COMPETITION.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 4, Issue 170, 30 October 1880, Page 3

COMPETITION.

That wise writer, tho late Sir Arthur Keifs. 'whose pleasant fritnds one has ■often wet in bis-councils, published shortly before his death a. little volume of eug-1 gettivo assays and aphorisms, from which we select the following:— I " Thore are, I think, more good words to be said against Competition than for it. No doubt it is a great incentive to exertion, but there its function for good begins ami ends.. It is no friend to Love, and is first cousin, with no removes, to Envy. Then it derauges and puts quits yuit of place tho best motives for exertion. ' Read your book because that other boy is reading his, and yon will be beaten in tho ■contest with him if you do not take cure.' Such is the motive that competition administers, but it says nothing obout learning boing a good thing for itself. Consequently, when tho competitors are parted, the book is apt to drop out of the hand of hira toho chiefly mctl it as n ttorchotut of weapons. " Then, again, when education has been greatly built upon motives of competition, excellence is mode too much of, and moderate proficiency is sadly discouraged. A very injurious effect is thus {traduced upon tho mind of the person who has been used to compete, lie or she thinks, ' If I am not everything I am nothing,' nnd declines to sing, or to plsy, w draw, or to go on with somo accomplishment, because it has been ascertained by competition and examination, at a certain time of life, that other people could do bettor. Tho world loses a great deal by this, and moreover, it is by no moans certain that inferiority in anything at one time of life precludes excellence in that same thing at another time 'of life. " Competition, however, will not. cease to bo urgently employed as a motive, I until the mas 3 of mankind becomo roal | Christians—an event which docs not se;m likely to happen in our time. The practical object, therefore is to see what limits and restraints can bo applied to competion. I should propose throe: — " 1. Do not apply it to the vory young for two roisons. In tho first place, experience shows that, for tho mere acquisition of knowledge, it does not answer to work the brain early, and that children who are somewhat let alone as regards learning surpass the others when the proper time for diligent study comos. Ido not pretend to deline this time, that is a matter upon which those only who arc skilled in education can pronounce. The second reason is, that it is well, morally speaking, to let children get the habit of regarding their fellows as frieuds ' and playmates, than as rivals. " i. Nover'apply competition as a motive in a family. Ijookud at in the. most businesslike and worldly way, it does not pay. Let us take a familiar and domestic instance, for abstract talk, though it Bounds grandly, seldom leads to much result. A father has two sons, James and Charles. James is always down ,in time for breakfast: Charlie is apt' to be late. Let the fat.hor praise and encourage James for his early rising, but not in Charlie's presence. And let him 'the father) administer good advice or blamo, to Charlie, in the matter of early rising without saying one word about Jamosie's merits or holding him up as a model to be followed—and disliked. It is far more important for tho family interests that Charlie's lovo for Jamesie should not be diminished iu the least, than that lm should be incited by competition with his brother, to get up oarly. That splendid copy-book saying— I wonder who first said it—it must have been tho eighth wiso man of Greece—- " Comparisons arc odious—is especially true in domestic life. And the most unpleasant and dangerous comparisons arc always brought out to incite to competition. " 3. If, for purposes of education, you must, at some pcirod oi life, have earnest, T would almost say, fierce competition, at any rato let it bo as littlo individual as possible. Lot the object for a youth be, to get into a certain class, not to beat a certain other youth or youths. The riding-school seems to furnish a good model. Put a bar up and say,' All those that leap over this shall be oonsidored good horsemen ;' and then tho youths, who do succeed iu leaping over it will congratulate one another, and havo a fooling of pleasant enmpauionship, rathor than the bitter rivalry, with each other. You may have as many bars as you like, of different degrees of oxcellonoe in horsemanship ; but do not inquire too curiously into tho exact merits of each individual rider, and seek to put him in what you may call his proper place. That will be found out soon enough, when they all come to ride aoross country—the difficult country of public or professional life. " After the foregoing illustrations, which are of a very homely oharaotor, it may seem a somowhat abrupt transition to revert to religious consideration!. Rut I cannot oonclude this ihort essay without remarking that competition is not a thing much eucourged in tho Best of Books and by the divinest of Teachers. There is a command—tho great command —about loving ono another, but not about competing with another. Yes ; perhaps there is (at any rate an implied command), to compete for the lower place.' 1 —Sydney Mail, ~