August 23, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



223 



confine ourselves to Preformism, I suppose 

 we have to accept Mr. Galton's law of Re- 

 gression and Weismann's principle of Pan- 

 mixia in some shape. Now when social 

 life begins we find the beginning of the 

 artificial selection of the unfit ; and so these 

 negative principles begin to work directly 

 in the teeth of progress, as many writers on 

 social themes have recently made clear. 

 This being the case, some other resource is 

 necessary besides natural inheritance. On 

 my hypothesis it is found in the common or 

 social standards of attainment which the 

 individual is fitted to grow up to and to 

 which he is compelled to submit. This 

 secures progress in two ways : First, by 

 making the individual learn what the race 

 has learned, thus preventing social retro- 

 gression, in any case ; and second, by putting 

 a direct premium on variations which are 

 socially available. 



Under this general conception we may 

 bring the biological phenomena of in- 

 fancy, with all their evolutionary signifi- 

 cance: the great plasticity of the mammal 

 infant as opposed to the highly developed 

 instinctive equipment of other young ; the 

 maternal care, instruction and example 

 during the period of helplessness, and the 

 very gradual attainment of the activities of 

 self-maintenance in conditions in which 

 social activities are absolutely essential. 

 All this stock of the development theory is 

 available to confirm this view. 



And to finish where we began, all this is 

 through that wonderful engine of develop- 

 ment, consciousness. For consciousness is 

 the avenue of all social influences. 



J. Mark Balbwin. 

 Peixcetost. 



THE SCIENCE OF EXAMINING. 



Much severe criticism is being directed 



against examinations, and much of it is 



timely and fully deserved. And yet when 



the criticisms are carefully considered they 



appear to be directed not so much against 

 examinations as a method in education as 

 against certain forms of examination which 

 are very prevalent and which certainly do 

 not show anything more than evanescent 

 memorization, adroitness or trickiness on 

 the part of a student. No one will deny, 

 however, that much of actual life is a kind 

 of examination, and that we are being con- 

 tinually pressed to solve problems of all 

 kinds, apply knowledge, and in general to 

 act, and that on the success of our efforts 

 will depend the positions we will attain, or, 

 at least, maintain. There seems to be no 

 reason why examinations should not be 

 made an extremelj^' important part of edu- 

 cation, instead of being, as I fear they often 

 are, an unmitigated nuisance to both stu- 

 dent and teacher, a bone for the pedagogical 

 critics continually to snarl over, and, when 

 all is done, to be of no real use to either 

 teacher or student, and to show nothing as 

 to the real nature of the teaching done and 

 the mental development of the student. 



For the teacher who teaches from love of 

 teaching, and who knows that successful 

 'teaching calls for the application of psycho- 

 logical principles far more than is generally 

 supposed, there is a peculiar fascination in 

 an examination paper. An examination 

 may be made a test of the contents, capacity, 

 quality and action of a mind under defined 

 conditions ; but the paper must be a good 

 one ; I do not refer to the work of an inex- 

 perienced hand. The idea seems to be pre- 

 valent that anyone can write an examina- 

 tion paper. This is a great mistake. The 

 elaboration of a paper that will really test 

 not only the contents of the mind, but also 

 its different functions as developed by a 

 particular study under the guidance of a 

 particular teacher, requires experience and 

 ability. It is true that a man may be a 

 good teacher and a poor examiner, but this 

 usually arises from a lack of attention to 

 the science and art of examining. Mj- ex- 



