Self-education without guidance is an interesting thing to read about in the biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, but average persons are not equal to it. As Ben Jonson put it, "Very few men are wise of their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching, for he that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." What most students need is a teacher to direct and encourage them. Few get much benefit from text-books or lectures without collateral examinations. Reading at random is a delusion and a snare. Lecture schemes that purport to give instruction to students without requiring work by students themselves are educational counterfeits. Text literature and lectures are educational food. Examinations are the process of digestion. The mind as well as the body requires exercise, and the student who ducks or dodges examination is like the dyspeptic who bolts his food or the athlete who sidesteps his training. The fact should be appreciated that examination is something more than measurement and certification. Students who realize that they are to be examined pay closer attention to their lessons. The process of examination also corrects omissions and misconceptions otherwise inevitable in any system of study. Examination is a fundamental necessity in practical education and not a scholastic superfluity as some persons suppose or pretend to suppose. "Learning by study must be won; 'twas ne'er entailed from sire to son."