mathematics, but in other subjects, that the examinee should be led to produce his knowledge, not only in the sudden shape of oral answers, but also in such a form as he can give it with more thought and deliberation, upon paper. It is not only necessary as a matter of convenience, but highly desirable on account of the exercise itself, that there should be portions of the examination in which the answers are given upon paper: and these may consist of translations of Latin and Greek passages into English; of dissertations on philology and antiquities; of proofs of mathematical propositions or solutions of problems proposed; of explanations of, and comments upon, the principles of such proofs. They may also contain translations out of English into Latin prose, or original Latin composition; and, in a moderate degree, according to the conditions of the examination, translations of Latin and Greek verse into English verse, of English verse into Latin and Greek verse; and perhaps the writing of Greek prose.

173 I will venture to suggest a step which may be taken in paper examinations, in addition to the usual practice; and which would, I think, give to paper examinations a considerable portion of the beneficial effect of oral examinations. The reasons which make it desirable that examinations should be public, hold for the publicity of the answers given by the examinees, as well as the questions proposed by the examiners. It appears very desirable that, in every Examination, the answers, or at least some of the best of them, should be made accessible to Students and to Teachers who wish to consult them. Such papers would be interesting and instructive to all concerned in the educational system; they would show the kind of knowledge required by the examiners, and afford examples of a certain degree of excellence in the requisite performance. 174 Among the reasons which have recommended

written examinations, besides the comparative ease of conducting them, which I have already mentioned, I may notice the manifest fairness of giving the same questions and exercises to all the candidates, which is easy in a written examination, but impossible in an examination conducted vivá voce; at least if the examination be a public one. In a public oral examination, even in the same subject, two candidates may have passages or questions of very various difficulty assigned them, however carefully the examiners may try to equalize the examination; and may, consequently, appear to be very unequally dealt with. And there is also an appearance of justice in the greater amount of time which the paper examination allows for the examiner to peruse, estimate, and compare the answers. The judgment formed of oral performances must, necessarily, be rapid, and may easily be conceived to be hasty and inaccurate.

175 These considerations naturally produced a favourable opinion of paper examinations; and to this has been added a belief, that such examinations are sufficient for the purposes of Education. It has been conceived, of late years, that Education consists in acquiring certain portions of knowledge, or, as it is called, Information; that a written examination may ascertain whether a man has acquired this Information; and that by acquiring such information in examinations at our Universities, we may secure the Education of our Students. But it will appear, from what has been said, that any Education, which deserves the name, cannot be so secured. Education, such as we have shown that it must be, to answer its higher purposes, consists, not in accumulating knowledge, but in educing the faculties of man. It does not consist in information, in the modern sense of the term, but in the formation of the mind. It requires, not merely occasional performances, but permanent habits; not merely the

achievement of the Examination-hall, but the daily exercise of the Lecture-room. The sympathy with the past and present generations of cultured men, which a good education implies, cannot be proved by any transient test of Question and Answer. It must be nurtured and brought into view by the constant intercourse of intelligent men, occupied in intellectual pursuits, and conscious of the working of each other's minds upon a common object. The prospect of an examination may stimulate the attention in such exercises; but it cannot make either individual study or private tuition produce the effect of such exercises, and answer as a substitute for them, in the course of Education.

176 Examinations, as to their subjects, are either special or general: special, when they refer to a prescribed and limited range of subjects, as for instance, certain selected classical works, or certain branches of mathematics and no other: general, when they include the whole body of approved classical authors, the examinee not knowing beforehand from what work the passages proposed to him will be taken; or the whole course of mathematics, from the lowest to the highest portions.

Special Examinations are very useful auxiliaries to the Teaching by Lectures which takes place in Colleges. An Examination in the subject of the Lectures, known as appointed to come on when the Lectures are over, tends strongly to fix attention upon the Lectures: always supposing, as we have already said, that a due correspondence between the Examinations and the Lectures is secured. And a series of Examinations on the successive portions of a good course of Mathematical study, and on a good series of Classical works, including poetry, history, and philosophy, would be a very valuable part of a liberal education, if thus combined with a corresponding series of Lectures. Even if the University or the Colleges were to provide and

enforce such Examinations only, without the corresponding Lectures, the series would form a sort of Education; for each subject would, in a greater or less degree, lead to the next; and would be prevented from entirely slipping out of the mind after it was once learnt, by its being in some measure connected with the next, and involved in it.

177 But if the University have none but General Examinations, it must be considered as abdicating the function of teaching altogether. A University conducted on such a system, is no longer an Educating, but only a Prize-awarding Body. When the University assumes this character, it is natural that ambitious persons who resort to it should try to go through all their course of study before they come to the University, and should wish, while they are there, to employ themselves only in competitions for Prizes; and in such processes of "getting up" their subjects, by their own exertions, or by the aid of Private Tutors, as may be likely to lead to the attainment of Prizes. So far as this becomes the case with a University, all the machinery of Collegiate and Professorial Lectures, with the other features of College life, are extraneous to the main business of the University. How remote such a condition of things is from that which has always been conceived to exist in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, I need not attempt to explain to my readers. Those bodies have always been considered as eminently and characteristically Educating Bodies; and it is only recently and partially that the other character, of mere Prize-awarding Bodies, has become so prominent, as to make it necessary to draw attention to the dangers which may arise to the older office, from the operation of the newer.

SECT. 4. Of the Relation between the University System and School Teaching.

178 Since the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are Educating Bodies, and are to be maintained as such, the previous preparation of those who are sent to these Universities ought to be conducted upon this supposition. If the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were, like the University of London, bodies whose sole function it was to award prizes, confer degrees, and the like; it would be sufficient if schools, and early teachers of boys going to the University, prepared them to be examined. But since young men are sent to Oxford and Cambridge, not merely to show what they have learnt, but also to learn; the teaching of schools should have, for one of its objects, to fit them for being, while at the Universities, further educated. And this view of the relation of our Schools to our Universities will suggest some important maxims with regard to the general conduct of the studies of young men. For instance, this being the case, the object of schoolmasters and early Tutors ought to be, not to carry their pupils through all the subjects of University teaching, from the lowest to the highest, so much as to teach them thoroughly well in the lower subjects, and to prepare them by a good fundamental instruction for a progress in the higher subjects, when the University course brings them to that stage. The school course should not, as soon as the schoolboy has acquired an imperfect and limited knowledge of Latin, urge him on as fast as possible in Greek, carrying him into the most difficult authors, and requiring him to write Greek verse and Greek prose. The aim ought rather to be to secure a very exact and tolerably extensive knowledge of the Latin authors; for instance, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Terence, Cæsar, Sallust, Cicero; and to consider a thorough acquaintance with these