These  and  other  points  will  best  be  elucidated  by
giving  textually  the  explanatory  portion  of  my  Ex-
amination Programme. After  a  summary  account  of
the  Popular  Lectures,  it  contains  the  following
Articles : —

1. "  Those    essential    Elements    of    Scientific
Knowledge   which  it  is   most  desirable  that
every  adult  of  the  Working   Classes  should
possess,  have  been  methodically  arranged  and
explained  in  an  easy  and  familiar  manner  in
the  foregoing  Lectures."

2. "  For  the  purpose  of  the  Examinations,  each
Lecture  has  been  divided  into   a  convenient
number  of  parts,  large  or  small  according  to
the  nature  of  the  subjects;    and  a  question
has  been  prepared  for  each  part,  embracing
as  far   as   possible   the  whole   substance   or
gist   thereof,   and   so   framed  that  a   person
answering  it   might   be   prompted   to   show
to  what  extent  he  had  understood   and  re-
tained the  matter  referred  to."

3. "  The  whole  of  the  questions,  which  amount
to  about  one  hundred  for  the  nine  Lectures,,
are  annexed  to  the  present  Programme. It  is
from  them  that  will  be  selected  at  each  Ex-
amination  the   questions   to  be  put  to  the
Candidates."

I  beg  leave  to  remark  that  it  is  in  this  feature  of
publishing  from  the  beginning  the  questions  which
Candidates  may  have  to  face,  that  lies  my  greatest


40

deviation  from  the  ordinary  practice. It  is  true  that
considerable  divergency  has  prevailed  in  the  prin-
ciples on  which  ordinary  Examination  Syllabuses
have  been  prepared. In  many  instances  the  pre-
dominant thought  in  the  minds  of  their  authors,
appears  to  have  been  an  anxiety  to  baffle  any
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Candidates  to  guess  the
probable  nature  of  the  questions  that  might  be
asked. The  result  of  this  anxiety  has  been  to  pro-
duce a  hazy  Syllabus,  followed  by  questions  of
which  the  chief  merit  seemed  to  lie  in  their  having
never  been  thought  of  before,  and  in  being  such  as
no  one  could  possibly  expect. In  other  quarters  we
have  seen  Syllabuses  evidently  designed  to  convey  to
the  Student  a  much  clearer  idea  of  the  range  of
Science  he  was  expected  to  master. 