118 ESSAYS IK NATIONAL IDEALISM.

doubted whether the examination system, with its tendency
-to superficiality and cramming, is any great improvement-
l5te most obvious fault of the Eastern memory system is,
tfee lack of provision for the development of the reasoning:
faculties and too great a reliance upon authority andl
precedent. But the examination system at present in vogue-
is also a memory system, and as such is inferior to the oldr
inasmuch as information is merely got up for the immedi-
ate purpose and afterwards forgotten ; this essentially
temporary storage of facts has undoubtedly a weakening:
effect on mind ands memory ; the old-fashioned student,
at any rate remembered what he so laboriously learnt by
heart; and this thorough knowledge of a considerable-
amount of real literature was in itself of no small value ~
through it he attained to what we call " culture. " As.
Professor Macdonell has lately pointed out, " the redeeming*
feature of the native system, single-minded devotion to the*
subject for its own sake, is replaced by feverish eagerness
for the attainment of a degree, through examinations which
must be passed by hook or by crook. " The examinations*
are not even good of their kind, for they make no provision
for the history or languages of Ceylon, with the inevitable-
result that these subjects are neglected in schools. Under
the old regime even those unable to read and write were-
often familiar with a great deal of legendary verse and!
and ancient literature, and this general acquaintance with?
national literature produces a seriousness and dignity of
speech foreign to the present-day youth. The grave*
Kandyan villager, ignorant of English and of the great
"world of business, was not lacking in courtesy and real!
culture.

Even the method of noisy repetition in the village-
schools (which indeed still characterises them) was not aim