MORAL COMPETITION.
WE wish Lord Derby would remember that whatever he does, particularly when he does good deeds, is certain to be ex- tensively imitated by persons possessed of far less ability than himself. If he had remembered it, he would not, we think, have given a new impulse to one of the most mischievous practices which can prevail in public schools—the establishment of special prizes to be awarded for "general good conduct." His Lordship has, we are happy to hear, already received some 1,100/. from the sale of his translation of Homer, at least we assume that amount, as Lord Derby is a business man, and he says it will enable him to found a scholarship of 54/. a year. This he directs should be given to that one of the scholars in Wellington College who, not being under sixteen, should have most distinguished himself for industry, regularity, and "general good conduct." The first two qualities are of course well adapted for reward, being capable in some degree of definition and comparative estimate, but to include the third is, we are convinced, to inflict a serious injury on educa- tion. lathe first place, good conduct, being a moral quality, cannot be developed by any reward whatever except the content which it may yield to those who cultivate it. If it can, then it ceases at once to be good conduct, and becomes simple regularity of behaviour produced by the hope of an immediate reward—a moral article in fact turned out to order, and in the hope of pay. Is such an article of any real value whatever? We may be told that it is, that the mere habit of avoiding vice, or violence, or scampishness, or any of the many disorders which in a great school go to make up bad conduct, is as beneficial as any other kind of self-restraint, and vim the judge omniscient, that defence would be true. Unfortunately, however, the schoolmaster, call him pmsident, or principal, or only dominie, can perceive only apparent regularity, and as that is of all the virtues the one most easily simulated, the direct result will be the increase of a particular form of hypocrisy. The boys themselves no doubt would rarely be deceived, but for their knowledge to help the master they must commence a system of tale-telling and espionage which Lord Derby would we doubt not pronounce fatal to his idea of "good conduct" in a school. The master will be left to himself, and he is pretty sure, being human, to interpret "good conduct" either by compliance with some crotchety idea of his own, or by the single word obedience, the habit of reverence after which every school- master strives, and which he from some inward instinct so rarely expects to obtain that the expectation of not obtaining it gives" the schoolmaster look,"—menace qualified by indecision,— to his eyes. The best lad in a school is rarely the most obedient one, the qualities of independence, and manliness, and self-respect, those in short which Lord Derby himself would most admire, breaking out quite as often in little bursts of disrespect, or rule-breaking, or general "cheekiness," as in any other mode. High spirit is often fatal to that appearance of " steadiness " which to schoolmasters and women appears such a perfect sub- stitute for most of the higher qualities of the soul. No school- master, for example, would award a "good-conduct "prize to Earl Derby for his behaviour in the House of Lords, yet there is a manliness in it which rather impresses good judges. If the com- petition were extended to that great College, a regular school- master would, we fear, award the prize to some one like the Duke of Argyle, who is very regular, and very industrious, and never breaks out or says indecorous things, and who is fond of pious literature, and in short has that kind of mental prettiness about him which in this world is held to distinguish the well conducted. It is respectability, not character, which is sure to win such a prize. Boys are so conscious of this disparity between the con- duct which pleases a master and the higher forms of character, that they are by no means proud of being called specially well conducted. They are at to confound "good conduct" with the milksoppi- ness which masters mistake for it, and this not on account of their descent from Adam, but from a sound and most beneficial instinct. They feel, without analyzing the truth, that an artificial regularity and soberness of demeanour, a perpetual suppression of nature in little things, is so foreign to the better instincts of youth, so abhorrent to the nobler kind of temperaments, as to be reprehen- sible rather than praiseworthy, to suggest distrust, and caution, and avoidance, rather than warm appreciation. There are in every great school a few lads such as those who will strive for this prize, of exact and mythodical nature and great caution as to con- sequences, who are never in scrapes, especially.through screening their friends, and very seldom away from their posts, especially when anything is to be got, but who nevertheless do not make many friends, or acquire much influence, or help to introduce a higher tone into the school. They form a useful element, though not always a healthful one ; but deliberately to manufacture them and hold them up as models, to ticket them as exemplars whom the schoolboys' pet hero among statesmen delights to reward, can only tend to lower the tone of the school, either by increasing the .recoil from such goodiness, or by creating a habit of trying to put it on. The latter is by far the worst—the idea of a dozen or so of fine lads trying for a whole year to keep solemn, and exact in little observances, and scrupulously timid of scrapes, and strictly correct in the playground, all in the hope of cash, being too annoying to contemplate. As well give a prize to the tidiest, and expect that to increase the winner's devotion to manly sports ; or to the quietest, and then hope that he will be captain of the cricket eleven.
Such prizes would be injurious even were they granted to all who attained a particular standard, but Lord Derby wishes to introduce a competition for moral excellence—an idea which, however tempting, it is not, and never will be, given to man to realize. We can test intellectual strength, for that is pretty well shown by results,—allowing always for the blunders caused by the comparative pace at which different lads develope,— and there is a fair certainty that the boy who of thirty others does most, best, and in the least time, is the ablest among the thirty. It is also possible to test industry, though by no means so fairly, very quick men having often an appearance of idleness which is entirely unreal, very slow men an appearance of industry which is at least as fallacious, and some few hard workers being by nature compelled to work by fits and starts. Still the habit of appli- cation can be tested, if the love of industry cannot, and prizes to encourage application—the one habit which, though a mere habit, has all the value of a moral quality—are in themselves beneficial. But there is no thermometer by which the comparative moral excellence of men can be registered, for it is dependent, not on result, but on motive, which is beyond the ken Ippt only of the examiner, but of the competitor himself. No one can estimate the moral value of any act until aware of the tempta- tion resisted in order to its performance. The virtue of school- boys is of course usually of a negative kind, but take the most ordinary criteria—temper and truthfulness. It is of course very right that a lad should keep his temper and indispensable that he should tell the truth, but the virtue of doing either, the moral value that is of the habit, differs in every different person. If Lord Derby wants to break out in a rage with a stupid Peer or sanctimonious Bishop and doesn't, the abstinence is very much more creditable to him, requires a much higher exertion of moral force than a similar abstinence say in Lord Granville or Lord Ebury. We have met men who could not be out of tem- per, to whom a good healthy capacity for flying on occasion into a rage would be a very great gain. Truth is always the first of qualities, but for a timid man and a man without fear, an exact man and a man with an imagination, to be equally truthful re- quires a very different exertion of the moral energy which, not the mere result of that energy, is deserving of praise. There are who are pure without self-control, honest without an effort, truthful from mere unconsciousness, forgiving from sheer indif- ference, benevolent from a dislike to endure a pain which sympa- thetic nerves make great, and it is to such, and not to those who have to fight out the Christian's battle, that the reward of good conduct almost always falls. In Wellington College such a prize will we doubt not do very little mischief, for both donor and agent at heart intend that it should be given to character, which is visible, and not moral excellence, which is invisible, but such a gift is sure to be repeated in schools where benevolence is directed by less of experience and worldly wisdom, and in such places it will do unmitigated harm.
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