30 ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPORTS* 



boxing match, than it is probable he would* 

 in hearing five dozen of fermons. The ap- 

 pointment of umpires and feconds, the (baking 

 of hands previous to the fet-to, as much as to 

 fay, we mean to contend fairly and like men ; 

 the general folicitude and caution in the fpec- 

 tators, that perfeft equity take place between 

 the contending parties, that no foul blow be 

 flruck, and that the fallen and the vanquifhed 

 be protefted ; and laftly, the parting falute, 

 when the conqueror feems gencroufly to have 

 diverted himfelf of the haughtinefs of triumph, 

 the conquered to have refigned, with a natural 

 and manly fubmiffion, and both to have dif- 

 burthened their hearts of all malice or appetite 

 of revenge — is, upon the whole, and in all its 

 parts, fo excellent a praftical fyflem of ethics, 

 as no other country can boall, and has chiefly 

 contributed to form the charafteriflic humanity 

 of the Englifh nation. 



It is a common remark, that Englifh horfes 

 and dogs degenerate in foreign countries; 

 without troubling myfelf to examine that par- 

 ticular, I fhall readily aflent to the pofition, as 

 it regards Englifhmen : how elfe are we to ac- 

 count for the unnatural luft of the American 

 and Weft Indian Englifh for enflaving their 

 fellow-men? Or how, for the favage and un- 

 manly method of boxing praflifed by the Vir- 

 ginians, who are faid to allow no man to be a 



good 



