amination; and would have no occasion to inquire whether he had acquired his knowledge in the College Lecture-room, or in his own study, or under the eye of a Private Tutor within the University, or in the house of a Private Tutor in some remote part of the kingdom. In this case, the University might consist of non-resident students, except at the time when the Examinations summoned them into attendance: and the Lectures, both of College Tutors and of University Professors, would be mere opportunities, which students might avail themselves of, or not, at their pleasure.

149 That this would be a very bad method of education I shall not stay to prove. Knowledge acquired merely with a view to Examinations is generally very shallow and imperfect, and soon passes out of the mind, when the occasion which prompted the effort is past. Knowledge thus acquired for a special occasion, does not take possession of the mind as that knowledge does which is imparted in a gradual manner by a continued series or course of studies, each step being viewed with reference to its difficulties and applications, and secured before a progress is made to the next ; as will be the case in a well-ordered course of College instruction. Besides this, the advantages are lost which we have described as properly belonging to College Lectures; the general operation of social study, and of the mutual influence and common sympathy of a considerable body of students. Even in cases in which the Examinations for University Degrees have had the greatest importance given them, in France, for example, it has still been found necessary to require a previous residence of two years in an authorized College, as a condition which the candidates must fulfil*. To make Examinations alone the essential

*

Rapport de M. Thiers sur la Loi d'Instruction Secondaire, 1844, p. 66.

parts of the system, in the English Universities, would be to render the Colleges incongruous and superfluous part of those bodies.

150 But it is not enough that we require the students both to pass the University Examinations, and to reside for a certain time in the Colleges in which their studies are to be prosecuted, except we also secure a correspondence between the Questions proposed in the Examinations, and the instruction given in the public course of the Colleges. If this correspondence do not exist, the University Examinations will still be effectively the only essential mode of the University's teaching, and there will be a tendency to neglect and evade the teaching of the Colleges. This correspondence is more especially important in the Permanent Studies of our Educational System; for these especially require to be mastered in the complete and gradual manner which I have described; both on account of their own importance, and on account of their being the necessary basis of all higher and wider acquirements. If the University Examinations allow candidates to receive degrees and honours without a thorough possession of this elementary knowledge, and do not ensure its acquisition in the Colleges, the education must be very defective, however imposing an array of difficult and extensive Questions the Examinations may exhibit. And, in the Progressive Subjects of study also, however profound and comprehensive may be the points brought into view in the examinations, it is desirable that there should be correspondence between the views of the examiners and the instructions given to the students, either in their Colleges, or by the University Professors: for, otherwise, the Examinations alone will be looked to for guidance by the students, and this is a guidance which will lead, both to the evils of which we have spoken, and to others of which I shall shortly have to speak.

151 There may be College Examinations, as well as University Examinations; and these may be ordered in such a way as to maintain and enforce a methodical and progressive course of study, such as, I have said, ought to be pursued in Colleges. Such Examinations ought so to succeed each other, and so to have their subjects assigned, that they may lead the student through the series of studies which belong to a Liberal Education; and in the first place, as we have said, through a series of well selected classical and mathematical studies. In such a course, the Examinations of the first year ought to correspond with the Lectures of the first year; the Examinations of the second year with the Lectures of the second year; and so on. And there ought, in this case also, to be a correspondence between the knowledge imparted by the Lecturers and that required by the Examiners. If this be so, the prospect of the Examination will fasten the attention of the students upon the Lectures, and exercise an influence even upon those who might otherwise have been careless hearers. But in order that this influence may be properly supported and confirmed by the University Examinations, which, so far at least as they lead to Degrees, will be permanent in their operation, there must be a correspondence between the University Examinations and the College Examinations. The latter, in their successive stages, must form parts of a connected scheme of knowledge, which the University Examinations require in its totality, when the student finally becomes a candidate for Degrees and Honours.

152 But this correspondence between the teaching of Lecturers and the views of Examiners, which is so desirable and so important, it is not always easy to secure. Even in the Permanent Studies, the Greek and Latin languages and the prescribed course of Elementary Mathematics, there is room for discrepance.

Examiners may differ amongst each other, and consequently may differ with Teachers, as to the degree of literalness in a translation which is consistent with its being English, or as to the degree of freedom which is consistent with its being faithful; besides the differences of opinion which may often exist as to what the meaning is. And there may be, though less frequently, doubts whether the proof of a proposition or the solution of a problem in Geometry or Mechanics be satisfactory. Still in a general way, the practice of translating Greek and Latin, of proving propositions in Euclid and Mechanics, of solving equations or finding maxima, kept up in the Lecture-room, will form a good preparation for the like performances in the Examination-hall. In these cases, the mode of dealing with the subject is determinate, and cannot be much varied. But when we come to knowledge of a more speculative and excursive kind, there is more room for discrepance between what is taught by one person and what is demanded by another. The views of the grammar, antiquities, history, and philosophy of Greece and Rome, entertained by different scholars, have been and are very different; and especially, their views are different as to what points it is most important for the student to dwell upon. The same is the case in all the higher parts of Mathematics. In every branch, one mathematician pursues a geometrical, another, an analytical track; one aims at the solution of special problems, another at the establishment of general formulæ; and so on. It may easily happen that the Teacher takes one side and the Examiner another in such alternatives; or that in some similar way, the Lessons which have been given to the student have failed to prepare him to follow the course of the Examination, or to satisfy the requirements of the Examiner. When this happens, the students who have followed the prescribed Lessons are disappointed and discou

raged, because they are frustrated of their expected reward, success in the Examination. The teaching which tends to such disappointment loses its hold upon the student; the machinery of the Educational System no longer works well, and ceases to produce its effect.

153 It is the more important to establish a close correspondence between the Examinations and the Lectures of our Educational system, inasmuch as, however ingenious and profound may be the Lectures delivered to the students, the attention given to them, in a system in which Examinations are the door to distinction, will be very feeble and scanty, if they do not in a great degree prepare students for the Examinations. If indeed we have not, in our system, Examinations which lead to honours and rewards, we may have our students led to give their attention to the teaching of Tutors and Professors, by their love of knowledge, their deference for their teachers, their admiration of the eloquence and wisdom of the lecturer, or the like motives. But these motives lose much of their force, when they come in competition with the love of distinction. When emulation is introduced into our system, we must reckon upon it as an overwhelming force, in comparison with which the love of knowledge and the admiration of excellence on its own account are but weak and ineffective influences. If we employ this principle of emulation, we must so direct it that it shall lead men to study what we wish them to learn. We must make our Examinations require that knowledge which we wish to have imparted in our Lectures. If we do not do this, we shall have the zeal and energy, at least of the most active-minded and ambitious of our students, directed to our Examinations, and to the modes of succeeding in them; whatever merits the Lectures of our Tutors and Professors may possess. Hence, if we do not establish an organic connexion of the Examinations with the College Teaching and Pro