472 
Encouragement of Scientific Research. [October, 
search,” as one of the writers of the book before us most 
aptly remarks, are “ incompatible terms.” 
It may seem a bold assertion, but it is our deliberate 
opinion that the power of assimilating the views and ideas 
of others stands in no relation at all to the power of origin- 
ating anything of value. Receptivity is no sign of fecundity. 
Nay, the very reverse is often the case — just as it is easier 
to introduce matter into any vessel the emptier we find, it. 
The man who “ crams” easily and quickly, and who shines 
in competitive examinations, will often be found to have an 
essentially unproductive mind, poor in resources and barren 
of suggestions. A. reads every book laid before him by his 
tutors, and implants its contents in his mind, without the 
slightest regard to their truth or falsehood, to their value or 
worthlessness, or to the collateral issues which thev raise. 
B. pursues the exaCt contrary course ; he reads critically; he 
follows out and tests the author’s views, and his mind as he 
studies is filled with suggestions. We shall of course admit 
that B. is the true student, and that A. for all higher purposes 
is merely wasting his time. But the Board of Examiners 
judge differently ; they “ pluck ” the thoughtful B., and pass 
the shallow pretentious A. — who certainly differs from a 
Strasburg goose in being devoid of feathers — in high 
honours. 
But not merely does the system of competitive examina- 
tions encourage many of the worst men and reject many of 
the best. When it once entangles a man endowed with a 
naturally good intellect, and sincerely anxious for knowledge, 
it rarely fails to ruin him. The following passage describes 
the working of this fatal device with no less force than 
truth : — “ The extinction of disinterested study is a necessary 
consequence of the encouragement of cram. When the best 
and most receptive years of a man’s life have been passed in 
having the doCtrine ground into him that the end of all 
reading is to cheat the examiner, and that knowledge is 
valuable only so far as it can be made to tell in an exami- 
nation, it is hard to see how he can unlearn the teaching he 
has received, and alter the character that has been formed 
in him. The grown man is what he has been taught to be, 
and out of cram may come many pages of examination- 
answers, or even a fellowship, but not original research, and 
the love of knowledge for its own sake. The specialist at the 
universities finds himself a marked man with a wisp of hay 
upon his horns — he is looked upon with mingled feelings of 
suspicion and pity. That there can be any knowledge out- 
side the curriculum of the university, or if there is that it is 
