COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 587 



has developed. Eacli generation, heir to the endowments of all pre- 

 ceding ones, has added its increment of gain, and later generations — 

 those which belong to the historic period — have begun their lives with 

 a vast amount of inherited intelligence. There is sound philosophy in 

 the statement once jocosely made, that the natives of a certain part 

 of the country, remarkable for their intellectual activity, are born with 

 a good common-school education. By far the greater part of our edu- 

 cation is indeed born with us. 



Increased refinements of emotion, clearer subtilties of thought — 

 these are the directions which further development of the race must 

 take ; and the individual who experiences a hitherto unrealized emo- 

 tion, or who grasps a new thought which corresponds with some never 

 before observed fact or relation in the external world, is the seat 

 and center of progress. In such minds, nature is undergoing a still 

 higher evolution, and the colors of humanity are thus successively 

 planted on hitherto unsealed summits. 



w 



COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 



By EUGENE L. EICHAEDS. 



ASSISTAirr PBOFESSOB OF UATH£HATICS OT TALE COLLEGE. 



II. — EVILS AND THEIE EEMEDIES. 



ITH regard to the evils of the present system of college athletics 

 it must be remembered that the best system will not be free 

 from all evil. No human system can be free from evil. Even the 

 divine government of the world does not exclude the existence of evil. 

 That the present system has evils is no valid argument against it, unless 

 it can be shown either that these outweigh the good, or that some 

 other practical system can be devised which shall have all the good 

 with less of the evil of the present system. 



1. One evil alleged against the present system is the excessive 

 amount of time required for exercise under it. It is no doubt true that 

 some students do give too much time to athletics. Some students also 

 give too much time to study; yet that fact is not brought forward as 

 a fatal argument against the college course of study. Of the two ex- 

 cesses — excess of study and excess of exercise — the dangerous pressure 

 at present is toward excess of study. But, in point of fact, this evil 

 of too much time given to athletics has been greatly exaggerated. The 

 winter term is not open to the charge of excessive athletics. The ath- 

 letes then training do not devote an average of more than an hour a 

 day to exercise. Perhaps a few give an hour and a half. It would 

 be safe to say that, counting all the time consumed, including the time 



