492 
[August, 
Analyses of Books . 
effected, most unfavourable to merit. For what class of pupils 
are best calculated to shine under this system ? Let us take two 
lads, A and B. A has an inquisitive, thoughtful, suggestive mind. 
If a faCt is laid before him he begins to ponder on its possible 
bearings. If a theory is brought forward he instin(5lively asks 
for its evidence. Meantime B, blessed with a retentive memory 
and a rapid power of reproduction, gobbles up all that is thrown 
before him, and is able to bring it forward again, wrapped in a 
torrent of verbiage, at a moment’s notice. B passes, in virtue of 
his very shallowness and emptiness ; A fails, in virtue of the 
very fertility of his mind and his inclination to follow out every 
idea to its consequences. Yet this is Earl Kimberley’s “merit ! ” 
Students are examined, not e.g. in chemistry, but in what 
Prof. Frankland or some other reputed authority has written upon 
chemistry. We hear, therefore, of men “ reading” for a degree, 
not “working” for it. The difference is heaven-wide. Hence, 
as the author quotes from Dr. Playfair, we have “ faithful dis- 
ciples rather than independent thinkers. The diversity of teaching 
in different universities tends to mitigate this evil, but the uni- 
formity of a common system of examination vastly augments it. 
When Government takes graduation in hand, and stamps our 
intellects, as it does its sovereigns, with one uniform die, the 
power at its disposal will be immense ; but, as in France, the 
intellects will in time be crushed under the stroke, and then will 
not be worth the coining.” 
It might have been expeCted that Englishmen, once proud of 
their mental independence and individualism, would have resisted 
such a system to the death. But alas ! we look on in apathy 
whilst a parvenu bureaucracy casts the intellects of our youth 
into one and the same mould, and positively restrains our teachers 
from throwing into their work individuality and intelligence. 
If we look to the German universities we find, on the contrary, 
diversity. Each of the great laboratories presided over by 
Bunsen, Hofmann, Kolbe, Fresenius, & c., has its distinguishing 
features. In other sciences it is precisely the same. A student 
will, therefore, after passing a couple of terms at one university, 
proceed to another, where he may have the opportunity of 
working under Prof. X or Y, and of studying his science from a 
different point of view. “ Here in England teachers can display 
no such independence of thought ; they have to walk themselves 
and make their pupils walk in the paths of science the examiners 
walk in, although they may not approve of it.” 
In Germany emulation and competition are not made the pillars 
of education. The Director of the Barmen Technical School 
declared that “ the principle of competition was almost entirely 
excluded from their system, as tending to foster a servile view of 
education, and to lead to spasmodic and exhausting efforts and 
feverish excitement, rather than to the healthy and harmonious 
development of the mental powers.” 
