the course of a few years, but which it would be very desirable to have from the first, and in some form more intelligible than mere series of questions would furnish; questions put forth no one knowing what answers the Examiner wished for, and he having no University authority to make his opinion the standard of right answers on contested questions, because the University had had no means of knowing what his opinion on such questions was. It would be desirable to avoid, in any new case, the inconvenience noticed above in the case of the Mathematical innovations: namely, the students being quite uncertain what was wanted of them. But I mention this, not as a reason against making the proposed addition or change, in the subjects of the Classical Tripos, but as a suggestion with regard to the mode in which it may be made more satisfactorily and effectually.

330 If the Classical Tripos could really be so modified that its Honours should imply those habits of continuous thought, intellectual labour, systematic arrangement, and logical reasoning which, as has already been stated (316) it has recently been conceived rather to weaken than to confirm, it might then claim to be put on a footing of equality with the Mathematical Tripos. There would then be force in the argument, that while the Mathematical student who obtains a place in the Mathematical Tripos can obtain a place in a second Tripos without any additional condition, and the Classical student who obtains a place in the Classical Tripos cannot obtain a place on a second Tripos (that is either of the new ones) without the condition of being upon a third also (the Mathematical one) there is an inequality between the two cases. That there is an inequality we grant: and we hold that the inequality is a necessary feature in our education in order to correct a much greater inequality;the predominance of the mere language-skill, which

is the principal or sole kind of knowledge promoted by the Examinations as they lately existed: as I have already remarked (309).

331 Whether, the object being to add to our Classical studies elements which might be favourable to systematic intellectual labour, and logical reasoning, Logic itself, as a science and art, might be deserving of consideration as one of these elements, is a question which it might not be superfluous to discuss: but I shall not here enter upon the discussion. If the subject of a substantial Classical Examination is taken up and pursued in the University, it may be worth while to return to this question.

332 Perhaps I may without impropriety refer to my own experience in this matter, of the introduction of Philosophy, Moral, Political, and Intellectual, into Examinations. Such a reference may serve to show that I am not using empty words when I speak of my desire that such Examinations should exist among us. It may show also that an examination, steadily persevered in, does, in the course of years, lead the persons who are to be examined to a course of reading and thinking on new subjects; and it may show further, I think, that it is only in a considerable period of years that this effect is produced in any great degree, even under favourable circumstances. I have now for many years been annually engaged in the examination of candidates for Fellowships in my own College. Long before I held my present position, the Master and Seniors allowed me to propose, as a part of this Examination, a series of questions in Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, or as it has commonly been called among us, Metaphysics. This had always been nominally included among the subjects of examination: but it will be easily understood that except one or more of the Examiners take a distinct interest in such a part of the Examination, it will fall into neglect: and this is

likely to happen especially with regard to subjects of general literature, in which our knowledge, except it be kept up by reading and thinking, becomes lifeless and antiquated. With regard to the Greek and Latin languages the case is different. A person who has once well mastered them, knows that no new speculation can in any great degree modify the meaning of the great Classical works; and therefore he can go on year after year examining in these with confidence in himself. But in Philosophy, the prevalent questions, the prominent difficulties and solutions, may become, in a few years, something quite different from what they were; and no one but a person who to a certain extent follows the current of general literature is likely to excite and keep up an interest on the subject in the minds of students. Among persons who have active duties and professional studies of other kinds, only a few are likely to give much attention to Metaphysics, and it need not seem wonderful if that subject be left in the hands mainly of one among several Examiners. The questions which were proposed on the subject in the Trinity College Fellowship Examinations, produced very little effect upon the studies of the candidates for a period of several years; mainly, I think, on account of the difficulty which I have mentioned; the want of any known standard work or body of works where the students might learn to answer the questions. In the course of years the questions themselves gradually pointed out the cardinal works belonging to this department of literature; and there grew up a general understanding as to the direction which the Examination would take. And at present, I believe, that considerable attention is paid to this line of reading by the candidates; and the answers returned influence the decisions of the electors, as, from the knowledge and thought which they display, they often well deserve to do. The result in this case has been very

satisfactory: but the slowness with which it was brought about suggests, I think, the reflection, that if it were attempted to introduce subjects of this kind into the University Examinations, it would be desirable that some standard course of reading relative thereto should be sanctioned by the University and made known to the candidates in general.

But the consideration of such a standard course belongs to the Moral Sciences Tripos, as well as to the Classical Tripos, since it is requisite for modern as well as for ancient Philosophy. I might therefore now proceed to the subject of the Moral Sciences Tripos.

333 But I will venture to go a little further in offering suggestions as to the manner in which such a substantial Examination in classical subjects, as I have spoken of, might be combined with the present Examination for the Classical Tripos. I conceive that such an Examination might be made effectual by appointing beforehand certain books (changing from year to year) in which the questions asked, and the answers given, should refer principally to the matter of the books, and to any thing in other books which illustrated this. These books might be either conspicuous works of the ancients upon moral and political subjects, as, for example, portions of Plato's Dialogues, his Republic, his Laws; of Aristotle's Ethics, Rhetoric, and Politics ; of Cicero's Laws, his Republic, and his other Dialogues; perhaps the Roman and Greek historians; or they might be modern works upon subjects of ancient history, politics, or manners; as Niebuhr's Rome, Müller's Dorians, Boekh's Public Economy of Athens; and the like. Or perhaps better still, the appointed subjects might include every time a portion of one of these kinds and a portion of the other. The Examination in the Ancient Author would call for such illustrations of the meaning and tendency of the proposed books as either ancient or modern writers have fur

nished the Examination in the Modern Critic would require to have the ancient authorities on which his views rest adduced and discussed. I conceive that such an Examination in a prescribed subject, of definite extent and import, has a very beneficial effect upon study, and deserves well to be combined with the other kind of Examination now exclusively employed for the Classical Tripos; namely, an Examination in the language alone of the whole field of Classical Literature, the Examinee being expected to be prepared for any passage taken at random in this field. An Examination in a prescribed subject, on the other hand, is the usual mode of Examination for Classical Honours at Oxford, (except, indeed, that the subjects are selected by the Examinee himself). This method is conceived, justly, I think, to have some peculiar advantages; which, it is to be observed, might be enjoyed here, without at all excluding our present kind of Examination. The Examinee in prescribed definite subjects can, of course, be much more prepared and exact, than in a passage or subject taken at random. The effect of such an Examination upon the studies of candidates is very beneficial. It impels them to continuous and steady thought, and to reading with a definite purpose; adds something solid and critical to the knowledge which a man's general reading of the Classics produces; and in its result, determines how far the candidates are capable of such exertions, and have acquired such knowledge. I conceive that such a special substantial element, added (or perhaps prefixed as a condition,) to the general portion of the Classical Examination which now exists, would greatly improve our studies, considered as the parts of a liberal education; and indeed, no less, considered merely as classical studies.

334 The change of the subjects of the substantial portion of the Classical Examination from year to year is, I think, essential. No subject could be selected, of