A THEME OF THE ABLEST WRITERS. 371 



is it to man, and so apt to degenerate into a passion 

 injurious both to health and to society. 



One of the greatest compliments paid to the chase 

 is, its having been considered as a theme worthy the 

 pens of the ablest writers of the most refined periods 

 of the world. Whilst Greece was the nursery and 

 residence of every branch of polite literature, and 

 of all the arts and sciences then known to man- 

 kind ; whilst every study that depends on the 

 powers of the imagination, or the faculties of the 

 understanding, was there carried to the very sum- 

 mit of perfection ; we find Xenophon composing 

 his Kvvyiyariyiog^ treating of every description of field- 

 sports. He, according with the custom of the 

 times, opens the subject with fable, and tells us 

 that hunting, which he calls the gift of the gods, 

 and the use of dogs, originated with Apollo and 

 Diana, and that the invention was made a present 

 of to Chiron, who took pupils in the art, each of 

 whom was, in his turn, honoured by the gods 

 (aTo ^£wv eri/Mrj&r}.) His real object, however, was to 

 encourage, in the youth of his country, a taste for 

 the pleasures of the chase, and other manly pas- 

 times, as the best preparation for war, the senate, 

 and the world. Whilst he condemns the efiemi- 

 riate man as shamefully useless to his country, he 

 represents the well-trained sportsman as not only 

 mighty in war, but ready to sacrifice his person 

 and his wealth to the public good. As a preparation 

 for war, and particularly the higher branches of the 

 soldier's profession, we need not the testimony of 

 Xenophon ; for our own experience has shown us, 



