had seen, replied that he had
only read the first two books. This is the kind of dishonest knowledge
which is fostered by too frequent examinations. There are two kinds of
knowledge, the one that enters into our very blood, the other which we
carry about in our pockets. Those who read for examinations have generally
their pockets cram full; those who work on quietly and have their whole
heart in their work are often discouraged at the small amount of their
knowledge, at the little life-blood they have made. But what they have
learnt has really become their own, has invigorated their whole frame, and
in the end they have often proved the strongest and happiest men in the
battle of life.

Omniscience is at present the bane of all our knowledge. From the day he
leaves school and enters the University a man ought to make up his mind
that in many things he must either remain altogether ignorant, or be
satisfied with knowledge at second-hand. Thus only can he clear the decks
for action. And the sooner he finds out what his own work is to be, the
more useful and delightful will be his life at the University and later.
There are few men who have a passion for all knowledge; there is hardly
one who has not a hobby of his own. Those so-called hobbies ought to be
utilized, and not, as they are now, discouraged, if we wish our
Universities to produce more men like Faraday, Carlyle, Grote, or Darwin.
I do not say that in an examination for a University degree a minimum of
what is now called general culture should not be insisted on; but in
addition to that, far more freedom ought to be given to the examiner to
let each candidate produce his own individual work. This is done to a far
greater extent in Continental than in English Universities, and the
examinations are therefore mostly confided to the members of the _Senatus
Academicus_, consisting of the most experienced teachers, and the most
eminent representatives of the different branches of knowledge in the
University. Their object is not to find out how many marks each candidate
may gain by answering a larger or smaller number of questions, and then to
place them in order before the world like so many organ pipes. They want
to find out whether a man, by the work he has done during his three or
four University years, has acquired that vigor of thought, that maturity
of judgment, and that special knowledge, which fairly entitle him to an
academic degree, with or without special hon