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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



one miglit almost infer that the very 

 object of its establishment is to encour- 

 age and strengthen the worst feature of 

 educational practice. It is not an organ- 

 ization to improve the colleges by giv- 

 ing encouragement to neglected studies, 

 or by bringing their schemes of instruc- 

 tion into completer harmony with the 

 claims of modern knowledge or the ne- 

 cessities of modern life; but it offers 

 its sensational rewards for proficiency 

 in just those subjects which have long 

 usurped undue attention in the collegiate 

 education. It applies increasing press- 

 ure in those directions in which press- 

 ure is already excessive. Hence, if there 

 are any students already shaken by strug- 

 gles to get the leading positions in the 

 colleges, the Association tempts them to 

 come forward and fight it out with each 

 other before the whole country. It will 

 remain true to the end of time that 

 those who sacrifice all the rest of their 

 nature to the attainment of any one 

 object will win it as against those who 

 regard the claims of their whole nature. 

 The Intercollegiate Association bids for 

 the best cases of one-sided development. 

 If a student has sacrificed his bodily 

 health to brilliant scholastic results, the 

 Association wants him for exhibition. 

 Johannot says that Schwerdtfeger, "in 

 preparing for the late intercollegiate 

 contest, made no extraordinary efl['ort ; " 

 yet he beat all the healthier fellows out 

 of sight, and the Association gave him 

 a prize for his disease. If it killed him, 

 no matter; that was but an incident. 

 Do not horses often die on the race- 

 course? and are not men often killed 

 in the prize-ring? Aspirants must take 

 their chances. To the earnest protest of 

 a correspondent to its encouragement 

 of the Intercollegiate Association the 

 editor of the Tribune replies, "Even if 

 young Schwerdtfeger's death could be 

 directly traced to overwork in connec- 

 tion with the recent competition in this 

 city, we should hesitate before condemn- 

 ing the intercollegiate literary contests." 

 This is a little startling as an illustra- 

 tion of the foothold that sporting ethics 



has got in the field of education; but 

 we can admire that pluck of opinion 

 which does not recoil from its logical 

 consequences. 



THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF IDEAS. 



We picked up an educational paper 

 the other day, presenting a long list of 

 distinguished men as editors. This 

 promised well, as the field of American 

 education is not the place where the 

 editorial " dummy " humbug would be 

 tolerated. Albeit the wisdom of the 

 periodical did not seem to be of a very 

 solid sort, though we read on, hopefully 

 expecting to find it at every step. At 

 length we came upon the reviews of 

 periodicals, and thought perhaps here 

 we should discover the sound sense 

 promised by the import of the editorial 

 names. We found the story-telling mag- 

 azines dissected, weighed, and meas- 

 ured, with care and fullness. The writ- 

 er was here clearly interested in his 

 topic ; but when we came to The Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly it was different. 

 The writer said he never thought much 

 of it, and, though he had no doubt there 

 was some truth in Evolution, he did not 

 like to have it thrust in his face and be 

 bored with it perpetually in accordance 

 with the usage of this periodical. This 

 was the first time that he had broken 

 out into adverse criticism. He had been 

 hitherto much pleased ; the contents of 

 the story-telling magazines had not 

 bored him. Whereat we reflected upon 

 the different values assigned by differ- 

 ent minds to different orders of ideas. 

 We think the trashy love-sick stories, 

 the idle gossip about notorious persons, 

 and the dashing sensational criticism, 

 which make up the chief portion of our 

 literary periodicals, to be not very im- 

 portant ; and on the other hand we 

 think that Evolution, if true, is a very 

 important matter indeed, and as the 

 case stands it seems to i;s of very great 

 interest to know what the ablest men 

 of the age are thinking about it. Its 

 establishment and general acceptance 



