THE BAEBAEIANS 13 



I once consulted two Dons on the situation, both men in a posi- 

 tion to know something of the matter, and received the following 

 contradictory judgments. 



No. 1 



The undergraduate who hunts, whether with foxhounds. Drag, or 

 Beagles, is an essential waster, and but for the most guilt-edged of 

 good behaviour could not be tolerated. Nohow ! 



No. 2 



The undergraduate who hunts has, owing to his Chesterfieldian 

 character, such great potentialities for good that his aloofness from 

 the general body of University doings is " selfish " and a loss : he is a 

 valuable academic asset run to waste. Contrariwise ! 



Thus "Tweedle Dum" and "Tweedle Dee." To whom the following 

 answers should be given : — 



To Tweedle Dum 



The judgment on the Barbarians that they are of no use to their 

 university or colleges either as athletes or intellectuals, that is as 

 not being good Philistines, is narrow-minded and wrong. A young 

 man with brains, and Barbarians have brains, is not meant merely to 

 glorify his college by Tripos and Scholarship, nor one of brawn to 

 humiliate his Alma Tanta ^ by becoming a victorious blue : but to 

 be educated with a view to his future use in the wider world. I 

 have always understood that I was to " praise famous men and our 

 fathers that begat us""- for that they founded an University for the 

 benefit of undergraduates, not because they begat undergraduates for 

 the benefit of the University. The Barbarian attends his lectures 

 when suitable, or coaches when they are not, passes his examinations 

 and pays his fees at least as regularly as the average Philistine, and 

 will be tolerated as long as he continues so to do ; and the former 

 certainly needs no more of the margin that is wisely granted for 



1 Tanta is Latin for "aunt," from the French tante. Ahua Tanta is, of course, 

 the Sister University. 



- Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1. 



