k 



ox SPORTS AND EXERCISES. 205 



©f his country are, almost without exception, of the cha- 

 racter of savage war*. 



According to the degree of civilization will the public Civilization 

 sports and amusements of a people partake more or less ^^^^^1^^^™. 

 of the mixed character of corporeal and meiital recreation, tion 

 A display of the arts which refine and gladden life, can 

 only flourish where the condition of man has been long 

 meliorated by the enjoyment of moral and political advan- 

 tages. — Indeed the kind and nature of the popular sports 

 and exhibitions of a people, whether just emerging from 

 barbarism, or passing through the various stages of im- 

 provement, or arrived at the highest pitch of refinement, 



serve to measure, as by a scale, the different degrees of Whence the 



state of barba- 

 their advancement to the acme of civilization. The two j-ism or refine- 

 most powerful and celebrated nations of antiquity, Greece ment may be 

 and Rome, afford ample proofs of the truth of this re- JJe^'p^biic^"* 

 mark. The shews and public sports of each of these sports. 

 nations, while they issued from their character and man- 

 ners, operated on this very character and manners, and 

 rendered them more ardent and permanent. This con- 

 4aection between the character of a people and their 

 iport«, was forcibly impressed on their legislators and 

 rulers. Their public games were instituted for other pur- 

 poses than mere amusement and relaxation. They were Legislators 

 rendered subservient in Greece to the noblest tiewS of '^^'^^ °^^^" *^' 

 legislative policy. Intimately connected with the whole \{c sportj to 

 system ofgovernment, whether civil, military, or religious, inoral and po- 

 they had a moral as well as a political tendency. To pro- ^ ° ^"^*^^'* 

 mote ardor, emulation, friendship, patriotism, and all the 

 a,nimated principles and connections of active life, th« 

 Olympic and other solemn festivals were instituted. In 



* The savage tribes of America furnish varipus proofs of the 

 truth of this remark.— —Likewise in Collins' account of the native* 

 of New Holland, there is a curious illustration of the propensity of 

 a rude and savage people to those amusements v^'hich arc adapted 

 to their peculiar situation. 



Indeed the singular and ludicrous ceremony of initiating youth 

 into the rank of warriors, at the celebration of their military exer- 

 cises and games, is a striking instance of that disposition to amuse- 

 ment, which even the most savage and wretched #tate of life cannot 

 eradicate. 



Vol. XV.— Not. 1806. E e ovditv 



