucrative business of “cramming” was established. 
“The examinations for degrees were made more and 
more stringent, and emulation at length stimulated to so, 
high a pitch that health was often sacrificed in the effort 
to gain the prize. Useful habits of application were often 
acquired, but the system was not calculated to foster a 
love of knowledge for its own sake. To some there was 
even danger of injury both bodily and mental ; for if they 
succeeded, they were tempted to believe that they had 
already achieved something great; if they failed, their 
abilities were underrated, both by themselves and their 
contemporaries.” 
Notwithstanding the many changes introduced within 
recent years, whereby some of the defects which Lyell 
deplored have been remedied, these words of his still 
afford an accurate presentment of the state of affairs. 
Moreover, the professoriate still occupy an entirely sub- 
ordinate although an improved position: for how can they 
be otherwise than mere mechanical units in a system so 
long as we fail to recognise that the sole aim of University 
education should be to develop faculties and to give 
training in research—so long as “students are treated 
more as boys and children than as men on the very point 
of entering on their several duties in life, and who ought, 
without loss of time, to be acquiring habits of thinking 
and judging for themselves.” We are so absolutely 
given over to dogmatic and didactic methods of teaching 
in order to meet the inexorable requirements of exam- 
iners, that research work is an entirely post-graduate 
exercrse—a luxury in which but very few indulge, there- 
fore, and the consequence is that a nation priding itself on 
individuality and originality has an educational “system” 
in which everything operates towards deadening and 
maiming the spirit of inquiry, of self-helpfulness, and of 
thoughtfulness. 
How different is the University system abroad. There 
examinations occupy an entirely subordinate position. 
From the outset, the student has forced upon him the 
fact that he cannot gain admission to the degree 
examination until he has completed a satisfactory thesis 
embodying some piece of original work ; his A7ée77 is 
the one absorbing subject of contemplation fillimg his 
mind, and the almost daily topic of conversation ; and 
knowing that he cannot count on completing it in any 
fixed period, and desiring to economise time as much as 
possible, he devotes himself to his preliminary studies 
with assiduity and care in order that he may as early as 
possible secure the necessary permission to commence 
research. The work accomplished may often be very 
trivial as a contribution to science, but this matters little : 
the spirit it evokes is the main consideration—of 
chiefest importance is the fact that thoughts are always 
directed forwards with the desire to solve a problem, and 
that instead of attention being confined to text-books 
original literature is freely consulted and studied. 
It is not surprising that teachers so trained have 
evoked in turn the proper spirit in their pupils, and that 
