Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-07-21
The Modern Olympic.


equal them in the splendor of their intel
lectual eminence, we mean to surpass them
in the physical contests Of the gymnasium.
We find in that little speck Of the globe
which bordcred on the Egcan Sea, OF which
Athens was the chief city, the home of an
cient art. science and philosophy. There
poetryfnds her best examples, and sculpture
learns that her ideal is not a dream there
painting recalls her choicest triumphs, and
music her sweetest achievements there his
tory finds her finest specimens, and philoso-
ply her ablest teachers. And our modern
universities, dazzled with the glory Of that
ancient learning and art and deyoting their
curriculum to the acquisition Of but the
crumbs and fragments of the wonderful
knowledge whose full table was spread be
fore every boy Of Athens, are now trying to
equal old Greece la the very lowest depart
ment Of her physical culture In despair OF
Grecan learning, they aspire to Grecian
muscle. Failing Of the culture Of the acad-
envy, they want to revive the Olympic games.
To mind their snothing so sad in mod
em culture as this revival of the old physical
contests Of the days Of the Olympiad. The
muscular element in ancient Greek pagan
ism dwarfed all its intellectual greatness.
The rivalry in the foot race became more
fascinating than the contest for intellectual
prizes. The glory Of the victor with the ces-
tus or quot, was greater than that Of the
poet or the scholar. The Olympic games at
length concentrated the intellect Of Greece
on muscular feats and physical prowess; and
the crown which Plato or Pindar llerodotus
or IIesiod, Euripides or Aristotle worthily
won, came to he placed Oh the brows Of
some Daicles, Coraebus, or other triumphant
athlete, whose name has passed out Of the
very memory of men. There is nothing so
destructive Of intellectual aspiration and
eminence in a people, as to honor and dig
nifty the victories of mere physical force.
There is nothing so trivial or temporary as
an athletic triumph. 1t does no good to
the victor, or TO his race. The triumphs Of
matter, Of muscle, of brute force the ova-
tons which are given to such victories, re-
act against mental development, and in the
end weaken the higher capacities of human
nature. Even Greece learned this too late.
1t did not interdct the Olympic games till
these games had eaten out all the elements
of her singularly brilliant civilization. The
spirit Of competition, begotten in those
quadrcnnial contests, ultimately consumed
all her mental, as well as all her physical en-
ergies. The passion for physical glory CON
sumcd the desire for moral excellence, or
intellectual eminence, and when at last the
games of the athletes were prohibited, there
was not mental or moral power enough left
in Greece to save it. Emulation, publicity
and ovations to the champions of public
games terminated, even before the Christian
era, the brilliant history Of that singular
civilization.
1t is one of the marvels of our modern
University that it is introducing the old
strifcs and riyalries which had so unhappy
and fatal effect upon the ancient nation,
whose literature forms so prominent fea-
ture in their course of study. 1t would
seem as il history might effectively warn
the teachers of our modern youth against a
system which was so disastrous TO the most
cultivated nation Of antiquity, which took
all the iron out of the blood of its young
mon, and reduced people who, at the out
set, were equal to a Marathon, to the condi-
ton of one Of their own tabled heroes, who
was eaten up by his own dogs. The yolup-
tuous and seusuous vices, which came in the
train of physical culture and honors, are a
perpetual admonition, which our universities
ought TO heed, against the attempt TO com
binc the absorbing rivalry Of Olympic games
with the calm and peaceful pursuit of art,
science and truth. 1t is a pity that college
presidents and instructors can feed with the
fuel Of their praise passion for mere phys
zeal glory in the young men under theil
charge, that win certainly, if history be true
if philosophy be true, if Christianity be true
consume all the higher and more generous
elements of their being.
There are potent physical reasons agains
such kind of physical culture and contest
as are found in the regattas and games TO
championship which our colleges are nov
encouraging. An experienced trainer o
horses for the turf once said, that the ten
dency of such training was to render tn
horse yalueless for the road and for all com
mon service. And the muscular training
OF young men, with the prize of ovation'
and high honors set before them in contest;
of muscular power and endurance, thus
concentrating the brain force into the cord,
and tendons of their arms and legs, and di
verting it from its natural channels, tends
iresistibly, to disqualify them for the highe
and nobler services of life. Experiences
physicians declare the deleterious iniluenc
of such games on the body itself They drai
il of it; nervous and muscular resource.
They will ultimately transform even Al
Apollo into a spindling, knock-kneed, creep
tating Ohio. They react upon the health
and in the subsequent exhaustion they fl
the body with the seeds Of WEAKNESS an
disease.
But their effect is felt for evil also o
the mental powers. They quench brigl
thoughts, clear enquiries, the consistency, fide
ity and generous honesty of true stud,
which are the quality of noble minds, an
in which the students of our universitic
ought TO have no peers.
But their worst influence is upon the mori
and spiritual powers. They help the lowe
the meaner and the animal part Of nature, |
take precedence and to triumph. They 81,
to the base and ignoble passions of emul
ton, competition and envy, in the least mob
of all controversies, the guidance of II
chariot Of the soul, of which God has mac
the reason and the conscience the sole, sal
charioteers. These contests are environe
by all that dazzles the unframed imagine
tons of the youthful competitors. The
end happily if they end in defeat, and "
even defeat has its dangers almost as grei
as success. They corrupt the innocence {
the soul. They degrade the fine sense {
humanity. An athletic club of New Yor
could see one of their own members drow
before their eyes, and not lift a hand 10 say