One might accept this strange system if one were convinced
that it was due merely to the realisation on the part of the masters that it is easier to run a large school on the basis of athletics than on the basis of intellectualism. There is much sense in that. Yet I wonder whether our method of concentrating admiration and rewards upon bodily rather than upon mental prowess will help us in the difficult and dangerous world that lies ahead. One cannot play squash-racquets with an atomic bomb. And if, with our diminished physical and economic power, we are to maintain our place in the new world, it would seem preferable at least to suggest to our boys and girls that ambition for the mind is more lasting, and in the end more effective, than ambition of the body. I fear, however, that if this new educational emphasis is to be applied, we shall be obliged to relegate the study of the dead languages to a purely specialised category, with heraldry and numismatics. And only a few people thereby will be deprived of what after all is an esoteric pleasure.
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