' '_casuisme_,'
'pouvoir prochain,' 'probabilisme.' Also explain what is meant by
'casuistry.' What can be said in its defence?"

"Give some account of Escobar."

"What are the principal differences between the Latin and the French
languages?"

Well might an eminent _confrere_ exclaim one day:

"Is not all this printed and published to discourage the study of
French?"

* * * * *

I once heard an examiner ask a dear little fellow, aged eleven, the
following poser:

"Give me the derivations of all the words of the French sentence you
have just read aloud."

Poor little boy! He took the examiner for a wonderful man.

So he was.

* * * * *

English examinations consist of so many papers to be taken up; the
"viva voce" does not play an important part in England, as it does in
France.

A "viva voce" examination very often gives the examiner a better idea
of the candidate's abilities and knowledge than a written one, but it
has many drawbacks. It favors babblers and the self-assured, and does
not enable the timid to show themselves at their best.

The more learned the examiner, the more kind and indulgent is he to the
candidates.

Sainte-Claire Deville, the famous French chemist, had to be declined by
the authorities at the Sorbonne as an examiner, because he used to
answer his questions himself to save the candidates trouble.

"How do you prepare oxygen?" he would ask. "By heating chlorate of
potash, don't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"You place the chlorate of potash in a thin glass flask, don't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now a small quantity of manganese bi-oxide, mixed with the chlorate of
potash, enables you to obtain the oxygen at a much lower temperature,
does it not?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good--now, another question."

And so forth.

* * * * *

On the other hand, there are examiners who make it a rule to bully the
candidates, or, worse still, to snub them. They will ask preposterous
questions with the mere object of disconcerting them.

"How long would it take the moon to fall to the earth?" I once heard an
examiner ask a candidate to the _baccalaureat es-sciences_.

A facetious examiner once got his due from a young Parisian candidate.

After asking him a few "catches," and obtaining no answers he suddenly
said to him:

"Do you know how much cloth would be required to cover