not perhaps a distaste, but an incapacity for all continuous thought, all intellectual labour, all systematic arrangement of knowledge, and all useful exertion of the memory in matters speculative. This I judge from my own experience, though it is very possible that if the system had been different, I should not have been found so well fitted to succeed in it."

318 My correspondent refers also to other evils which I had noticed as likely to arise in a system governed by Examinations alone: and as these evils are especially connected with the Classical Tripos, I will quote this part of the letter also. In Art. 151-158 I had remarked that if University Examinations are the main things attended to, they tend to make College Lectures, and all progressive courses of teaching, disregarded; that they tend also to throw the students entirely into the hands of Private Tutors; especially if the Examinations be entirely upon paper, and if the Examiners be a rapid succession of persons of the same class as the Private Tutors. On this the writer remarks, "It is just possible you may not be aware of the great extent to which many of these evils were actually prevalent, at least in my time, and with regard to the Classical studies of the place. The only right I have to speak, is with respect to these studies, and in consequence of my having got to the top of the tree in regard to them; which I did after a course which, if the system were in the sound state in which the suggestions of your book would place it, ought not to conduct to that eminence.

"I doubt whether the evil hinted at in Articles 150, 151, 152, &c. could well have been more active than it was in my time. There was a certain fashion, I do not quite know why, of wishing for a first class, at the end of the freshman's year, in the College Examination probably because the University Honours were rather remote, and the previous year of College

:

studies were tolerably conducive to those honours. But after the first year one cannot exaggerate the utter contempt into which the College Examinations, and I must add to a great extent the Lectures also, fell, in the minds of ambitious young gentlemen: especially of one like me, who was dandled and allowed to do much as I liked. I remember perfectly well that my feeling was, that all I had to do was to take a good shot at the University Honours, in the way I liked best and there was very little doubt what that was. 319 As my concern at present is principally with the character of the existing state of Classical study in Cambridge as given in Article 315, I shall not here pursue the subject of the last Article. But I would ask, assuming, as I fear we must do, the description there given to be still to a great extent true, is it likely that our Classical scholars will use their extended liberation from other studies, so as to take the opportunity of combining Moral and Political Philosophy, Jurisprudence, History and the like with their Classical reading; or is it not to be feared that they will rather confine themselves more than ever to Classical reading of the kind that leads to Classical Honours in the University Examinations? And if the latter be the result, must not this change be deemed, after the account which I have given on such good authority what kind of reading that is, be considered a very serious retrograde step in our system of education?

320 But it may be said, that this condition of the Classical knowledge which is encouraged by our University Examinations ought to be amended, and that there is a disposition to amend it. I must again say that I should receive such a reply with great attention and respect; for it presents the really hopeful side of the matter. If such an improvement can be effected in the prevalent Classical studies of Cambridge, that they shall be pursued in a comprehensive and philoso

phical spirit, and shall generate and promote habits of study, attention, and sound reasoning, much of the evil which results from a great number of our most intelligent and active-minded students confining themselves to these studies will be remedied. And if this can be done, it will no doubt become much more likely that a considerable number of our good classical scholars will seek to obtain the Honours of the Moral Sciences Tripos. Let us consider then what is the prospect of such an improvement, and in what way it may be effected.

321 It is certainly true, that there has often been talk of making the Classical Examinations of the University more comprehensive and philosophical than they have lately been. It is conceived by those well acquainted with the subject, that the tendency to mere language-skill in the Examinations was produced by a re-action against an opposite extreme which prevailed at a previous period, when great encyclopædical papers of questions were proposed. Those who think that we have thus gone from one extreme to the other, are disposed to seek a more moderate and balanced course. And we have lately had some proposals for a better practice put in a more definite shape. On a recent occasion those who proposed to admit not the First Class alone, but all the Classes of the Polloi as candidates for the Classical Tripos, did not deny that the Examination for the Classical Tripos, as it is now conducted, is too narrow to be accepted as the main element of a good University education. They proposed to enlarge its scheme by adding to it an Examination in the matter, as well as the language, of certain Classical authors. Such reformers would make the Examinations embrace Moral and Political Philosophy, as it is found, for instance, in the great works of Plato and Aristotle; they would make Ancient History not a mere subordinate but a prominent part of the subjects; they

would turn attention to the philosophy of language in general, as well as to its exemplification in Greek and Latin construing. And they would maintain that an acquaintance with such subjects would be a better intellectual discipline than the kind of Mathematical reading which obtains a Junior Optime place as a mere condition for the Classical Tripos. They would perhaps propose such an Examination to be held previously to the Examination of the Classical Tripos as now held: and they would make a certain degree of proficiency in this examination as to the matter of certain Classical authors and the related subjects become the condition of competition for the Classical Tripos, instead of any Mathematical condition beyond the mere Polloi test.

322 If any further proposal is made to extend the admissibility of persons to the Classical Tripos, I presume that of course it will be accompanied with some such condition as this. If not, the attempt of the Grammar School to obtain a complete ascendancy over the University will be so glaring, that I should hope it can have no chance of success. I should be sorry to have soon to discuss such a proposal, whatever condition were annexed to it. I think that our changes of this kind ought, for a time, to have an end; since in education, of all things, a moderate degree, at least, of stability is desirable; and it is impossible to judge of the value of our changes, if, as we have been doing lately, we interrupt one experiment by another, before we can know anything of the operation of the former.

323 I may add, also, that this addition of an examination in the matter, to an examination in the language of Classical authors, is, I presume, conceived to be a good thing in itself, and not merely a condition to be offered in order to obtain further privileges. It ought therefore, by those who think it good, to be proposed as an independent improvement; and after what has passed, it would be natural that we should see such

a proposal made. If it is made by persons of authority and reputation in Classical matters, it will of course obtain respectful attention, and I should think, will deserve a trial. And when the trial is thus made to give to our Classical Examination a more substantial character, and to make inquiries into the matter as well as language of great authors-every well wisher of the University will bid God speed' to the undertaking, and will look with the most lively hope for a successful result. We may trust that some of our eminent Classical scholars will take up this design without delay, and consider of the best way of shaping their plan and connecting it with the existing practice. Of course, some years must elapse before such a scheme, if established, can produce its due effect; but its effect, if it be anything considerable, can hardly fail to be at every step beneficial.

324 As a first step in the introduction of a substantial element into the Classical Tripos Examination, we may regard the Rule in the new Regulations which directs (Appendix VIII. Par. 3) that "on the morning of the sixth day a paper of questions shall be given in Ancient History;" in which paper (Par. 4) "the questions shall be fixed upon by the four Examiners in common," at their general meeting. Much will depend upon the manner in which this Rule is carried into effect; for instance, how far the questions are such as to ascertain whether the candidates have read the Ancient Historians with an eye steadily fixed upon the history, as well as upon the language; and, above all, much will depend upon the amount of weight which the answers in this part of the examination are allowed to have in deciding places in the Classes; for as we have seen, the habit of the Examination has hitherto been supposed to be, that though historical and other general questions are asked, the knowledge or ignorance shown in the answers has produced little