Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/319

Rh welfare of the race. Every one understands that social usage often suggests words, phrases and sentences which imply more or less covert flattery. Indulgence in them is not only pardonable, but often demanded by an unwritten law, even if they are not accordant with the severest requirements of truth. They give pleasure without really deceiving; they excite laughter without derision; they hide sorrow; they brighten life. Much title-giving has been the outcome of an unselfish desire to express appreciation and good will. It may not be wise, but it is a good-natured attempt to give pleasure by covert flattery.

This unselfish basis for the giving of titles constitutes a sufficient explanation of that gradual diffusion and degradation of all distinctions that time invariably develops. A familiar example to all who have had experience in educational work is found in the class-room marking system, by which distinctions are based upon attainment in scholarship. Nearly a century ago the trustees of an academy well known in Virginia prescribed for the teachers a system of marking which was made up of three degrees of merit, bonus, melior, optimus, and three of demerit, malus, pejor, pessimus. If we apply to this the mathematical principle forming the basis of the theory of probabilities, it is easy to show that about 30 per cent, of all students examined ought to be graded bonus, and the same percentage malus, the sum of these two groups forming thus nearly two thirds of the whole. About 16 per cent, should be graded melior and the same percentage pejor; not quite 4 per cent, optimus and the same percentage pessimus. But what was the actual working of the system? The historian, Henry Ruffner, says: "The continual tendency was to mark inferior scholars too high. Thus it came to pass that not half the bad scholars got malus, the worst almost never fell below it, and bonus, though a mark of approbation, came to be considered as a disgrace, while optimus which ought to have been reserved for scholars of the highest merit, was commonly bestowed on all who rose above mediocrity." When Dr. Ruffner in 1829 became temporary president of the college into which this academy had developed, he secured the abolition of the discredited marking system, and the substitution of three grades: 'Disapproved,' 'Approved' and 'Distinguished.' According to the mathematical theory about 60 per cent, should have been approved, about 20 per cent, disapproved and 20 per cent, distinguished. But he writes that 'within two or three years some bad scholars were approved, and good scholars were nearly all distinguished.'

This continual temptation to grade as many as possible in the highest class is by no means based on selfishness alone, or even to any large extent on selfishness, though personal pride is one element. It is impossible for an examiner to make an exact numerical statement of