218 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
who write beautiful English ; and yet I suppose there is no gap in his 
equipment that the average scientific man deplores more in after-life than 
his difficulty in writing and speaking his own language well. I say this 
feelingly, as to me writing is a forced labour, and I am never satisfied with 
the result ; but with practice one can acquire a certain proficiency, and 
with the example of T’. H. Huxley as an inspiration no one need altogether 
despair. My complaint of many young students of science to-day is not 
so much that they do not write clearly and concisely as that they do not 
seem to want to, which indicates insufficient practice and instruction at 
school to acquire a taste. Again, I should agree with the Committee that 
“a competent knowledge of one modern language (French or German, 
the latter in particular) is, quite apart from its cultural value, an essential 
element in the equipment of the adequately trained scientist.’ Much 
of the best scientific literature is written in German, and if a scientist 
cannot read German scientific papers, he is severely handicapped. At the 
Imperial College we found it necessary many years ago to institute special 
classes in German. It should not be necessary. 
The schoolmaster is, however, in a quandary. There is a limited 
number of hours in the day, and if he taught all the subjects that he is 
advised to teach to all the boys—for everyone naturally thinks that his own 
special subject should form part of a liberal education—he would only 
succeed in producing a race of smatterers. He has to choose a happy mean 
between teaching more and more about less and less, or less and less 
about more and more; and he not unjustly complains that during the 
last year of a clever boy’s life at school he is hampered in his choice by 
the regulations and practice of universities. Schoolmasters at grant-aided 
secondary schools are in a special difficulty, for most of their pupils are 
not able to proceed to a university unless they win entrance scholarships. 
If university authorities complain that students are lacking in general 
education, it is for them to do their best, by altering the conditions of 
entry, or the standard of scholarships, to help schoolmasters to remedy the 
defects. I propose, therefore, to discuss briefly what changes are desirable. 
I shall base my remarks on the regulations of London University, and my 
own college in particular, but I think the regulations of other universities 
are sufficiently similar to make the discussion of general interest. 
The first university examination is the Matriculation examination. A 
matriculation examination, I take it, was originally intended to be an 
examination the successful passing of which entitled a candidate to be 
admitted to the privileges of a university. The London University 
Matriculation examination has long ceased to be anything of the sort— 
at any rate, so far as students of science are concerned. It would seem 
more appropriate to regard it as an examination which entitles successful 
candidates to be admitted to the privilege of becoming bank clerks. 
Certainly few university schools of science will admit a student at the 
normal age of eighteen on the strength of his having passed the Matricula- 
tion examination ; some further proof of his proficiency is required. At 
the Imperial College we have a special entrance examination which mainly 
consists of papers in mathematics and science, but includes papers 
in English and a choice of foreign languages ; but I cannot say that a 
