fessorial Lectures, there is a strong tendency to a system of mere Examinations; which is, as I have already said, a very imperfect system of Education, and one which leads to very serious evils.

154 Among the evils to which an Educational System of mere Examinations leads, is, that it tends to place all the effective teaching in the hands of Private Tutors, as I have already remarked. This cannot take place without greatly impairing the character of the instruction given. For public Lecturers and Professors will naturally endeavour to present the subjects, of which they treat, in a manner in which philosophical connexion and intellectual interest are strongly brought into view. And, moreover, in College Lectures, the student is especially required to overcome, either by his own mental efforts, or with the aid of his Teacher, the real difficulties of the subjects, so as to acquire a clear view and full possession of its principles. But Private Tuition, directed, as we are now supposing, to the mere object of preparing students for the Examinations, will aim only at providing them with answers to such questions as are likely to be asked by the Examiners. In such Tuition, it will not be deemed a matter of any consequence that the Student has a permanent and thorough hold on fundamental principles, or that he really sees his way through the difficulties which belong to them. Even if he be provided by the Private Tutor with the answers to such difficulties, he will, probably, possess these answers only as matters lodged in his memory, and not as the result of mental effort and insight. He receives them as answers which are to satisfy his Examiners, not as those which satisfy himself. Hence, such teaching produces a condition of intellectual dependence, highly unfavourable to the mental vigour and activity, and the real culture, which are the main objects of a Liberal Education.

155 A system in which the instructions of Private

Tutors supersede College Lectures, labours under still other evils when viewed with reference to other aspects of English College life. For the Tutors by whom College Lectures are delivered are, as we have seen, understood to be not only Tutors, but Guardians of their pupils. They are recognized, by the laws and customs of our Colleges, as standing in the place of a parent, and having it for their business to watch over the social and moral habits, as well as the intellectual progress, of the student. And their opportunities, both of judging of the conduct of their pupils, and of influencing them for good, are much assisted by the daily intercourse which takes place when the Tutor directs the studies of the pupil. The influence of this kind which operates in such cases has always been looked upon as one of the most precious portions of English University Education. But when the teaching passes into the hands of Private Tutors, this influence of the Public Tutor is much impaired, by the diminished habit of confidence of the pupil, and, perhaps, by the diminished occasions of his intercourse with the Tutor. And this loss is not usually compensated in any degree by the Private Tutor's agency. He has no public character by which he is responsible for any moral care of his pupil, and he acknowledges no such responsibility. All that he undertakes, or is expected to do, is to prepare his pupil for the Examinations. His business is not with his pupil's morals, but with his classical or mathematical attainments. The establishment of such a system of mere Private Tuition would be a grievous declension from the system of College Education hitherto aimed at in the English Universities.

156 These evils, thus resulting from a system of mere Examinations, will be much increased if the system be one of mere paper Examinations; the answers being given in writing, and afterwards inspected by the

Examiners only. For, in this scheme, there is no opportunity of testing, by questions such as the occasion and the preceding answers may suggest, whether the verbal reply to the questions be really accompanied by any intelligent thought in the mind of the examinee. And the answers of each person being unknown to his fellow-students, there is no public manifestation of the excellence which obtains success; which, in a more open system of examination, operates beneficially, by the example which it offers, and the sympathy which it draws. Even if the questions be published, still the kind of knowledge which the Examiners consider as meritorious is very vaguely and ambiguously indicated by the questions, as I have already said. The standard of excellence is nowhere exhibited to the public, and is to be found only in the breasts of the Examiners. However highly the Examiners may be esteemed for ability and integrity, the want of any habitual manifestation of that which they consider excellence, must involve the minds of candidates in perplexity. Those candidates who are eager for success, will try to obtain guidance from those who are supposed to have any peculiar sagacity, or peculiar information, which may enable them to foresee the course of an Examination, or the judgment of Examiners. They will try to procure, as their Private Tutors, those persons who have recently been successful in the Examinations; or, if the constitution of the University allows it, those who have been, or are to be, Examiners; and will receive their instructions with passive and unquestioning mind, not as the means of understanding languages and sciences; but as being, for their purpose, the standard of truth and of excellence.

157 The evil will again be increased, if the Examiners are not permanent officers, or members of a permanent official body, but a perpetual succession of persons new to the office. For a body of Examiners,

permanent, or slowly changing, has its traditions, which give a certain degree of fixity to the matter and method of the Examinations, even when they are left free by the laws but when there is not this influence operating in favour of fixity, each new Examiner will have a propensity to put forwards his own favourite subjects, and to introduce the newest steps, which, as he conceives, have been made in the application of knowledge, and the mode of presenting it. Hence the Examinations will, in their subjects and course, undergo perpetual innovations, which will still more drive the candidates to seek guidance in such Private Tuition as I have described; and will prevent that patient and persevering study of standard truths and models, which I have mentioned as essential to the beneficial influence of Permanent Educational Studies.

158 I do not draw the above sketch of the evils belonging to a system of mere Examinations, as a representation of what exists among ourselves; but as a picture of what we are to avoid. We have at work among us some of the tendencies which I have pointed out; and the consequences which these tendencies, when fully developed, must, as we have seen, produce, are strong reasons for repressing and counteracting them. One main means of doing this is, as I have said, to secure a correspondence between the Examinations of the University and the College Lectures; and also, with regard to some of the subjects of our teaching, a correspondence between the Examinations and the Lectures of the Professors. And I shall proceed to offer some remarks on the way in which this correspondence may be established and preserved.

159 I have already stated that, in order to make our Education really an intellectual culture, we ought to have our Permanent Studies established among us in a Standard Form; namely, Classical Authors, and Standard Systems of Elementary Mathematics (54).

Having such a Standard Form for our studies, we shall not have much difficulty in accommodating our Examinations to our Lectures, and our Lectures to our Examinations. But there are some further remarks with regard to the means of securing such a correspondence, which apply to Progressive as well as to Permanent Studies; and these I shall now proceed to state.

160 There is one arrangement which will naturally give rise to that correspondence of the Lectures and the Examinations which we have seen to be so desirable and important; namely, that in which the Lecturers or Professors are themselves the Examining Body; for they will then, of course, so shape their Lectures as to prepare their pupils for the Examinations; and so conduct the Examinations as to encourage and reward attention to their instructions. Objections are sometimes made to this arrangement; but where it is attainable, its advantages much preponderate*. It is conceived that it may tinge the whole course of study with the mannerism of the Professors or Lecturers: but this danger is slight, especially when the Lectures and Examinations are public, and the mode of appointing the Lecturers or Professors such as to make them able and zealous officers. The value of any branch of literature or science as an element of Education, will be little impaired by its bearing traces of the mannerism of the teacher; besides which, the system is no less likely to be affected by the mannerism of the Examiners, when they are a distinct body from the Teachers. If the Examiners be a body more rapidly changing than the Professors or the Lecturers, the danger is greater on this side; for, as I have already said, in a body of Examiners so consti

See Principles of English University Education, p. 60, for remarks on this subject.