So closely are love and war connected that not only is individual pugnacity
greatly increased at the period of sexual maturity, when animals acquire or
develop horns, fangs, claws, spurs, and weapons of offense and defense, but a
new spirit of organization arises which makes teams possible or more
permanent. Football, baseball, cricket, etc., and even boating can become
schools of mental and moral training. First, the rules of the game are often
intricate, and to master and observe them effectively is no mean training for the
mind controlling the body. These are steadily being revised and improved, and
the reasons for each detail of construction and conduct of the game require
experience and insight into human nature. Then the subordination of each
member to the whole and to a leader cultivates the social and coöperative
instincts, while the honor of the school, college, or city, which each team
represents, is confided to each and all. Group loyalty in Anglo-Saxon games,
which shows such a marked increment in coördination and self-subordination at
the dawn of puberty as to constitute a distinct change in the character of sports at
this age, can be so utilized as to develop a spirit of service and devotion not only
to town, country, and race, but to God and the church. Self must be merged and a
sportsmanlike spirit cultivated that prefers defeat to tricks and secret practise,
and a clean game to the applause of rooters and fans, intent only on victory,
however won. The long, hard fight against professionalism that brings in husky
muckers, who by every rule of true courtesy and chivalry belong outside
academic circles, scrapping and underhand advantages, is a sad comment on the
character and spirit of these games, and eliminates the best of their educational
advantages. The necessity of intervention, which has imposed such great burdens
on faculties and brought so much friction with the frenzy of scholastic sentiment
in the hot stage of seasonal enthusiasms, when fanned to a white heat by the
excessive interest of friends and patrons and the injurious exploitation of the
press, bears sad testimony to the strength and persistence of warlike instincts
from our heredity. But even thus the good far predominates. The elective system
has destroyed the class games, and our institutions have no units like the English
colleges to be pitted against each other, and so colleges grow, an ever smaller
percentage of students obtain the benefit of practise on the teams, while
electioneering methods often place second-best men in place of the best. But
both students and teachers are slowly learning wisdom in the dear school of
experience. On the whole, there is less license in "breaking training" and in
celebrating victories, and even at their worst, good probably predominates, while
the progress of recent years bids us hope.
Finally, military ideals and methods of psycho-physical education are helpful