rom implying
literary eminence or intellectual power. Eminence indeed is hardly to be
looked for at the age when the bachelor's degree is taken; it is only
one or two men in a generation who can send out "The Holy Roman Empire"
as a prize essay. But the degree does not imply even the promise or
likelihood of eminence or power. The best witness to the degradation of
the simple degree is the elaborate and ever-growing system of
class-lists, designed to mark what the degree itself ought in some
measure to mark. The need of having class-lists is the clearest
confession of the very small value of the simple degree by itself. And,
whatever may be the value of the bachelor's degree, the value of the
master's degree is exactly the same. The master's degree proves no
greater knowledge or skill than the bachelor's degree; it proves only
that its bearer has lived some more years and has paid some more pounds.
It is given, as a matter of course, to every one who has taken the
degree of bachelor--never mind after how many plucks--and has reached
the standing which is required of a master. The bestowing of two degrees
is a mere make-believe; the higher degree proves nothing, beyond mere
lapse of time, which is not equally proved by the lower.

Now this surely ought not to be. That the first degree should be next
door to worthless, and that the second degree should be worth no more
than the first, is surely to make University degrees a mockery, a
delusion, and a snare. Men who do not know how little a degree means are
apt to be deceived, even in practical matters, by its outward show. Men
who see that a degree proves very little, but who do not look much
further, are apt most untruly to undervalue the whole system and studies
of the University. In common consistency, in common fairness, the
degrees should mean what their names imply. The bachelor's degree should
prove something, and the master's degree should prove something more. As
I just said, the bachelor's degree should be respectable and the
master's degree should be honourable. I should even like to see the
bachelor's degree so respectable that we might get rid of the modern
device of class-lists; but that is not our question at present. The
immediate business is to make the master's degree a real thing, an
honest thing, to make it the sign of a higher standard than the
bachelor's degree, whether the bachelor's standard be fixed high or low.
Let there be some kind of standard,