the
Erewhonian theory differs from our own, for the word "idiot" only means a
person who forms his opinions for himself.

The venerable Professor of Worldly Wisdom, a man verging on eighty but
still hale, spoke to me very seriously on this subject in consequence of
the few words that I had imprudently let fall in defence of genius. He
was one of those who carried most weight in the university, and had the
reputation of having done more perhaps than any other living man to
suppress any kind of originality.

"It is not our business," he said, "to help students to think for
themselves. Surely this is the very last thing which one who wishes them
well should encourage them to do. Our duty is to ensure that they shall
think as we do, or at any rate, as we hold it expedient to say we do." In
some respects, however, he was thought to hold somewhat radical opinions,
for he was President of the Society for the Suppression of Useless
Knowledge, and for the Completer Obliteration of the Past.

As regards the tests that a youth must pass before he can get a degree, I
found that they have no class lists, and discourage anything like
competition among the students; this, indeed, they regard as self-seeking
and unneighbourly. The examinations are conducted by way of papers
written by the candidate on set subjects, some of which are known to him
beforehand, while others are devised with a view of testing his general
capacity and _savoir faire_.

My friend the Professor of Worldly Wisdom was the terror of the greater
number of students; and, so far as I could judge, he very well might be,
for he had taken his Professorship more seriously than any of the other
Professors had done. I heard of his having plucked one poor fellow for
want of sufficient vagueness in his saving clauses paper. Another was
sent down for having written an article on a scientific subject without
having made free enough use of the words "carefully," "patiently," and
"earnestly." One man was refused a degree for being too often and too
seriously in the right, while a few days before I came a whole batch had
been plucked for insufficient distrust of printed matter.

About this there was just then rather a ferment, for it seems that the
Professor had written an article in the leading university magazine,
which was well known to be by him, and which abounded in all sorts of
plausible blunders. He then set a paper which afforded the examinees an
opportunit