right and wrong his behavior goes far to shape the yet pliant dispositions of those around him. . . . These, then, are the dangerous aspects of athleticism. It is liable, if allowed full play, to damage seriously the intellectual interests of a school, without raising appreciably the moral tone, and also to become a hindrance to school government. It is quite obvious, then, that great care should be taken to control this development of school-life. It should be looked upon as ever tending to form an excrescence."
Mr. Littleton next proceeds to inquire how the evils of excessive athleticism may be diminished. A boy places but little reliance upon any representation of the teachers as to the unworthiness or secondary claims of athletics in comparison with proper educational objects. "He looks upon them as a class bound to preach such doctrines in the position they hold, and that it is only to be expected they should do so; but as for really thinking that they are right, when as it appears to him the whole of England is the other way, that he can not bring himself to do." Here is the difficulty; the motive power is the public interest. "That motive power is the consensus of fashionable opinion which acts externally on the feelings of the school and produces such results." But, as it is futile to try to correct public opinion, the only way is to prevent its taking effect by withdrawing the boys from its influence. It is in the power of the authorities to prevent those public contests which kindle such widespread public enthusiasm, when the interest and applause of multitudes are presented to the boys in their most imposing and dazzling form. That is, intercollegiate regattas and athletic contests of all sorts, which draw out great masses of excited people, had better be avoided in the interest of sound education.
But, while the prestige of athleticism might be diminished by guarding in this way against external influences, Mr. Littleton recognizes that the plan would have to be supplemented by agencies of a very different character. The school-work itself must be made more attractive. He sees that there is a very important change in the higher education of late years, which is not without promise of counteraction to the excessive devotion to sport. This change in the objects and methods of the school is thus described: "Certain conditions have given birth to a now widely-accepted theory of education, which in all probability will effect still more marked alterations than it has hitherto. The conditions are these: Owing to the increase of population on the one hand, and the advance of learning on the other, we are brought face to face, not only with an increasing number of subjects to be learned, but also with an increasing necessity of learning them. Many members of the class from which, thirty years ago, the ornamental men of leisure were recruited, now find that existence has assumed to them a more somber hue; paths formerly open to them are open no longer, and through knowledge alone an access to ease and affluence is to be obtained. Accordingly, the avenues to knowl-
