ATHLETICS IN SCHOOLS. 679 



duty. But the athletes ai-e not the only ones affected. Wherever 

 athletics are very popular, around the coterie of successful gamesters 

 is formed a large hoard of hangers-on, boys who admire muscle with- 

 out possessing it, and who, formed by nature for a very different line, 

 adopt the habits and oj^inions of the superior class, till, perhaps with- 

 out participating, their interest, too, is absorbed by the prevailing rage, 

 and the tone of the whole community is affected. Under these condi- 

 tions, work, honest, spontaneous effort in other lines but amusement, is 

 impossible." 



The potent fascination of athletic games for boys is undeniable, 

 and that they must greatly interfere with legitimate school- work it 

 would be also folly to question. But, admitting that they hinder in- 

 tellectual progress, it is common to affirm that there is a great com- 

 pensation for this loss in the moral benefits of athletic training. It is 

 said that there is a much more important thing in schools than book- 

 learning, and that is to improve the moral tone of students. But Mr, 

 Littleton insists that it is far from being established that athletic 

 games intensely pursued are any check upon vicious tendencies. He 

 maintains that, where athleticism is so engrossing as to stunt the higher 

 life of a school, it is not promotive of virtue, and that, " among school- 

 boys, the mere students are as a body moi'e virtuous than the mere 

 athletes." He does not affirm that among university students the 

 athletes are more immoral than those who neglect physical recrea- 

 tions. The main question, however, here, is one of mental indolence 

 and vacancy, and Mr. Littleton says : " An energetic athlete, without 

 an idea of any other pursuit whatever, is better off and less likely to 

 turn out vicious than a wholly idle university man or schoolboy ; and 

 the appreciation of this fact seems to have led people into investing 

 athletics with a power of stemming vice ; the truth being that they 

 are in a limited degree obstructive of it — but only in a limited degree ; 

 and it is quite erroneous to suppose that in any educational institution a 

 predominance of athleticism necessarily brings with it a high standard 

 of morals." It is the absolute supremacy of recreation over study 

 and the resulting lack of steady and wholesome mental occupation 

 that lead to immoral consequences. A positive and serious evil of 

 athleticism is, that it tends to become a power in the schools, rivaling 

 the constituted authorities, and that is capable of becoming an enemy 

 to discipline. The spirit of athleticism becomes organized, and the 

 class devoted to it, representing the most powerful feeling in the in- 

 stitution, grows formidable, so that the teachers must ally themselves 

 with it, or lose their control over the pupils. " As is sometimes remarked, 

 no public functionary, no clergyman, no military commander, certainly 

 no prime minister, assumes his powers intrusted with such absolute 

 and unquestioning confidence as does a prominent public schoolboy. 

 His opinions are not disputed, no opposition benches are ranged against 

 him ; but his lightest utterance carries law with it, and in questions of 



