ts, there were ten whose
preoccupation in the boy's athletics was deep and vital.

It is no wonder that, with all this parental earnestness, boys tended
to consider success in games the one paramount object of their lives;
it was all knit up with social ambitions, and it was viewed, I do not
hesitate to say, as of infinitely more importance than anything else. I
do not mean to say that many of the boys did not consider it important
to be good, and did not desire to be conscientious about their work.
But as a practical matter games were what they thought about and talked
about, and what aroused genuine enthusiasm. They were disposed to
despise boys who could not play games, however virtuous, kindly, and
sensible they might be; an entire lack of conscientiousness, and even
grave moral obliquity, were apt to be condoned 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