OXFORD AND THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.
To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—Will you allow me to relate a short anecdote illustrative of the wise position taken in your recent article on "Agnostic Examinations in Relieion" ?
I well remember what happened when I went in for my own. examination in the Articles at Oxford twelve years ago. One of the ablest scholars in my college, a Dissenter, went in at the same time, and to him, though an earnest and sincere man, the Thirty-nine Articles were matters of the most undisguised amusement. So confident did he feel of sympathy on this point, that he even bad the audacity to communicate his views to his Examiner in the Preliminary College Examination, a distin. guished member of the University. "Don't you think, Sir," said the candidate to his examiner, "that these Articles are really very amusing ? " A frown for the sake of decency, and a slight remonstrance, followed this free expression of opinion ; but it was a perfectly open secret that the examiner agreed with the candidate.
May the Church of England speedily realise that examinations conducted in this spirit are indeed perilous to the interests of
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