Are We a Declining Race ? 



volunteer for service in the Army, are physically 

 fit to endure the hardships connected with a 

 military life. 



Suppose, for the sake of fairness, we take the 

 more moderate, and perhaps more reliable state- 

 ment as to the five and the two, and then refer 

 back some two or three thousand years, and 

 make a comparison between the soldier of to-day 

 and the soldier of that period. Referring to the 

 article on Sparta in the " London Encyclopaedia," 

 we read : " Till a man was thirty years old, he 

 was not capable of serving in the army, as the 

 best authors agree. . . . After forty years' 

 service, a man was, by law, no longer required 

 to go into the field, and consequently if 

 the millitary age was thirty the Spartans 

 were not held to be invalids till they were 

 seventy." 



What an " eye-opener " this is to us, who 

 should have profited by the experience of the 

 centuries which have elapsed since the age of 

 Spartan supremacy. Many men of our time 

 have seen the best of their lives at the age of 

 thirty, and most men are decrepit before they 

 reach seventy. 



For the quality of the Spartan soldier one has 

 only to refer to the battle of Thermopylae, and 

 for their marching abilities to the battle of 

 Marathon. They arrived the day after the battle, 

 having covered a distance of 150 miles in three 

 days. As the Spartans only employed heavy 

 armed infantry, this was a great achievement. 

 Their arms consisted of sword, shield, and heavy 

 spear. As we do not read of any baggage 

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