EDITOR'S TABLE. 



107 



highest prize. He then lapsed into 

 deeper morbid despondency, made his 

 will, and shot himself through the head 

 with a pistol. 



We have here merely another in- 

 stance, of which there have been thou- 

 sands before, of the vicious working of 

 that competitive system in our higher 

 educational institutions, which should 

 receive the inexorable reprobation of 

 the community. Prof. Johannot writes 

 to the Tribune, in relation to Schwerdt- 

 feger's case, saying that Cornell Uni- 

 versity neither forces, crams, nor uses 

 class-markings, which is all very well ; 

 but how about competitive prizes ? Does 

 it forbid these to its students ? and, if not) 

 is there no " forcing " here ? Schwerdt- 

 feger began and ended at Cornell by 

 gaining prizes. If Schwerdtfeger " came 

 to the institution an exceptional stu- 

 dent, with a thirst for knowledge which 

 was an absorbing passion, and had mor- 

 bid fancies and an inherited tendency 

 toward insanity and suicide ; " if he 

 was " fascinated with the life and fate 

 of Chatterton," then the institution that 

 took charge of him is to be all the more 

 condemned for exposing him to the fatal 

 stimulus of competitive prizes. 



It is forgotten that we live in an age 

 of excitement a speculating, gambling, 

 horse-racing age, feverish with politi- 

 cal, religious, commercial, and sporting 

 rivalries. All grades of society are in- 

 fected by it, and the universal interest 

 in it is such that the newspapers are 

 crammed day by day with the details 

 of competitive conflicts in numberless 

 forms, from foot-races up to political 

 campaigns. Against all this our high- 

 er education ought to make a stand. 

 But, instead of doing so, the colleges, 

 in various degrees, yield to the general 

 tendency, and, in fact, avail themselves 

 of the competitive spirit in carrying 

 on their work. The pernicious effects 

 of artificial excitements and provoca- 

 tives are undeniable and notorious. 

 Many have been sacrificed to this for- 

 cing system, through constitutional en- 



feeblement, prostration by disease, and 

 premature death. For the natures upon 

 which it takes effect are just those that 

 are most liable to become its victims. 

 Fatal results may not be produced, but 

 shattered nerves and broken constitu- 

 tions do follow everywhere upon the 

 competitive prize system, because it is 

 the readily impressible, the impulsive, 

 and the unregulated, that are taken by 

 its lures. 



It is a physiological fact of the great- 

 est importance in education that, under 

 the stimulus of intense feeling and fac- 

 titious excitement, the brain is capable 

 of making rapid and extensive acquisi- 

 tions, which are, of course, correspond- 

 ingly transient. The cramming policy 

 rests upon this capability of the brain, 

 and it is this to which the competitive 

 prize system appeals. It bids for im- 

 mediate, striking, and showy results in 

 acquisition, to be gained by exhaustion 

 of the plastic power of this organ, and 

 that, too, during the period of its growth, 

 when the forces are required for en- 

 largement and advancing organization. 

 It violates this fundamental principle 

 of education : that intellectual acquire- 

 ment, to be permanent and valuable, 

 must be slow ; and that, for healthful 

 mental development, knowledge, like 

 food, must be taken as required by nor- 

 mal appetite, and become assimilated 

 into faculty by the quiet, unforced pro- 

 cesses of organic transformation. The 

 protests in recent years against this 

 policy have been many and emphatic, 

 and much has been done to check it ; 

 but it will undoubtedly continue so long 

 as partial parents continue to be im- 

 posed upon by the shallow parade of 

 examinations, exhibitions, and prize- 

 shows. 



The Intercollegiate Literary Associ- 

 ation now appears as a new force well 

 calculated to thwart this beneficent ten- 

 dency. It works by prizes and honors 

 in their most mischievous forms, by bla- 

 zoning the victories of students through 

 all the newspapers in the land ; so that 



