The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-12 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF EXETER ON
EDUCATION.

-- -
The prizes and certificates obtained by the students
attending the Bristol evening classes, which were
opened four years Hindi', were distributed on Thursday
evening in last week, at Colston Hall, 13ristol, by the
Bishop of Exeter, who in the course of his speech
said :

It was quite certain that in iel study there was very eften
a great deal of weariness, and if study had no weariness in it
at all, they might be tolerably sure that it was not so
thoroughgoing as it ought to be. (Hear, hear.) Tne same
thing held good of almost all business and of almost all
occupations; and all his experience of life had always come
to this—that all work that was really good, that really pro-
duced results that was really worth having, must be ranted
with what they commonly called drudgery (applause —nine-
tenths at toast was downright grindieg work, giving them
at the moment very little pleasure, giving them at the mo-
ment very little sense of their own advance, very little sense
of their own success, but being, nevertheless, absolutely
necessary for 'be thorough goodness of what they were doing.
Part of the very nobility of the devotion of a true work-
man to his work, as also of a true student to his study. Con-
sisted in the fact that a man was not daunted by finding that
the drudgery must be borne, and If men were really to
succeed in any walk of life whatever they must have a good
deal of that which in ordinary English they called pluck
(cheers) and without that neither study nor anything else
would really succeed. That was the condition of all work,
and it was the condition of all suceess ; but let him go on
to add something to that, let him assure them that there
was nothing which so truly repaid itself as that very perse-
verance agaMet weariness in that which they had undertaken.
If they would but go on, though they might be weary, though
they might feel as it it were hardly possible that any telecoms
would compensate them for the devotion they had given to
their work—and they might take the word of a man who
knew it by experience (applause),—if they would but go on
and listen to the teaching of many who had found it out in
their own lives, they would rind thet the work would repay
Itself; and if they would persevere they would find that
gradually there would steal into the heart a real interest in
what they were doing. In choosing the study which they
had better follow there were two chief guides—one was that
a man should always choose something, if he could, which
suited his own testa One's natural inclinations were a very
good guide in such a wetter. The other great guide was to
be found in the circumstance of their lives. Choose some
study which in some way or other would be bound up with
their own occupation, some study which in some way or other
they would instantly come across in the work they had to do,
He would like to say something about the end they should
have in view, whatever subject they might chose. Ile did
net speak then of the highest aims, which, of course, must
be supreme over all others, nor did he speak of the reasons
why a man should study at all ; but, taking it for granted
that they were to study, whet were they to aim at in that
study Y Hie answer was, reality. (Hear, hear.) They might
depend upon it, if they were true students—nay, he would
say it they were true men, if they were worthy the name of
real men—they would desire that their knowledge, such as
tile, should be real They would dislike everything in the
nature of a superficial knowledge, anything which had a
great deal of show in it and no substance, and would desire
not that everybody should admire them fur what they knew,
but that their knowledge snould be real, and that it should
be to them as an abiding gift. (Hear, hear.) A true student
would wish above all things that what he knew he should
know really. Then came the questioli, how should he tell
whether he knew It or not. His (the Bishop's) answer
was that all true knowledge was power. Could he
uee it ?—that was always the test. Could he do the
thing the study was iutended to teach him to do? (Hear I
What was wanted was that the student should know the
thing so thoroughly that he could handle it. Never let
Oleos be content with any knowledge until they could really
do that which the knowledge teaches them to be able to do.
(Hear, hear.) fie had a special reason for speaking about that
subject on the present occasion, hematite he thought that
students in general did not sufficiently value the tests to
which knowledge was brought. He was sure that most
students undervalued those teas very much indeed. He
observed that in their classes, although there was a real
evidence that their work was good, yet that there was also
evidence that they did not know how important it was that,
for their owe studies' sake, they should secure the reality of
which he was speaking (Hear, hear.) He latticed that there
were 500 in the classes, or thereabouts, and that 200 had pre-
muted themselves for examination. What had the other 300
hems about (Hear, hear.) It was a very natural mistake for
young students to make to say, • 'While I am studying, while
I am listening to the teacher, I am making real progress.
The examination at the end is only to teat my knowledge.
It does not give me any new knowledge, for it does not
add to the acquisitions I have already made." He
matter, and that the examination at the end of a course
wished to tell them that they were entirely mistaken in the
was as instructive a thing ea anything in the course itself.
( Be could assure them that it vies an instruction
in itself. For one thing, there was en thing which would
put the knowledge they had acquired into so distinct, so
precise, so usable a shape, as going in to be examined for it.
(Cheers.) Let them go into the examination, and they would
find that in the vcry act of answering questions they put the
whole of their knowledge at once into crier. Ile was quite
certain that with the majority of students an examina-
tion lasting a week would really add to the value of teese
knowledge quite as much as the preceding study of sin
months. Applause.) It was really necessary if they were
to make progress. Unless they were to stop and let a peat
part of what they had done be thrown away, it was really
necessary that at definite stages they should put the reality
of their knowledge to such a test as that. Then, and then
only, could they estimate themselves and know really what
sort of work they had yet to do, and what knowledge they
really wanted if their work was to be good. (Hear.) It
was very often—he said it from experienee of both aides
—a very mortifying test. Very often it was mortifying
to the teacher, after he had taught with a great deal of cue
to see what exceedingly poor stuff the best of his assail.
would produce at the end, and it was very mortifying
to the learner to find out, after he had been working very
hard, how exceedingly short he fell of the standard which
he thought he had attained. (Hear) It was a mortifica-
tion which came to them in the course of their lives.
If he might be allowed to give them any advice which might
he looked upon as, in some slight degree, havlug in it any-
thing of faultfinding, be weule advise them earnestly that,
when they had studied carefully, they should not shrink
from the necessary exertion that was to close the study.
Then they would have some chance of securing the aim of
which he had been speaking—the aim of making their work
real nod thorough. As they got older their judgment of
many things necessarily varied. While they were 'outer
they esteem a good deal by the show and the glitter. But
even then they were quite capable if they chose to r'se above
themselves of estimating by • higher standard. They were
quite capable, even in youth, of saying to themselves with
regard to study, "I will be true ; my studies shall be true.
I will see to the first and lest" (Loud applause, during
which his Lordship resumed his seat.)

Udoed

An article announcing the decease of a person, saye—
.. litcrenuens were committed to that bourn whence no
reveller return' ettended by hie Mends."