STUDY XIV. 



347 



ufe of fire-arms, and, at the fame time, to pradife 

 the evolutions borrowed from the tactics of the 

 Greeks, who are our mafters in every branch of 

 knowledge. I would bring into difrepute, by 

 means of thefe mihtary exercifes, the tafte for 

 fencing, which renders the foldiery formidable only 

 to citizens, an art ufelefs, and even hurtful in war, 

 reprobated by all great Commanders, and deroga- 

 tory to courage, as Philop^^men alleged. ** In my 

 ■*' younger days," fays Michael Montaigne ^ *' the 

 *' nobility difclaimed the praife of being ikilful 

 *^ fencers, as injurious to their charadter, and 

 *' learned that art by ftealth, as a matter of trick, 

 ?' inconfidentwith real native valour*.'* This art, 

 generated in the lame fociety, of the hatred of the 

 lower clafles to the higher, who opprefs them, is 

 an importation from Italy, where the military art 

 exifts no longer. It is this which keeps up the 

 {pirit of duelling among us. We have not derived 

 that fpirit from the Nations of the North, as fo 

 many Writers have taken upon them to afl'ert. 

 Duels are hardly known in Ruffia and in Pruilia ; 

 and altogether unknown to the Savages of the 

 North. Italy is their narive foil, as may be ga- 

 thered from the mofl celebrated treatifes on fenc- 

 ing, and from the terms of that art, which are 

 Italian, as tierce, quarte. It has been naturalized 



* Efiays q{ Michael Montaigne. Bt)ok ii. chap. 27. 



among 



