MARGINAL COMMENT
By 11AROLD NICOLSON
T is salutary from time to time to attend the annual Speech Day of one's old school. The buildings during the last half- century appear to have shrunk to small models of themselves. whereas the conifers and the rhododendrons remain exactly the same as they were in 1901. This teaches us the first lesson— namely that objects and people, which or who expand concur- rently with ourselves, can retain their identity and significance for fifty years ; whereas objects and people, which or who remain *static, become diminished with the passage of time. By an effort of memory it is possible, in those recovered surroundings, to recall our own school heroes and to remember how clean and staunch they were. Some of them may, of course, be dead ; but others surely must be still alive ; it is sad to reflect that, owing to defective powers of development and adaptation, they have not maintained the eminence acquired when they were seventeen. Conversely, as we stroll across the lawns and playing fields, we may be accosted by some fellow dotard and recognise in his battered but distinguished features the lineaments of Irvinge minor, let us say, who when at school was universally regarded, not merely as a typical squealer, but even as a freak. How com- fortable it is to feel that he is now a retired Major General and a K.C.B.! Success, we reflect, is the reward of expanding activity ; the person who rests too sedately upon his school laurels is not likely to prove a success. The less reverent among us may even suspect that the boys who are chosen as prefects for their sterling qualities are not the boys who are likely to display variations of thought or conduct - the " reliability " so esteemed by masters may be little more than a capacity for repeating the same move- ments. In the end, like the clock in the parlotir of some moulder- ing manor-house, repetition becomes their only mode of expres- sion. It is thus important continually to change one's mind. -That is the first lesson.
* * * * The second lesson is this. On revisiting our old school and noting the improvements and reforms introduced during the last fifty years, we are apt to feel that our own futility can be ascribed to the fact that in our day educationalists were less enlightened, opportunities more restricted, and masters inclined to admire only the more convenient talents. " If only." one murmurs, " I had in 1901 been offered an equal variety of opportunity, if only I had been provided with as many alternative choices, I also might have become a School Prefect and acquired the lilting gait of power. What eminence might I not have achieved had there in my day existed an archaeological society, an architectural club, or a group such as would have enabled me, in a fine French accent, to read aloud from the Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon! But I was stunted at school, denied all occasions for self-revela- tion, exposed continuously and overtly to my own clumsiness with bat and ball. How different are the little boys of today ! " If one possesses any powers of self-criticism, one should be aware that such movements of self-pity are misplaced. I might, had these many varied societies existed in 1901, have been less bored at school ; I am quite sure•that I should not have been more eminent or powerful. Success at school in 1951 is due to the same qualities as in 1901: and it is right that this should be so. That is the second lesson.
* *• * • * There are four reasons why I regard this as an excellent second lesson. First, because it is bad for the soul to imagine that failure in life is due to the intellectual or moral deficiencies of others ; it is invariably due to oneself. I am not saying that success is necessarily good, or failure bad ; the former can be disgusting and the latter, if accepted as gently as an October afternoon, can be extremely dignified. All I am saying is that it is silly to ascribe one's failure to someone else. When I say that I consider it right that success at school should be based upon a certain category of virtues or attainments, 1 am not saying so because I regard the public school spirit as an absolute standard, but because I regard it as a useful standard even at this date. If young people are to develop their own personalities gradually, they must do so within a certain frame of habit ; they require the rhythm of an accepted discipline ; it is far better that they should be ruled by their fellows than that they should be guarded and regimented by ushers ; and the authority of the prefectorial body must ultimately depend upon muscular proivess. More. over it is natural for little boys to imitate what they admire ; imitation is in fact the urge that gives impetus to their develop. ment. They are inclined, and to my mind healthily inclined, to imitate the Captain of Football rather than to imitate the Dean of Westminster, who, however admirable he may be, is less immediately imitable. Much perturbation of spirit would also be caused if little boys were to start imitating the intellectuals of the Upper Sixth the standards of comparison would become extremely confused, since although it is hard to determine whether a boy possesses durable mental gifts, it is easy to decide whether he has, or has not, made 102 runs not out. And since the seedling genius prospers best in the soil of certainty, it is an excellent thing that littjE boys should admire and therefore imitate values that can be immediately and precisely defined.
Intellectual values can certainly not be immediately defined. It, is quite impossible to tell whether a boy who is a genius at fifteen may not become a slobbering idiot at twenty-two, but it is at least probable that a boy who excels at cricket when at school will continue to excel at cricket for at least seven years. Thus if boys were to be encouraged to make heroes of those of their contemporaries who wrote brilliant alcaics, they might select as their idols eccentrics whom they could never hope to imitate or equal ; but since they are encouraged to admire those of their elders who display athletic prowess, emulation is more manage- able and less hopeless. Success or failure with bat and ball may not be durably important ; but it is the emulation and the stimulus that are so valuable, and it is obviously idiotic to allow boys to lose heart in imitating the inimitable. If they are average athletes they will acquire distinction while at school ; and if they be authentic intellectuals then the whole future lies before them as a field of endeavour and experiment My second lesson therefore leads me to the conclusion that those intellectuals who complain that, being bad at games, they were offered no opportunities when at school are not really being very intelligent ; athleticism is an inevitable and not harmful com- ponent of the whole school system ; the intellectual is a later- flowering plant who bears his gorgeous blossoms at a date when the school-hero can do no more than take the underground to Lord's. I regard our public school system and the myths and conventions by which it is buttressed as well attuned to out national character. I look forward to the day when it will be extended to embrace all classes of the community.
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No, when I return to my old school on Speech Day, I do not feel that the present generation are more fortunate than I was myself. Certainly they are more gifted and less self-conscious than we were: even if I and my contemporaries had been capable of singing a part-song by Purcell in front of the whole school, We should have died of shame at being thus exposed. Compared to those Donatello angels, we were drab and dull indeed. But at least we had a sense of security ; at least we knew that there would be cakes and ale in future ; and our features twitched at least and sparkled with permitted flippancy, and were not straitened by the gas-mask of impending doom.
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