INTERCOLLEGIATE LITERARY CONTESTS.

WHETHER or not the annual intercollegiate regatta, which is, as yet, nothing more than an experiment, deserves to be perpetuated as a custom, is a disputed question; but even if it should be answered unanimously in the affirmative, the advocates of the lately proposed system of literary contests still have their case to prove. The chief advantage of the regatta is said to be the increased disposition for physical work which it fosters in the minds of undergraduates generally, by bringing into popularity so healthy an exercise as boating. This it does in two ways, by encouraging rowing among those who train for the race, and among others who row out of pure love for the exercise. But, among students of literary tastes, there will be none corresponding to those in the second class, for no one would be inspired with a deeper love of scholarship or oratory because other men were to compete for prizes in those arts. Boating, ball-playing, and other forms of exercise, are the favorites by fits and starts, and depend largely for their popularity upon the prominence which is given to them on set occasions. The boat-house and the ball-field lie outside of our daily course, and if not reminded of them we are apt to forget their existence. But books are in our hands every day, and by daily use we grow fond of them. The love of learning is of slow growth, the result of constant mental improvement, and cannot be hurried by artificial stimulants.

Neither can it be argued that those who should themselves take part in the proposed literary contests would be improved in mind and character as the crews are physically. For physical work is equally beneficial under whatever motive it is undertaken, but this is not true of scholarly or literary work. The true motive of scholarship, and the one which, above all others, needs encouragement in American colleges, is self-improvement, without regard to other men or other objects, not a boyish desire to be first in a contest for prizes.

The student who studies only for marks, the conventional "grind," is one of the poorest products of a college. His knowledge is of a technical and superficial sort which is likely soon to fall away from him, because it has been acquired only through the compulsion of his own will, and as a means, not as an end. For such a man the literary contest would seem to have been devised, and both he and it are the natural products of the same system.

In all times the best scholars and writers have striven to inculcate in men a love of learning for its own sake, or, rather, for the sake of its educational effect, and in our own time so strong has been the desire for a thorough cultivation and development of all the intellectual powers, with no regard to professional or pecuniary objects, that a new word to express it, or at least an old one with increased meaning, has come into use, In direct contrast to such a spirit is the system of rewards and punishments which Harvard is fast shaking off, - and of such a system is not the proposed plan a natural outgrowth? A few would be made happy by outstripping their competitors, most of whom would, of course, be disappointed and disgusted with the scholastic or literary pursuits which had failed to accomplish for them the desired object, while the great body of the students would be affected not at all, or only in their pockets.

It is not fair to judge of a project merely by its advocates; but their characters and previous conduct may reasonably be taken into account, should these give us any ground for suspecting a leaven of prejudice or self-interest in their advocacy. For this reason it is to be noticed that the two colleges - Princeton and Williams - which lead off the attempt to establish the Intercollegiate literary contests, have not been among the foremost to transform school-boys into students. The President of one of them, who is understood to be strongly in favor of the proposed plan, has already made widely known his views upon College discipline, and it is not unnatural that he should now wish to lead into the arena his well-tamed pupil, moulded to his own sweet will, and fully crammed for the conflict. Let us leave them in undisputed possession of the field.

M. C. H.