OCTOBEB 15, 100!)] 



SCIENCE 



513 



life on a somewhat higher plane, where 

 real simplicity, naturalness and downright 

 sincerity replace all traces of sophistication 

 and wrong ideals. Let genuine enthusiasm 

 find freer and more fearless expression, 

 that we may become more manly, strong 

 and free. Why can't some college men 

 stop masquerading in an assumed mental 

 apathj and be spontaneously honest? 



Some who have sought an explanation 

 of this slightly altered tone in college life 

 blame intercollegiate athletics for the 

 changed conditions, but I am not able to 

 find the cause there, and believe, as I have 

 already suggested, that it lies far deeper 

 in the changed conditions of society and 

 our national life. The outcry to abolish 

 intercollegiate sports is rather hard to ex- 

 plain. Aside from the assumed injury 

 done to studious habits, apparently no one 

 really objects to sports kept within bounds. 

 But our colleges by agreement may set the 

 bounds wherever they choose. Where, 

 then, is the real reason for complaint ? On 

 the other hand, intercollegiate sports do 

 more to unite the whole college and give it 

 a sense of solidarity than any other under- 

 graduate activity, and thus serve a worthy 

 purpose. Moreover, the lessons of sport 

 are lessons of life and it is the moral worth 

 rather than the physical benefit of athletics 

 which we can ill afford to lose from student 

 life. They effectively teach a high degree 

 of self control, concentrated attention, 

 prompt and vigorous action, instant and 

 unswerving obedience to orders, and a dis- 

 cipline in accepting without protest a close 

 ruling, even if a wrong one, in the generous 

 belief that he who made it acted in good 

 faith. Sport, like faith, knows no court of 

 appeal. A man's moral fiber comes out in 

 his bearing toward his opponent in the 

 stress of play and in the dignity with which 

 he meets defeat or victory at the end of the 

 game. By gallant conduct toward a vic- 

 torious adversary' a bodily defeat becomes a 



personal triumph. It is only when the 

 spirit is defeated through the body that 

 upright men cry shame ! I believe one of 

 the severest tests of a gentleman to be his 

 ability to take victory, or defeat, with equal 

 good will and courtesy toward those against 

 whom he has bodily contended. Whether 

 we get all that we might out of our college 

 sports is another question, but year by year 

 we approach nearer and nearer to the 

 higher standards of a true sportsmanship. 



The problem of athletics suggests an- 

 other problem which is its twin : What shall 

 we do for the symmetrical development of 

 those who do not train on college teams 

 but who need physical training far more 

 than athletes do ? Here is a question which 

 has not been successfully met and one 

 which demands immediate and wider con- 

 sideration than it has yet received. 



To strengthen interest in scholarship by 

 introducing a larger element of competition 

 than at present is a suggestion which has 

 come from several different sources re- 

 cently. The competitive idea has long 

 been in full force in the older English uni- 

 versities with what is now regarded there 

 as a result to which good and evil have con- 

 tributed nearly equal parts. Our own col- 

 leges have always offered some prizes for 

 high scholarly attainment but the inspira- 

 tion for a sufficient extension of the custom 

 to make it a leading idea in our under- 

 graduate life has been drawn from the 

 extraordinary succe.ss of athletic contests 

 in arousing student effort and enthusiasm. 

 That a wider competition in scholarship 

 than we now have would produce some use- 

 ful results lies beyond question, but that 

 those who expect most of all things from 

 it will be disappointed may be confidently 

 predicted. It seems to me that the larger 

 part of the ardor students show for athletic 

 contests is due more to the appeal which 

 bodily combat always makes to the dram- 

 atic sense than to the competitive idea in 



