July 21, 1882.] 



• KNOV^LEDGE 



123 



^la,^^^ AN ILtiikTRATED V^ 



> MAGAZfNE ofS^IENCE^^ 



PlAtNCrVfORJED -EXACTiyPESCRIBEIh 



LOXDOX . FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1882. 



CoirrKNTs OF No.. 38. 



< >ur Xational Game •. ] 



Found Links. Bv Dr. Andrew 



WUson, F.K.S.E.; F.L.S 1 



Stinmlanu and Studj. By the 



. Brothers, F.K.A.S. ... 



Fairy Rinfp .; 



Thought-reading. By the Editor.. 

 Uathematics and Science. By the 



fkBt. 

 Electromania. Part II. By W. 



Mattieu Williams '- 12il 



French Excavations in Assyria IIW 



Weather Diagram for the Week 131 



CoBBBspoxsKXCS : .Thonght-reading 

 — Rational Dress— A Meteor — Law 



of Probabilities, Cold Snaps, ic... 132 



Answers to Correspondents 134 



Science and .\rt Gossip 13.5 



i;)ii 



129 I Our Chess Column . 



OUR NATIONAL GAME. 



ROBERT FERGUSON, Monmouth's follower, used to 

 say : — " Let me make the ballads of my country, and 

 I care not who makes the laws." In like manner it might 

 1)6 said that sports and pastimes are factors as important in 

 the making of a people as their more serious avocations. 

 Wellington, we know, considered that Eton— that is foot- 

 ball, and cricket, and school sports generally — made the 

 fighting men of England, with a reservation "in favour of 

 fo.\-hunting as making our British cavalry : and, although 

 there are pursuits better befitting the dignity of man (out- 

 side the savage state) than fighting, "Wellington there, 

 speaking of what he understood laest, e.xpressed the general 

 truth, that the sports of a race largely influence their cha- 

 racter as a people. We may therefore fitly take for a 

 subject of inquiry, even in a magazine chiefly devoted to 

 .science and art, a game which, like cricket, is essentially 



the national game of England, and — except in America 



of English-speaking races. 



Cricket deserves, it seems to us, the position it holds as 

 a national sport, though chiefly for reasons which perhaps 

 the most ardent cricketers leave out of account. Con- 

 sidered with regard to the amount and kind of exorcise it 

 involves, cricket is open to many objections ; while the 

 kind of skill which constant cricketing practice engenders 

 IS not exceptionally serviceable in ordinary life. Americans 

 oaamtam, indeed, that, regarded as a scientific sport, base- 

 ball IS superior to cricket— about which view, knowin" 

 baseball only from without, not from actual practice of the 

 game, the writer can hardly venture an opinion. Certainly, 

 if all that is .said of base-ball be true, .some parts of the game 

 —pitching for instance* — must require an enormous anuiunt 

 of practice, and thus to acquire something of a scientific 

 qha^acter. But, ai)art from any comparison between 

 orickot and baseball, it is certain that .skill in driving, 

 cutting, drawing, ami so forth (or such skill in placing the 

 yf Q Grace and a few other players possess i" 



ball 



ip^rked degree), the mastery of various bowling devices, 



• It is said, 

 9f icnce that it 

 1 > clLtni-o its coarse 



: I give to 



id we hnvp boon assnj-cd hy .Xmcrioan nion of 



ruly said, tlint a good " pitcher " can can.sc the hall 



hen in the air, so intense is the " spin " he 



and quickness and correctness in the field or behind the 

 wicket, are acquisitions of very little real value in life, while 

 the quickness of eye and limb which these cricketing 

 qualities indicate, might be acquired in others ways more 

 directly advantageous. Again, the exercise obtained in 

 the cricket field is intermittent and uncertain, and of 

 doubtful value in developing muscle and expanding the 

 chest (so, at least, says the writer of " How to Get StroiiT,'' 

 in KxowLF.DGE, No. .35). But while in such points "as 

 these, cricket, delightful and fascinating though it is to 

 players and bystanders alike, is imperfect as an exercise, as 

 a sport it has qualities which render it exceedingly valuable. 

 It is better morally than physicall}-. The good cricketer 

 has constantly to put sijf on one side. He has to keep the 

 interests of , The Eleven, not of Number One, continually 

 before him. Even the most brilliant bat has, in the 

 interests of his side, to exercise self-control, not only in 

 reference to his partner at the moment, but to the whole pro- 

 gress of the innings so long as he is at the wickets. Bowlers 

 must do their work as the captain directs, the captain must 

 direct their work, or take part in it himself, as is best for 

 his eleven, not as may best suit himself. The field must 

 work together in due subservience to the captain's plans. 

 And while thus men are taught discipline, self-control, 

 and self-sacrifice (where need is), they are taught also 

 moderation in times of prosperity, caution in tfmes of 

 difliculty, courage and resolution when defeat seems to 

 stare them in the face. But defeat also has its good in- 

 fiuence ; and the cricketer who takes defeat pleasantly, not 

 making false excuses for obvious shortcomings, but resolvin"- 

 hereafter to correct them, not angry with the victors, but 

 determined to face them again as resolutely as ever, and 

 perhaps with better success, lias gone through a ^moral 

 exercise which cannot but be of service to his character as 

 a man. It is in this way, and not from any special value 

 which cricket has as a physical exercise, that the discipline 

 of the crickef^field tells on the character of a nation. \\'hen 

 we consider that (outside absolute pauperdom) there is 

 probably not one able-bodied man in ten thousand in this 

 country who has not at some time in his life played in the 

 cricket-field, the importance of the game as our chief 

 national sport will be fully recognised. 



Yet, we must confess, it appears to us that of late 



during the last quarter of a century, perhaps — cricket lias 

 taken a position not altogether desirable. When, in 

 former times, professional cricketers almost invariably 

 defeated amateurs (we reject the utterly ill-chosen names 

 Players and Gentlemen), things were more nearly as tliev 

 should be, we take it, than they are now, when men who 

 are to be lawyers, doctors, clergymen, statesmen, and so 

 forth, give so much time to cricket during their younger 

 days, as to acquire a skill rivalling and surpassing that 

 of men who get a Ijjrge part of their living from the 

 practice of the game. We doubt even whether the 

 devotion of so much time to cricket is not mis- 

 chievous from the mere loss of opportunities for 

 other games- cricket being decidedly imperfect as the 

 sole or chief form of exercise. But it is a much more 

 serious question how far study, and even mental develop- 

 ment, are inlluenoed by the excessive devotion to cricket 

 which is now found not only at great public schools but 

 all over the country. It may seem at a first view as 

 though only a few were affected in this way ; for i^eople 

 hear only of the few .it each public school, ^or at the uni- 

 versities, or the like, who acquire very great proficiency in 

 batting, bowling, and fielding. But those who come near 

 the best, and those wlio, just because they have never had 

 any chance of coming near the best, have given more time 

 to vain efforts than a Steel or a Studd to successful practice 



