R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

220 R. W. Macanof the good intentions of that pathetic sub-species, Homosapiens academicus. And again: the advance in the styleand standard of tutorial and professorial work, alreadyapparent during the 'seventies, made heavier demandson the time and energies of the teacher, leaving him lesshappily disposed for literary achievements. But the influencemost of all fatal to productivity was, and* 5 is, theExamination system, with its power over the methodsand conditions of study and teaching, especially the fixedcurriculum and the time limit for the Honour Schools.Not merely do such conditions introduce a competitivenote or motif, into the Examination. Not merely doesExamination under such conditions demoralise the examinereven more than the examinee—for the latter soonescapes into the fresh air. The worst of it is that a prescribedcurriculum, under a time limit of study, is apt to beeclectic and arbitrary, precluding the student from' carvingthe capon by the joints', and from pursuing the topicsmost attractive or suitable to his idiosyncrasy; while thecompetitive examination at the close—on which his immediatefortunes may depend—dictates cram and sophistry,and offers a premium to the pen of the too ready writer.In a sense the system might, indeed, appear to favourliterature of a sort rather than learning, to encouragerhetoric, or 'the art of putting things', at the expense ofgenuine knowledge. And the old Oxford education,which was at its zenith in the 'seventies, was open to somesuch indictment, at least in the literary Schools: Mathematicsand Physical Science (as it was then called) werein their very nature less liable to sophistic corruption.But the other two final Schools—there were but four inall at the beginning of the 'seventies—Literae Humanioresand Law and History were marvellous exercises in literarycamouflage; especially the former, which was generallyrecognised as the best preparation for the two professions,