A PRIZE - Harry Farjeon, October 1933

There are three ways of winning prizes by merit. I don't mean the various ways there are of winning by luck, such as sweepstakes and the shilling in the Christmas pudding.

Of course, even the  merit may have a good deal of luck mixed up with it; on the day of the examination you may draw a horse in the shape of a special amount of good health and vitality, while Molly Mope, who really plays better than you, may be prostrated by one of her sleepless nights. Or you may find one of those Christmas-shilling examiners who put everybody at their ease and give them lots of marks to spend; while Molly, at another centre, may have one of the plain-pudding stingy kind, with neither shilling nor plums, who likes to keep all the marks to himself.

Three Ways of Winning

Now what are the three ways of winning prizes by merit?

No. 1 By competition. Lots of people try to be the best, and one of them is best.

No. 2 By individual candidature. One person tries to reach a certain standard, and is passed or failed.

No. 3 By selection without examination - without entering for the prize, or perhaps even knowing that it exists.

The most famous prizes in all history in Class No. 1 are the wreaths given to the victors in Ancient Greece at the Olympic Games. In Class No. 2 I don't know that history can show anything to beat the Matric., and the Associated Board (ABRSM) exams; while in Class No. 3 the Nobel Prizes hold pride of place.

Prizes are Nice

Of course, it is always nice to win a prize. Even a present is nice, but with a prize there is the pleasure of being something as well as that of having something. 

Sport is Not Enough

In England we love competitions; more than in other countries are they loved here, because of our feeling for sport. This is all very well, so long as we realize that, in Art, as in life, sport is not enough. And in art sport must be supplemented by work. In both, too, sport and work must be supplemented by play - play of the fancy in art, just as in games, indoor and outdoor, there must be play of the brain and the body.

Above all, if you wish to succeed without swank, feel that you are working for something outside yourself. For your teacher, for your team, for your school - and, above all, for your art.