In comparing the performance in Euclid with that in Arithmetic and Algebra there could be no doubt that the Euclid had made the deepest and most beneficial impression: in fact it might be asserted that this constituted by far the most valuable part of the whole training to which such persons were subjected. Even the modes of expression in Euclid, which have been theoretically condemned as long and wearisome, seemed to be in practice well adapted to the position of beginners. As I have already stated there appears to me a decided improvement gradually taking place in the knowledge of the subject exhibited by youths on entering the University. My deliberate judgment is that our ordinary students would suffer very considerably if instead of the well-reasoned system of Euclid any of the more popular but less rigid manuals were allowed to be taken as a substitute.
Let me now make a few remarks on the demand which has been made to allow other books instead of Euclid in examinations. It has been said: "We demand that we should not be,—as we are now, by the fact of Euclid being set as a text-book for so many examinations,—practically obliged to adhere to one book. Surely such a request, made by men who know what they want, and are competent to form an opinion on the subject,—and made in earnest,—should induce the Universities and other examining bodies to yield their consent. The grounds of the demand then are three; that it is made in earnest, that it is made by those who know what they want, and that it is made by those who are competent to form an opinion on the subject. I need not delay on two of the grounds; the experience of every day shews that claimants may know what they want, and be terribly in earnest in their solicitations, and yet it may be the duty of those to whom the appeal is made to resist it. Moreover it is obvious that the adoption of Euclid as a text book is prescribed by those who are equally in earnest and know what they recommend. In short if no institution is to be defended when it is attacked knowingly and earnestly, it is plain that no institution is safe.
