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PAETING WOEDS ON SPOET. 



SPOET comprehends a variety of bodily and mental exercises 

 combined, which produce pleasant excitement in their per- 

 formance, and by anticipation of the result ; and which have 

 a definite object for their aim, the accomplishment of which is 

 the motive-power. Take away all excitement from man, and 

 existence would be a dull, dormant, stagnant thing, without 

 interest, without object, and without joy. 



By field-sports are usually meant hunting, shooting, and 

 fishing although cricket, football, and other outdoor games 

 are sometimes included and a sportsman is generally known 

 as a devotee of the gun or rifle, of the fishing-rod or hunting- 

 field : but this is simply, again, a conventional word ; for, in 

 reality, the whole human race are sportsmen or sportswomen. 



The various forms in which the love of excitement or sport 

 develops itself among the sons and daughters of men may be 

 called legion ; for there is not a grade of healthy life, however 

 monotonous it may seem to be, where a careful observer need 

 long be puzzled to detect the sparkling spring that refreshes 

 and brightens the dreary waste which, without it, life would 

 certainly become. 



To some, books and study are the only sport they can appreci- 

 ate. A lad, who had much distinguished himself at school, was 



