Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 4 text:

slmlllsI'I1l!l-t.lX'IXt.1.l'lml Ol IIUXUYR Iillll-XIYII R QIIXRIIN Xl ITRI RN llil lllll, Ihfwlx Nl, 1.x.w rw! X,.u'wvm1'lLff'..1

Page 3 text:

4 SELWYN HOUSE 4 SCHCOL MAGAZINE Vol, 22 HJR lHl . SLHOUI, YPXR IYIIEVYH YXUUS5 S 5 Qs L-31 O 'Q as m 1949 1950

Page 5 text:

Illnrvmnrh The Duke of lvellington was in a very good position to know that the battle of YfVaterloo was fought at a place called lVaterloo. He has, however, been credited with the odd statement that this battle was won somewhere else, that it was won, in fact, on the playing fields of Eton . Though it seems odd that a battle could be won fifteen years before it was fought, and two hundred miles from the battlefield, the old Duke was right. Team-games, played in the proper spirit, do develop the kind of resourceful and energetic co-operation that wins wars. A point that is not so often considered is that peace, which is, presumably, the normal condition of mankind, is made, not on playing fields or battlefields, but in the minds of men. It is necessary to play games so that the mind may have a healthy place to live in the body: and it is sometimes necessary to fight wars so that peaceful ideas may have a healthy place to live in the world. But when games are played to the exclusion of study, or when wars are fought for power alone, the only result is a muscle-bound man or a muscle-bound nation. Only a greater soldier could have made another remark that is found in one of the Duke of lVellington's despatches: Nothing except Il Imllle Inst can be half so mclarzrlmly as ll battle won. Certainly, after the desperate work of winning a victory, we encounter the great responsibility of deciding what to do with that victory. After we vanquish our secondary-school examinations, we feel, first, relief at having passed them, then bewilderment before the thousand possibilities in life, of which we must choose one. In the same way, every victory, while it solves one great problem, brings a thousand small ones in its train. The muscle-bound man and the muscle-bound nation have no hesitation before these problems. They know what they want. Action for its own sake and power for its own sake are their only goals. They may disguise these goals under pretences of public service, as communism disguises itself by pretending to champion human rights. But the truth is always discovered in the result. And the student who cultivates mind as well as muscle will discover that his personal happiness can not be increased by subtracting it from the larger happiness of all human beings. He will also discover that his happiness proceeds, not from having something, or even from doing something, but from being somemze. The lost art of being a Person can well be cultivated in such a school as Selwyn House, where the tradition of games is balanced by the tradition of scholarship. The art of being a Person involves completeness. It involves readiness to act. but it also involves thinking about the best way to act: so that when the time for some important action comes, you may perform it not only quickly but wisely, not only wisely but well. C. M. Drury.