Some account of the origin and objects of the new Oxford examinations for the title of Associate in Arts and certificates, for the year 1858 / by T.D. Acland ; also letters from J. Hullah [and others] and selected papers relating to the West of England examination.
- Acland, Sir Thomas Dyke, 1809-1898.
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some account of the origin and objects of the new Oxford examinations for the title of Associate in Arts and certificates, for the year 1858 / by T.D. Acland ; also letters from J. Hullah [and others] and selected papers relating to the West of England examination. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![tion in Drawing for the jnniors, and in Drawing and Colouring for the seniors, and pnt a D after the name of every one who did well; and the same for Mnsic. But I have proposed a class list in each, as you seem to wish it so much. I have not proposed a “ School” of the Arts, which seems to me ambitious and unmeaning. A First-class in Music is intelligible ; a First-class in “ the Arts,” as at present we liaA’e them, is totally unintelligible. Yours ever, T. D. Acland, Esq. F. Tiaiplk. [To the indictment contained in the preceding letter 1 pleaded, on the first count, ‘ not guilty,’ and called evidence to character to prove that I had never kept company with model farms, model workshops, common things, and other well-intentioned plans for making schoolmasters jacks of all trades, and the boys masters of none. On the second count, admitting the importance of growth in living ideas, I entered a demurrer on a general principle, with a view to justify my assertion, that a knowledge of the principles of the Arts is, for certain persons at least, an important instru- ment of mental training, the use of which ought to be actively encouraged. What I meant by principles I have endeavoured to explain in the earlier part of this volume. But it matters little to the reader what I said, except that it drew forth the following letter ;—] My dear Acland, London, Oct. 8th, 1857. You are freer from the great heresy than I had believed. But I see, or (forgive my arrogance) I think I see that you are in the meshes of a different snare. You are forgetting the great distinction between the mechanical and liberal arts. The mechanical arts are subordinate to their sciences. The sciences here are absolute and rule with a despotic sway, and the highest aim of the art is to attain to the peifection of the science. A machine which could get nd of friction, a chemical preparation which should get rid of impurity, would be the peifect results of the arts of mechanism and of chemistry. The liberal arts, on the contrary, are supreme over their sciences. The sciences here, so far from being absolute, are always tentative, and their perfection is to come up to the level of their arts. Instead F- 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22440392_0081.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
