Bache.] -^"^ [May 4, 



been trained for strong, lithe movements. Consequently, the blows 

 of such men, no matter how heavy the men are, have less power 

 than those of men trained as boxers. So far from Sandow's being 

 able in the ring with Corbett to break his arm or otherwise disable 

 him, he would probably not hit Corbett a single blow, or if he did, 

 not one that would have the effectiveness of his opponent's, because 

 it would lack the speed and accompanying weight thrown into his 

 by a boxer endowed with a rare combination of height, strength, 

 weight, and reach, supplemented by agility marvelous for a large 

 man, trained by life-practice to highest excellence within his sphere, 

 and all crowned by the habits which promote endurance. 



We should rejoice that we live in an age remote from the false 

 sentiment of some former times, an age of revived physical culture, 

 when it is possible to bestow undisguised admiration on physical ex- 

 cellence of any kind, in its sphere as fine as moral worth, of which 

 it is in some subtle way even now partially emblematical, to become, 

 mayhap, in the course of time, through more general observance of 

 the laws of nature, wholly identified with it, and indivisible in at- 

 tributes. Within our own time is observable a great advance in 

 obedience to those laws. It should be evident that the almost uni- 

 versal admiration for physical development and prowess is not 

 wholly derived from the combative quality of mankind, but has its 

 root deeper in human nature, in the general interest in the health 

 and welfare of the species. If, however, it be needed that the com- 

 bative manifestation of nature be su'^tained on moral grounds, then 

 is its defense easy. Inasmuch as the present stage of development 

 is conditioned in almost every sphere of animal life on self-defense, 

 self-preservation being still the first law of nature, all teachings 

 which tend to suppress among men any resort to the ultima ratio of 

 their kind_, tend also to transform their means of defense exclusively 

 into the meaner modes of securing it, into the adoption, to that in- 

 evitable end, of cunning and treachery, and the swarm of the 

 meaner vices, sapping the noble elements of their nature, which 

 must go hand and hand and stand or fall together. For my own 

 part, I candidly avow that my observation of life from boyhood on- 

 ward, derived from personal experience, from history, and from not- 

 ing racial tendencies in the present era, has led me to believe that, 

 with reprobation and repression of physical force, as potential, 

 and therefore, if need arise, actual, in matter for which law offers 

 no protection, nor ever will or can, must inevitably go various un- 



