756 THE PLACE OF EESEARCH IN EDUCATION. 



certain number of inspectors has in a measure initiated a new policy. 

 The very distinguished scientific man who is the director of science, in 

 his evidence before the Eoyal Commission on Secondary Education, 

 openly stated indeed that if he had his way he would entirely substi- 

 tute inspection for examination in the elementary stage; but it is to be 

 feared, unfortunately for the country, that in this, as in most other 

 cases, one swallow does not make a summer. 



Professor Herkomer insists that in the future freedom of action must 

 be given to each master — to each town. This independence, he says, 

 is to be obtained only by municipal and county council aid. " Emanci- 

 pation from the apron strings of Kensington through municipal and 

 county council support would produce an individuality," we are told, 

 "in the art of each town," for which I may substitute, in the way in 

 which science was taught and applied in each town. 



But we must be careful that in leaving the science and art frying 

 pan we do not jump into a worse municipal fire, of which there is 

 clearly some danger; for while all the world is engaged in decrying 

 examinations, our county council is bent on devising new ones. 

 Scholarships at times are of great value to students, provided they 

 fall into the right hands, and are obtained as well as held under right 

 conditions. But it is easy to give too many scholarships, and still 

 more so to give them to the wrong persons. Unless the examinations 

 are placed in very competent hands, not only will a serious injury be 

 done to our general system of education by leading those who are 

 preparing boys and girls to adopt methods which it is unwise to follow 

 in schools and to unduly force on their pupils, but the wrong people 

 may be selected; the growth of a class of overtrained pot hunters 

 may be encouraged instead of a vigorous, keen-witted, observant, and 

 resourceful race. Those who prove themselves the most apt scholars 

 under the tutelage of the crammer, however able as desk workers, 

 may in the end entirely disappoint the hopes of those who desire most 

 to encourage the development of ability. Huxley has said much as to 

 the importance to the nation of catching the potential Faraday, but it 

 is doubtful whether such would ever shine in a conrpetitive examina- 

 tion in which among other tasks they were asked to write an essay on 

 Oliver Cromwell, or some other like topic equally remote from the 

 daily experience of a healthy lad. If we depend too much on examina- 

 tions we may easily select the unfittest for the work of the world, and 

 unless very careful we are almost bound to select but one kind of 

 ability — clerical rather than practical ability; unless, indeed, we alto- 

 gether change our system of school education, and examine very 

 differently. 



It is also difficult to understand what is to be gained by examining 

 candidates for £5 evening scholarships; it must prove to be a very 

 expensive mode of distributing such doles, and it ought to be possible 

 to find some other more practical way of selecting those whose studies 

 would be materially promoted by such a grant. 



