arly the proper work of the university-namely, to provide systematic and reasoned courses of study in all the branches of higher culture, and to secure that in each the highest results shall be attained which the educational condition of the country permits. The universities should doubtless assist in whatever way they can the spread of education, and especially of higher education, throughout the country; but their aim in laying the foundation broad should be to raise the apex high, and in the arrangements for their own teaching and their own examinations, their first object should be to maintain and gradually raise the standard, and keep well abreast of the educational level of the times. future, the universities will not be able to discharge their duty adequately unless the students who enter them have been adequately prepared by the schools. I propose, therefore, in this paper, to throw what light I can upon this fundamental question—namely, the amount and kind of previous preparation which entrant students bring, or ought to bring, to the university; and the sources to which we have to look, in the present educational circumstances of the country, for the supply of that preparation. It is certain that students cannot derive any solid or permanent value from university instruction unless they come up with minds fitted to receive it. With a view, therefore, to assist in the formation of an opinion upon this all-important point of the relation between the schools and the universities, I venture to offer, from my own experience in the University of Glasgow, a few facts bearing upon the following points: 1. The quality of the supply of entrant students; 2. The schools from which they come; 3. The character of the work done at the various kinds of schools, regarded as a preparation for the university; During the last twenty-five years great progress in this direction has been made inside the universities themselves. Much more remains to be done. During that period, so far as the existing curriculum goes, the whole system of examinations has been created, and placed upon a sound footing. The students and the schools know now what to work for. The examinations command the confidence both of the students and of the public, and the question that remains is mainly, Have we the requisite machinery to secure that the standard attained by our students is of a really high and satisfactory character? The curriculum, doubtless, is too narrow, and will be extended under any system of university reform; but the subjects which are now taught will still remain and though the subjects to be taught in our schools in future may undergo some modification, the relation between the The information which I have schools and the universities will to give will, of course, primarily be unchanged. Whatever the sub- relate to classics, and, strictly jects of study may be in the speaking, to Latin only; but for 4. The effect upon a student's whole career at the university of the kind of training which he has received before entering it; and, 5. The conclusions to which the results arrived at under the previous heads seem to lead in regard to the present needs of the country in the matter of secondary education. reasons which will be generally circumstances, whatever direction admitted, a boy's knowledge of public opinion may take, it will classics, especially of Latin, may be a long time before they can be be regarded, in the present state practically developed. In any of education in this country, as case, whatever development of affording the best available test scientific education may take place of his training and culture as a in the future, the necessity for a whole. That test, of course ap- literary culture will still remain plies only to what we may call for any man who desires to be the human, or the literary and perfectfy equipped for the work historical, side of culture. Ma- which he will have to do in life, thematics and the physical sci- and to acquit himself satisfactorily ences stand apart, as belonging to in those human relations of which the other or non-human side of it is impossible for a man, whether culture; and it is perfectly pos- the main purpose of his life be sible for a student to have a literary or scientific, to divest special aptitude for, and to be himself. I will only add, on the distinguished in, the non-human other hand, that I have no symside of culture, who has little or pathy with the superstition which no capacity for literary develop- supposes that some magical efficacy ment just as it is notorious that is to be derived from making a many illustrious literary men have mere bowing acquaintance with found an unconquerable barrier in the classical languages; and I mathematics. But languages, lit- should like to see exploded the erature, history, and philosophy, idea which still prevails to so all hang together as subjects of large an extent amongst the pastudy and education; and as in rents of the middle and lower Scotland classics, and especially classes in Scotland, that their sons Latin, have been for centuries the will carry through life some indemain foundation on which the scribable advantage by having literary culture of the nation has crowned the ordinary school course been based, it affords a very fair (to use a common phrase) by taktest of the value of the literary ing a year o' the Latin." part of a boy's school course. The question whether Latin and the classics should continue to hold their position in our national education, or whether a totally different kind of culture, equally valuable, and resting upon the mathematical and physical sciences, might not be organised, has no connection with the special matter now before us. I will only say, on the one hand, that as yet no satisfactory substitute for the advantages of a literary culture has been organised in a practical and systematic form. The means for effecting such a 1. The first point mentioned above-namely, the equality of the supply of students which the university is now receiving from the schools, and whether or not that quality has as a whole improved is a point very hard to decide. Some years ago I believed that the standard of qualification was gradually rising; but I do not now feel clear that that improvement has been maintained as far as the main body of students is concerned. The work done for the Preliminary and Bursary examinationsin which only the best first-year revolution students compete is distinctly better and more scholarly than it was. The standard attained in in our educational system do not as yet exist; and under any the examinations for the ordinary M.A. degree is rising steadily, if slowly, in quality; but the number of students who come up to the university with insufficient training is still very large, and the proportion seems scarcely to have diminished. The University of Glasgow has established an entrance examination for all students below the age of seventeen, and has thus prevented boys who ought still to be at school, and who cannot pass that examination, from obtaining university privileges; but the main difficulty has always been with students above that age. The best test that I can give in Latin is derived from the numbers of the Junior Latin class. That class consists of those who either fail to pass the simple examination required for entrance to the Middle class, or who prefer to enter the Junior class rather than face the ordeal of the examination. In the past session the Junior Latin class contained 119 students, of whom 81 failed to pass the examination, whilst at least one-half of the remainder would probably have done so had they attempted it. I have before me the results of a similar examination with a similar standard for the year 1874-75, and I find that the proportion of those who failed in the latter year was no greater, scarcely so great, as the proportion of those who have failed in this. In other words, of the total number of students coming up to the university in the year 1886-87, fully as large a proportion were insufficiently prepared in Latin as in the year 1874-75. Now such students, so far as Latin is concerned, ought not to be attending the university at all. The work which they need to do is not university work, but school work; and the university is not fitted, and ought not to be fitted, to give it to them. It is not merely that they know little Latin, and make perpetual blunders on elementary points of grammar; but their minds have not been systematically trained, either in that or in any other subject. They have not been systematically taught to get up and to master any intellectual subject whatever. They do not understand the principles of language, they cannot take in and assimilate in an intelligent way the explanations which are given to them. They have not been taught to think, or to express themselves clearly, not always even grammatically, in their own language. Not a few even of those who pass the examination for the Middle class labour more or less under the same difficulties. These students may know the main forms of the language moderately well,— they may have learnt the more common parts of the accidence by heart, but their minds are not trained instruments; they have not been taught to discern and appreciate the fine distinctions upon the perception of which all scholarship depends, and which constitutes the real educational value of classical training; they have little quickness and versatility in applying what they know or learn, unless it be presented to them exactly in the same way as that in which they originally learned it. Hence their progress is necessarily slow, and is perpetually retarded, not merely by ignorance of Latin, but by an ignorance of English and by a want of general knowledge, and in consequence a large proportion of the best teaching of the class passes over their heads altogether. Now if we look at the age of these students, we do not find that they are mere boys. Out of 119 who constitute the junior class, only 17 are below seventeen years of age; and we may regard seven teen as being the natural and normal age for entering the university. With regard, therefore, to the 102 students who are above seventeen years of age, the evil does not consist in the fact that they have entered the university too soon, but that they never carried their school course to a satisfactory point at all. Some of them have not been at school for years, having been engaged in various employments during the interval. 2. Now, what are the schools from which these 119 defectivelytrained students come? 50 of the number have never had any other education but that of the ordinary public school; 45 have received their main education at such schools, supplemented with a year or two at a secondary school; 23 only were educated at secondary schools. If we take the schools at which the whole body of students both in the Middle and Junior classes were educated—that is, practically, the whole of the ordinary first-year students--the sult is that, of the whole number, only 20 per cent were educated entirely at secondary schools, while 46 per cent were educated entirely at elementary schools; 31 per cent were educated partly at elementary and partly at secondary schools, and 3 per cent privately or away from Scotland. re here is, that only 20 per cent of the students in the Junior and Middle classes taken together were educated at secondary schools. A comparison with former years shows that the proportion of such students is declining; for in 1873-74 the proportion of such students was 35 per cent; in 1874-75, it was 34 per cent. It would appear that from that time onwards the percentage of students educated at secondary schools has decreased, until now it amounts to no more than 20 per cent. On the other hand, the proportion of students who have supplemented an elementary school education with a year or more at a higher school has increased. In 1875-76 the proportion of such students was no more than 9 per cent; in the present year it amounts to 31 per cent. It will be interesting further to compare the total number of students in all the Latin classes taken together-Senior, Middle, and Junior--in two different years. The addition of the Senior class into the calculation makes a marked difference upon the figures, as that class includes most of those well-prepared students who are able on entering to pass the preliminary examination for the three-years' course. A comparison of the years 1875-76 and 1886-87 comes out as follows. Of the total number of students public schools, as well as in that of those who have added a year or two of secondary education to an elementary school course. It will thus be seen that there has been a serious decrease in the number of students who have received a complete education at secondary schools; there has been a distinct increase in the number of those who come from ordinary done at the university by stu 3. The next point to consider is the character of the work : Of dents coming from these differ- and 1885-86. Out of a total of ent classes of schools. For this 121 prizes gained in all the Latin purpose let us take first the vari- classes in those three years, I ous higher examinations, the pass- find that 89 were carried off ing of which implies distinction by students who had been eduon the part of the student. The cated for not less than three years best first-year students enter for at a secondary school: only 30 by the Preliminary Examination, students either entirely educated which admits to the three-years' at elementry schools, or who had course in Arts. In November been for less than three years at a 1886, 35 students passed this secondary school. In the Greek examination in Latin. Of these, classes for the same three years no less than 31 were educated at there were 143 prizes gained. secondary schools. Previous years these, 108 were gained by secondexhibit similar figures and it may ary school students (defined as be said generally, that almost the above), only 33 by elementary whole of those who pass this ex- school students. This test, howamination come from secondary ever, is scarcely sufficient in itschools. The main exceptions self. It is no doubt a fact that, come from Garnethill and similar schools, in which a systematic effort is made to organise a regular secondary course. Second, let us take the annual Bursary Competition, success in which is the great object of ambition for firstyear students. In November 1885 there were 59 names placed upon the distinguished list. Of these, 49 came from secondary schools, 4 from Garnethill, 2 from other public schools. In November 1886, there were 44 names on this list. Of these, 40 came from secondary schools in Scotland, 2 from similar schools in England, 2 from public schools under School Boards in Scotland. These facts tell their own tale. They show that, except in cases where special provision has been made to add on a systematic course of really higher instruction, the ordinary board-schools cannot prepare students so as to take a distinguished place when they enter the university. Next, let us examine the various prize-lists in the different classes of the university. I take first the prizes that have been gained in the Latin classes in the three sessions, 1883-84, 1884-85, in many cases, students who have had an imperfect previous training at school make good their deficiencies at the university; and it might be expected that in the later years of the university course, especially in the subjects of Literature and Philosophy, the difficulties caused by a lack of classical training at the outset would be overcome, and that the greater zeal and ability of students who have found their way to the university from elementary schools would enable them to come conspicuously to the front. But the facts as a whole show that this is not so. The secondary school students appear to retain their advantage from the beginning of the course to the end, though there is undoubtedly a proportion of students who belong to the class described above, and who make such good use of their time at the university that they rise above many of those who outstripped them during their first session. I may explain that the figures here given, though substantially accurate, are not exhaustive, as there is a small number of the prizemen whose school certain |