196 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



member of the body — the saying that " the House of Commons has 

 more good taste than any single member of it," is an extreme 'state- 

 ment of the same fact. " An Englishman's word is his bond,'" is 

 another illustration of how much a generalisation can do to lift the 

 average indi\idual above the line that his own nature might lead 

 him to follow. 



The feeling which is to serve for after life must begin in the 

 esfrit de corps, the standard of the school. In older countries there 

 are traditional standards of honour and good taste, sometimes 

 admirable, sometimes distorted by strange and ludicrous limitations 

 whose origin is lost in the mists of the past. In this country such 

 esfrit de corps largely remains to be created, and with the experience 

 of older nations to guide us, it may be possible to follow the best 

 and leave aside the errors and the extremes. There is one form of 

 esprit de corps that is to be avoided,, a spirit that refuses to see any 

 j)ossibility of flaw in its own members, or to recognise the possibility 

 of equal merit or excellence in others. To cultivate this is to foster 

 sheer prejudice, and to destroy the development of all generous 

 feeling. The standard of honour tends to become narrowed down to 

 " playing the game " with the members of the body, and adopting a 

 different measure towards those outside the charmed circle. Such is 

 the spirit that has led to the saying that " if some people got rid 

 of their prejudices they would get rid of their principles." We know 

 too well the type of character that this tends to develop, a character 

 of contemptuous reserve, that is only a subtly-disguised form of 

 .self-glorification, and the victim of it carries through life in his 

 bearing towards others an attitude of Pharisaic exclusiveness. The 

 true esprit de corps must be based on sympathy or fellow-feeling, the 

 imaginative understanding of the feelings of others. There must be 

 no narrowness or partiality in its texture, and no standard adopted 

 for the treatment of its members that cannot be applied equally to 

 others. A jealousy for the honour of the school must not mean a 

 blindness to its shortcomings, but a corporate determination that no 

 meanness or selfishness shall be tolerated, and that the action of 

 each individual .shall be such as will make for raising the general 

 level and adding to the common credit. It must permeate the whole 

 life of the school, work and s[)ort alike, and result in a breadth and 

 generosity of character that will recognise worth and merit wherever 

 met. 



General principles are excellent, but it is the concrete example 

 that appeals most readily to the young mind, and hero-worship is 

 probablv the most potent factor in developing school ideals. It is 

 well to see then that the objects of this worship are not merelv the 

 distinguished scholars or the heroes of the playing-fields, but those 

 who were never known to do a mean thino; and whose presence was 

 always a bulwark of strength to the weaker and younger. 



This esprit de corps of the school widens later into the feeling 

 of patriotism that has in all times and in all ages been honoure(i bv 

 poet and singer as one of the most ennobling of human sentiments. 



