Americans -- England -- Oxford; Education -- United States; Education, Higher -- England -- Oxford; University of Oxford
Once installed in the college and matriculated in the university, both
passman and honor man are examined twice and twice only. The first
public examination, more familiarly called "moderations," or "mods,"
takes place in the middle of an undergraduate's course. Here the
passmen have only a single subject in common with the men seeking
honors, namely, the examination in Holy Scripture, or the Rudiments of
Faith and Religion, more familiarly called "Divinners," which is to
say Divinities. The subject of the examination is the gospels of St.
Luke and St. John in the Greek text; and either the Acts of the
Apostles or the two books of Kings in the Revised Version. As in all
Oxford examinations, cram-books abound containing a reprint of the
questions put in recent examinations; and, as many of these questions
recur from year to year, the student of Holy Scripture is advised to
master them. A cram-book which came to my notice is entitled "The
Undergraduate's Guide to the Rudiments of Faith and Religion," and
contains, among other items of useful information: tables of the ten
plagues; of the halting-places during the journey in the wilderness;
of the twelve apostles; and of the seven deacons. The book recommends
that the kings of Judah and Israel, the journeys of St. Paul, and the
Thirty-nine Articles shall be committed to memory. The obviously pious
author of this guide to the rudiments of these important
accomplishments speaks thus cheerfully in his preface: "The compiler
feels assured that if candidates will but follow the plan he has
suggested, no candidate of even ordinary ability need have the least
fear of failure." According to report, it is perhaps not so easy to
acquire the rudiments of faith and religion. In a paper set some years
ago, as one of the examiners informed me, a new and unexpected
question was put: "Name the prophets and discriminate between the
major and the minor." One astute passman wrote: "Far be it from me to
make discriminations between these wise and holy men. The kings of
Judah and Israel are as follows." Unless a man passes the examination,
he has to take it again, and the fee to the examiner is one guinea.
"This time I go through," exclaimed an often ploughed passman. "I need
these guineas for cigars." Those who are not "European British
subjects" may substitute certain sacred works in Sanskrit, Arabic, or
Pali; and those who object for conscientious scruples to a study of
the Bible may substitute the Phædo of Plato; but the sagacious
undergraduate knows that if he does this he must have no conscientious
scruples against harder work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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