MEMORY IN EDUCATION.

unmixed evil. Scholars repeated their lessons " with a
certain continu'd tone which hath the force of making deep-
impression on the memory " (P. della "Valle, describing
schools in the Deccan, 1623, quoted by W. Crooke). Sir
Bichard Burton says of such schools that their chief merit-
lies in the noise of repetition aloud, which teaches the boy •
to concentrate his attention ! The " viva voce process is a
far better mnemonic than silent teaching."

It is mainly, however, of older scholars that I speaky
and of what they carry away from their education. An
ordinary c English' education may leave one with little-
capacity for self-entertainment, and does not give repose-
and dignity such as belonged to the old cultures of the-
East. Examinations do not do away with the necessity
for learning by rote ; they only make that learning of a
temporary character. Does not every examinee know the-
relief with which, the pass list issued, he relaxes the
effort to retain a mass of knowledge which he acquired
only for the special purpose of that examination ? I, for
one, know it. One learns far too many subjects. I think
no subject should be taken up which cannot be carried to-
some adequate length, no language studied by pupils who-
may not reasonably be expected to progress so far as to-
read the literature of that language with pleasure. It is-
extraordinary how easily what one learns for a purpose-
and not for its own sake is forgotten. I once passed the
London Intermediate Arts examination in the various-
subjects, including Greek. In that Greek I took no*
real interest, and in less than a year after I could hardly
spell out a few words, much less translate them. It was-
never supposed that I should become a Greek student ;
the Greek was part of a general education ! But it did
not teach me anything of the real Greece itself, its philo-