344 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



selves. When amongst the commonwealth of nations 

 the question of the survival of the fittest has to be 

 fought out, one shudders to think of the miserable 

 part that these men and their descendants will play 

 in the struggle with their minds diseased through 

 the disease of their bodies. Yet it seems that 

 without State aid little, if anything, can be done 

 to provide this class with healthy enjoyment. The 

 efforts of muscular Christianity are generally de- 

 rided as an amiable but theoretical philanthropy, 

 and meet with no financial response; so we have 

 to fall back upon the aid of the State, in the absence 

 of private enterprise. 



It must be clearly understood that, whatever form 

 this aid takes, it should be confined to boys and 

 youths. The State has usurped the duty of educat- 

 ing her children, which used to belong to the Church, 

 but it seems to have confined its duty to founding 

 a system of examinations, which means cramming a 

 boy with knowledge, which he will forget within 

 a few weeks after he has left school, and which 

 would be of little use to him if he did remember 

 it. Even presuming that this system is good for 

 the education of the mind, which I venture to 

 doubt, it does not even pretend to provide a medium 

 for healthy enjoyment. When school hours are 

 over the boy is turned out to play in the streets, 

 where he is more likely to learn deceit and vice 

 than courage and skill in physical exercises, I 

 do not think that I should be exaggerating if I 



