1882.] The Highest Education and its Difficulties. 277 
invariably coincide in their results. The man who has the 
most original and suggestive mind, who is the best observer 
of phenomena, and the most happy in detecting their laws, 
is not always the one who can most easily retain in his 
memory and reproduce in the form of answers to questions 
the substance of approved text-books. There is a further 
distinction to be drawn. We may say to the student at his 
very matriculation in the words of Mephistopheles, “ Waehlt 
euch eine Facultat,” or we may enforce upon all comers, 
whatever their ultimated estination, one common course. In 
other words, we may seek to train either specialists or 
“ good men all round.” Thus we have, in fad, four different 
roads open, each in itself simple enough but difficult to com- 
bine together. It is scarcely legitimate to require from the 
student a remembrance, at once general and minute, of the 
whole scope of modern science, and at the same time to lay 
before him questions which, to be fairly answered, call for 
some amount of original research. It is injudicious and 
inequitable to oblige a man to distribute his time and atten- 
tion among a great variety of subjects, and then expeCt him 
to show, in each or in any one, the knowledge of the 
specialist, who has made it the sole task of his life. 
We turn, from personal predilection, to the questions set 
in Biology, and we cannot help noticing much that comes in 
collision with the views we have just set forth. We at once 
admit that the examinations in question are a reality and 
not a sham. No amount of mere verbal memory, even if 
aided by the utmost resources of “ crammers” and 
“ coaches,” would here avail. Manipulative skill is tested; 
the student is called upon to identify specimens laid before 
him, to give a reason for embracing this or that theory, and 
on some points even to produce views of his own. This is 
so far highly satisfactory, though the question may be raised 
whether either the individual student or science itself is 
benefited by forcing into him at high pressure such an 
amount of learning in so brief a time. What is thus hur- 
riedly bolted will hardly be assimilated. But after a careful 
inspection of the questions, their number, their scope, and 
their nature, we are forced to the conclusion that those for 
the Michaelmas Term, 1879, and the Trinity Term, 1880, 
are unreasonable under the conditions of the case. We will 
suppose that an Oxford man goes in for biology. His pre- 
vious knowledge of the science will, in nineteen cases out of 
twenty, neither be extensive nor perhaps very accurate. 
Too often he will have something to unlearn. On entering 
college he will first have to pass Responsions and Classical 
