550 
On Technical Education . 
[September, 
Spencer : — “ And pervading the whole, is the vicious system 
of rote learning — a system of sacrificing the spirit to the 
letter. See the results. What with perceptions unnaturally 
dulled by early thwarting, and a coerced attention to books, 
— what with the mental confusion produced by teaching 
subjects before they can be understood, .... — what with 
making the pupil a mere passive recipient of other's ideas, and 
not in the least leading him to be an active inquirer or self -instructor, 
—and what with taxing the faculties to excess — there are 
very few minds that become as efficient as they might be. 
Examinations once passed, books are laid aside ; the greater 
part of what has been acquired, being unorganised, soon drops 
out of recollection ; what remains is mostly inert, the art of 
applying knowledge not having been cidtivated, and there is but 
little power either of accurate observation or independent thinking. 
To all which, add that, while much of the information 
gained is of relatively small value, an immense mass of 
information of transcendent value is entirely passed over.” 
If, in order to relieve our Senators of embarrassments in 
connection with Civil Service appointments, competitive ex- 
aminations have been resorted to as the only possible means 
of selecting candidates for these appointments, why employ 
them at least to the extent that is at present being done, 
to test the extent and progress of knowledge in educational 
institutions, when it is admitted by all competent authorities 
that the general education of the kingdom is being seriously 
injured by these competitions ? 
Written examinations are no test of sound attainments in 
any branch of knowledge ; but they are the least fitted to 
distinguish thorough from superficial knowledge in the in- 
ductive sciences. The only thing these examinations do 
test is the relative capacity of the candidates for acquiring 
and retaining for a time the ideas of others, and of repro- 
ducing them on paper. This is a very desirable quality for 
those intended for the legal profession to possess ; but it is 
a quality almost the reverse of desirable for those who study 
the induCtive sciences either for their purely scientific ex- 
tension or for their technical applications. This examina- 
tion system is entirely opposed to the educational system 
carried out in Germany : the German students are taught 
the art of applying knowledge and of extending it ; our 
students are merely taught to be passive recipients of others’ 
ideas, and to be capable of reproducing them on paper. See 
the results. German chemists are year by year being more 
employed in our chemical factories, so that, since the time 
the Science and Art Department was created, our calico- 
