26 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



tie I do know of American field sports — and so infinitesimal is 

 that little, that I am almost compelled to own, with the sage of 

 old, " all that I do know is, that I know nothing" — and to a 

 constant and long-maintained habit of intercourse and familiar 

 correspondence with better, though not more thoroughgoing, 

 sportsmen than myself, in every part of the United States, and 

 of the Provinces. 



Upon any general defence of field sports I do not here think 

 it worth the while to enter. All men wl\ose opinions are worth 

 one moment of attention, have long ago decided that they are 

 the best, the manliest, and the most desirable, in every respect, 

 of national amusements, tending to prevent the demoralization 

 of luxury, and over civilization, the growth of effeminacy and 

 sloth, and to the maintenance of a little manhood in an age, the 

 leading characteristics of which are fanaticism, cant, and hypo- 

 crisy, added to a total and general decay of all that is manly or 

 independent either in the physical or moral characters, alike of 

 individuals or nations. 



To those who think field sports ci'uel, immoral, wicked, and 

 brutalizing, I have only to make my lowest bow ; and to en- 

 treat that they will give me and my book, as I shall assuredly 

 give them and their opinions, the widest possible berth ; assuring 

 them that, without the slightest respect for their opinions, I 

 have no idea of intruding upon their premises, nor any desire to 

 convert them from their comfortable and self-hugging creed. 



In all ages and in all countries, genuine field sports — from 

 which I, of course, exclude the really cruel and brutalizing 

 amusements of bear-baiting, dog-fighting, cock-fighting, and 

 other similar pursuits, which are for the most part followed 

 only by the vicious and worthless population of large cities — 

 have been approved of and encouraged by the wisest men, 

 by statesmen and philosophers and philanthropists, not merely 

 as legitimate pursuits whereon to expend and exercise the 

 buoyant animal spirits, and ardent animal propensities of youth 

 — which must have an outlet one way or another — but as the 

 best mode of preserving the combined advantages of the mens 



