THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



of their beneficial effects in improving tlie health and increas- 

 ing the strength and beauty of the human figure." ' 



' Well,' observed the Captain, ' I think your uncle said nearly 

 as much in favour of boxing, or " the science of self-defence," 

 as we now call it, as he advanced in its dispraise ; and let me 

 ask you whether you availed yourself of the liberty given you 

 to reply ? ' 



' Of course I did,' answered our hero ; ' and I think I can 

 call to mind most of the arguments I made use of. Meeting 

 him on his own ground, I reminded him of some striking 

 facts in the histories of the times to which he alluded, favour- 

 able to the pursuit in question. In the first place, I echoed 

 your words, namely, that the love of gladiatorial exhibitions, 

 among the Romans, increased as they began to be civilised, 

 and as their manners in other respects became more refined; 

 although I was obliged to admit that it ceased when they 

 became Christians ; and we are very well assured that, amono-st 

 the ancient Greeks, in the highest state of their refinement, 

 education was not considered complete in which the powers 

 of the body, as well as those of the mind, were not regarded 

 and cultivated to the utmost. The statue of Hercules, as well 

 as that of Mercury, adorned the gymnasia of Athens, whilst 

 that city was celebrated for the cultivation of every liberal 

 accomplishment ; and those of the higher orders in society 

 seldom passed a day without practising bodily exercises in 

 their gymnasia, of which boxing, we may be assured, was 

 one. Even in the time of Lycurgus, sumptuary laws and 

 the proscription of everything that had a tendency to soften 

 the minds and enervate the bodies of the Spartans, were 

 enforced ; and, centuries after that period, it was owing to 

 Alexander the Great sending 30,000 children, of the best 

 families, to be educated in Macedonian exercises, that he 

 secured the possession of the Persian empire, which he had 

 acquitted solely by the effeminacy of the Persian soldiery.^ 

 Amongst the characters of fiction, equal honours have been 

 given to those who distinguished themselves in puo-ilistic 

 encounters; and the circumstance of the dandy. Dares, 



*Amongsttliei>riiicipiil<;aiiiescelebratedinli()n()urofPatiot'lu.s, as enumerated 

 in Homer's //tVu/, boxing is mentioned ; and the duel of Ulysses with thebeofar 

 Irus is one of the most diverting incidents in the Odyssci/. The King- of Ithaca 

 seems to have been well calculated for the ring. 



237 



