Mat 13, 1887-] 



SCIENCE. 



467 



The Fortnightly for June, 1875, contains a long 

 article by Professor Sayce, which, from beginning 

 to end, is a tirade against the whole system. 



From much that has been written tending in the 

 same direction, it will suffice to make an extract 

 from a very able article by Mark Pattison, in No- 

 1 of Mind, 1873. bearing the title 'Philosophy at 

 Oxford : ' — 



" The whole of the literary and philosophical 

 teaching in Oxford is in the hands of young men, 

 — the tutors of the colleges. As a class, these 

 men abound, when they begin life, in energy and 

 ability. They overflow with zeal, and the desire 

 to act upon their pupils. But the zeal is not the 

 zeal of the enthusiastic votary of science, who 

 sees a vista of infinite progress opening before him, 

 and desires to associate younger minds in follow- 

 ing up the track. The young teacher, as turned 

 out by us, has never been on any such track. He 

 is an honor-man and a prizeman ; voila tout! and 

 he knows the sure road to make others win honors 

 and prizes, the road by which he himself won 

 them. He is embarked on the career of teaching 

 at twenty-five, say, and he finds himself at once 

 the slave of a great teaching-engine, which drives 

 him day by day in a round of mechanical work." 



On the mode of preparation for examinations in 

 philosophy, he goes on to say, — 



''For two years the pupil is forced along a false 

 road of study, in which neither science nor phi- 

 losophy encounters him. Memory is really almost 

 the only faculty called into play. Were they facts 

 with which the memory is thus charged, the in- 

 adequacy of the system would be apparent at once. 

 But in the preparation for this examination, in- 

 stead of facts, the memory is charged with gen- 

 eralized formulas, with expressions and solutions, 

 which are derived ready-made from the tutor. The 

 first principle of philosophical, nay, of intellectual 

 training, viz., that all should be educed from the 

 pupil's own mind, is here inverted : all is poured 

 into him by his teacher. The teacher does as 

 much, and the pupil as little, as possible. The 

 utmost that the student can acquire from the sys- 

 tem is, that he has learned to write in the newest 

 style of thought, and to manipulate the phrases of 

 the last popular treatise." 



Later on, how^ever, we find more moderate 

 views prevailing. In the Nineteenth century for 

 April, 1878, Canon Barry of King's college, Lon- 

 don, writing on ' The good and evil of examina- 

 tions,' says, — 



" We can now afford to take the wise advice of 

 Carlyle, ' to stop shrieking, and inquire. ' There 

 seems to be no inconsiderable danger that to an 

 exaggerated trust in examinations there may suc- 

 ceed an excessive and indiscriminate condemna- 



tion of them. Whenever one party vaunts a 

 medicine as a panacea, their opponents are seldom 

 content without denouncing it as a mere sham, or 

 perhaps a deadly poison. ... I hold it possible, 

 by an examination, deliberately and carefully con- 

 ducted, to test and to estimate, in those who axe 

 submitted to it, not only formed knowledge on 

 this or that subject, but intelligence, thoughtful- 

 ness, and promise of future growth." 



The whole subject will be found exhaustively 

 treated in Todhunter's ' Conflict of studies,' 1873, 

 and, four years later, in Latham's 'Action of ex- 

 aminations.' 



First and foremost amongst the evil things which 

 have been charged to the account of examinations 

 is cramming. 



Now, if the nature of competitive examinations 

 is such as to involve, as the necessary and sufii- 

 cient preparation for passing, the storing the 

 memory with a mass of unclassified facts, and 

 the accumulation of a huge heap of undigested 

 knowledge, then the ultimate benefit accruing to 

 the candidate is easy to foresee : it will be of the 

 smallest possible amount, or the result may be 

 even positively injurious to him. An examination 

 which necessitated a mental process of this kind 

 would be framed in the worst possible way, yet I 

 find that it is such a process as this which is ]Dopu- 

 larly denoted by 'cramming.' The term must 

 therefore be equivalent to • preparation for a bad 

 examination.' But are all or any of the existing 

 public examinations of this description? 



That many candidates attempt to pass these by 

 acquiring a mere mnemonic acquaintance with 

 the several subjects, and that a very few succeed 

 in the attempt, is the probable truth ; but to infer 

 that most of the candidates do so, is an ex pede 

 Hercidem mode of reasoning, the fallaciousness of 

 which appears at once. For, let any one care- 

 fully inspect the papers set in the university, the 

 Indian civil service, and the Woolwich examina- 

 tions, and then ask himself if it be possible for a 

 successful preparation for any one of these to be 

 accomplished by the process of unintelligent ' cram- 

 ming ' just described. The answer ought to be an 

 unqualified negative, and must be so if the ex- 

 aminers do their duty. In fact, much of the 

 charge of inefficiency brought against these ex- 

 aminations mast be borne by those who originate 

 and conduct them. On this point, Canon Barry 

 holds similar views, and says, — 



"I maintain that an examination ought always 

 to be able to defeat those crammers, who are 

 properly so called. If it does not, the fault is to 

 be traced to the imperfect discharge of duty by 

 examiners. Those who carelessly set stock ques- 

 tionSj and questions which can be answered by 



