130 The American Boy 



or college athletes could possibly be. Moreover, to 

 mis-estimate athletics is equally bad whether their 

 importance is magnified or minimized. The Greeks 

 were famous athletes, and as long as their athletic 

 training had a normal place in their lives, it was a 

 good thing. But it was a very bad thing when they 

 kept up their athletic games while letting the stern 

 qualities of soldiership and statesmanship sink into 

 disuse. Some of the younger readers of this book 

 will certainly sometime read the famous letters of 

 the younger Pliny, a Roman who wrote, with what 

 seems to us a curiously modern touch, in the first 

 century of the present era. His correspondence 

 with the Emperor Trajan is particularly interesting; 

 and not the least noteworthy thing in it is the tone 

 of contempt with which he speaks of the Greek 

 athletic sports, treating them as the diversions of 

 an unwarlike people which it was safe to encourage 

 in order to keep the Greeks from turning into any 

 thing formidable. So at one time the Persian kings 

 had to forbid polo, because soldiers neglected their 

 proper duties for the fascinations of the game. We 

 can not expect "the best work from soldiers who 

 have carried to an unhealthy extreme the sports 

 and pastimes which would be healthy if indulged 

 in with moderation, and have neglected to learn as 

 they should the business of their profession. A 

 soldier needs to know how to shoot and take cover 



