12 ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPORTS. 



phrenzy, with which I am ever feized, at wit- 

 neffing thofe of the former defcription. Thus 

 the crowins: and feathered combatants, armed 

 with deadly fleel, attraft very Httle of my pity, 

 knowing, as I do, that their a6ts of hoftihty 

 are, and always muft be, purely voluntary ; 

 and that the inftruments with which they are 

 armed, are in fome fort the harbingers of pity 

 and kindnefs to them, by accelerating the pe- 

 riod of their fufferings. I never fpent an hour 

 in a cockpit in my life, nor have I ever taken 

 much pains to confider how far a man of re- 

 flexion can, or ought to be diverted by fuch 

 an exhibition ; I only wifh ardently, that all 

 our fports, in the view of humanity, were 

 equally innocent, and as little liable to objec- 

 tion, as that of cock-fighting. 



This game is faid to be very ancient, and of 

 Greek, or even Indian origin ; and there are it 

 feems at this day, in India, game-cocks of a 

 large fize, which equal, in defperate valour, 

 thofe of our own country. The following 

 anecdote of an Englifh game-cock, fo well 

 pourtrays the nature of that bold and martial 

 ipecies of animal, that I think it worthy of 

 being recorded. In the juftly celebrated and 

 decifive naval engagement, of Lord Howe's 

 fleet with that of France, on the firfl; of June, 

 1794, a game-cock on board one of our fliips, 

 chanced to have his houfe beat to pieces by a 



fhot, 



