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WISCOISSIN STATE AG MI CULTURAL SOCIETY. 
multitude, for whose advantage the contest was organized — whose 
brains, it was hoped, w^ould be galvanized into life — soon discern 
their hopelessness in the race, and gallop over the course at an 
easy pace, quite satisfied to save their distance. * It is a contest to 
which after life furnishes no parallels. In the struggle of after life, 
you win because you advocate a better cause than I, or, because 
you are more diligent in business than I; but you never stand 
before me and say: “I will win because I am a better man than 
you.” 
“ Inter-collegiate contests! ” When shall we have organized an 
inter-collegiate contest of prayer? The blasphemy of the one is 
apparent. The evil effects and bad taste of the other ought to be 
equally apparent. If sports which are called manly, in which 
supremacy is the essential element, are of doubtful physical utility 
(and they are so regarded by most physicians), how much more 
doubtful is the contest of mind with mind; whose victory, and not 
a cause or a principle, is the essential element in the struggle. The 
morality of such a contest, the moralist is left to settle. 
Children play too much, too long and too hard. A field of colts, 
where the companionship is constant, may be trusted to take care 
of themselves. The rivalry will not be too much for their healthful 
physical development; but he would be an unsuccessful breeder who 
should turn into his field a well fed, rampant colt, fresh from the 
stall, morning and evening, to excite the flock into greater activity. 
But children, in whom struggle for supremacy is one of the earliest 
manifestations, are supposed to be the better for an almost limitless 
amount of play, forgetting that their brains are too much for their 
bodies. And so they are left to bat and ball and shinny; to pull- 
away, and hide-and-seek, until, through exhaustion, they fall an 
easy prey to disease, which always stands ready to assault the weak¬ 
est point of the physical citadel; and more, it may be safely stated, 
no exhausted body contains a rested mind. Severe physical and 
mental labor go not harmoniously together. Few can bear the 
strain of both. A physical and mental athlete is possible; they are 
not common; so that if we would obtain the best possible mental 
growth, we must not overtask the body. A verification of the above 
statement will come from any mother who has carefully watched the 
mental training of her own children. 
It is not intended to undervalue air and exercise in maintaining 
