Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

Page 29 text:

fgifws Q QE, ., ll NSW E Hiampiivit-Svihnwg auth Atlilrtira N QU Y man who has spent a year at Hampden-Sidney and has seen the splendid battling and the still more splendid spirit shown by her sons on the athletic held knows that athletics is a popular cause at this Institution-a cause that should be, and is, very dear to the heart of every loyal son and supporter of the College, whether he be a veteran of many years agone, or whether in recent days only he has stepped forth to enlist under the banner of Garnet and Gray, so often glorious in victory, yet not less honorable and honored in defeat. Familiar to every one is the three-fold division of education into mental, physical, the mind, body, and heart are severally brought into play and spiritual, according as the ends for which they were created. One reads and hears and trained best to subserve popular side today that one may entirely forget the right of so much of athletics on the physical, bodily exercise in a proper system of education. But the ancients were still alive to the importance of physical training and development as a necessary part in the schooling and equipment of their youth. No people ever attained to greater intellectual prowess than the Creeks, and yet those same Greeks have continued to our own day the wonder and admiration of the world for their exhibitions of physical skill and superiority, and the laurel that crowned the poet's brow they coveted scarcely more than the victor's wreath in the Ulympic games. Nor was this a disparagement of the higher being of man, but a happy correlation of bodily and mental powers, both regal, both supreme in their respective spheres. It is to the ancients, too, that we turn for the felicitous and com:- pendious definition of a well-rounded man as that of a sound mind in a sound body. If mythology furnishes in a Hercules the people's recognition of the physical as the highest type,-nay, if early history affords examples of the peopleis delight in the brutal and brutalizing elements of man's nature, and records for us the rule of international law in vogue with our ancestors that might makes right, we should not be led into the oppo- site error of supposing that a misguided fancy, a grim necessity, or even a willful abuse of native powers must be remedied by the suppression of those powers in all matters of proper conduct and living. The difficulties then, as now, resulted too often from over- emphasizing the one side of man's nature to the disparagement, if not exclusion, of the other. Because we have minds, have we not also bodies? and conversely, are our bodies to be regarded as the sum total existence? Press either too far, and you are reduced to an absurdity. A mind divested of its corporeal existence has no more place in a mun- dane sphere than gross corporeal substance would have in the limitless expanse of an 21

Page 28 text:

August IB, l838.-Southern Literary Messenger ordered stopped. June, l839.-Moved: The two Societies should waive the privilege of hearing their representatives already appointed, and agree to invite President Maxwell to de- liver an oration july 4. Not carried. February 5, l84l.-l,35O books in library as far as letter September 6, I8-ll.-lVlr. Sparrow elected to honorary membership. july 5, l8-43.-A table to be bought: 3560. November 25, IS43.-Society to confer with Faculty, being opposed to changing time of meeting. February l7, IS44. Debate: ls it probable that the U. S. will ever be dissolved? Negative. june 22, l844.-Treasurer to pay Mr. Ewell fof the Faculty? money subscribed for the improvement of Hampden-Sidney College. June 28, l845.-Debate: Would it be politic for the Southern States to secede and form a Confederacy? Negative. July I, IS46.-Mr. Jeffries, our representative, to use his own discretion about making a Fourth of july speech at the Court House, at the request of the ladies of the fair. One hundred badges to be bought for the next Commencement, and not to be scattered before that time. June l5, l847.--Appointee to read Declaration of Independence July 4th. September 27, IS47.-Anniversary meeting. Mourning ordered for N. E. Venable, one of the founders of this Society, june 5, l848.-Dr. Green, of Baltimore. elected to honorary membership. fpresident Creenl. June I7, l848.-Dr. Foote presents his Sketches of North Carolina. October 5, l860.-Debate: Would the South be justifiable in seceding from the Union? Negative. September 27, l86l-Debate: ln the War of the Roses, which had the best claim, the Red or the White? March 3l, IS65.-Debate: ls it the right policy for the South to own Slaves? Quite an interesting debate. Decision for the afhrmative. NOTE: This was the last meeting before the Yanks came to this place. Ever to be remembered by me. G. GQLASSJ. Nlarch 3, l866.flVloved and carried that advertisements be inserted in the Richmond Times, Petersburg Index, and Farmville Journal, for the returning of Society books. 20

Page 30 text:

ethereal abode. It is here again, to put the matter differently, the old case of the shield. Those who argue for no physical education fail to see the other side, and those who would make the physical rnan the whole man forget that there is another and a golden side! In College communities, where the subject of Athletics assumes more directly an educational aspect, much has been said and written touching the vexing problem-and far the greater part of the trouble has grown out of a failure to secure a proper sense of proportion, of balance. If College authorities generally recognized the right relation of physical exercises and contests to the rest of the educational scheme, the great American colleges today would not so often find themselves asking the question regarding athletics- To be or not to bef' What then is the function of an education and what part in making for the greater efficiency of that function are the gymnasium and the athletic field to play? ls not an education designed to develop true, strong, courageous manhood, to bring out all the best there is in a man and to direct that best to the highest, the most useful, and most efficient service in life? That bodily exercise is conducive to normal, healthy, mental development is too well known to be pointed out. Every one has experienced the exhilarating effect upon the mental powers of wholesome, vigorous physical exercise, just as every one who has neg- lected it comes to realize sooner or later at what cost he has denied himself, not the luxury nor the pleasure, but the very necessity of such exercise. Now in the college where does the student find this much needed help to his studies save in the gymnasium and on the athletic field? Then certainly here is justihcation for the physical side of education.. But more than this,-if courage, manly strength, a sense of fair play, if skill, agility, judgment-all these count in the mal-ce-up of the well-rounded college man, then surely there is a place in the educational programme for gymnastic exercises and athletic con- tests. Whether as an end in the development of the body itself or as a means to the de- velopment of those higher faculties of the mind and heart, college athletics cannot fail to serve a most desirable and useful purpose. What more valuable discipline than that of the athletic contest? Every honest participant learns the lesson of self-mastery, self- control. He cannot master his opponent unless he first learns to control himself-a prin- ciple he needs to carry all through life if he hopes successfully to meet and overcome the obstacles that will be found in his way. Qualities of endurance are likewise called forth and developed. The thoughtful and observant player finds that the staying qualities in the long run count for more than the brilliant exhibition of a moment that meteor-like illumines his path and then goes out in darkness and oblivion. He learns to hold out a little longer, to endure to the end, and. thus in the face of seeming defeat he does not give up and finally comes out victor. And when he leaves the athletic field and goes out into the greater and more serious contests of 22