in the case of a successful athlete.  We masters, I must frankly confess, did not make any serious attempt to fight the tendency.  We spent our spare time in walking about the cricket and football fields, in looking on, in discussing the fine nuances in the style of individual players.  It was very natural to take an interest in the thing which was to the boys a matter of profound concern; but what I should be inclined to censure was that it was really a matter of profound concern with ourselves; and we did not take a kindly and paternal interest in the matter, so much as the interest of enthusiasts and partisans.

It is very difficult to see how to alter this.  Probably, like other deep-seated national tendencies, it will have to cure itself.  It would be impossible to insist that the educators of youth should suppress the interest which they instinctively and genuinely feel in games, and profess an interest in intellectual matters which they do not really feel.  No good would come out of practising hypocrisy in the matter, from however high a motive.  While schoolmasters rush off to golf whenever they get a chance, and fill their holidays to the brim with games of various kinds, it would be simply hypocritical to attempt to conceal the truth; and the difficulty is increased by the fact that, while parents and boys alike feel as they do about the essential importance of games, head-masters are more or less bound to select men for masterships who are proficient in them; because whatever else has to be attended to at school, games have to be attended to; and, moreover, a man whom the boys respect as an athlete is likely to be more effective both as a disciplinarian and a teacher.  If a man is a first-rate slow bowler, the boys will consider his views on Thucydides and Euclid more worthy of consideration than the views of a man who has only a high university degree.

The other day I was told of the case of a head-master of a small proprietary private school, who was treated with open insolence and contempt by one of his assistants, who neglected his work, smoked in his class-room, and even absented himself on occasions without leave.  It may be asked why the head-master did not dismiss his recalcitrant assistant.  It was because he had secured a man who was a ’Varsity cricket-blue, and whose presence on the staff gave the parents confidence, and provided an excellent advertisement.  The assistant, on the other hand, knew that he could get a similar post for the asking, and on the whole preferred a school where he might consult his own convenience.  This is, of course, an extreme case; but would to God, as Dr. Johnson said, that it were an impossible one!  I do not wish to tilt against athletics, nor do I at all undervalue the benefits of open air and exercise for growing boys.  But surely there is a lamentable want of proportion about the whole view!  The truth is that we English are in many respects barbarians still, and as we happen at the