forms. It represents the most primitive type of the struggle of unarmed and
unprotected man with man. Purged of its barbarities, and in its Greco-Roman
form and properly subject to rules, it cultivates more kinds of movements than
any other form—for limbs, trunk, neck, hand, foot, and all in the upright and in
every prone position. It, too, has its manual of feints, holds, tricks, and
specialties, and calls out wariness, quickness, strength, and shiftiness. Victory
need involve no cruelty or even pain to the vanquished. The very closeness of
body to body, emphasizing flexor rather than extensor arm muscles, imparts to it
a peculiar tone, gives it a vast variety of possible activities, developing many
alternatives at every stage, and tempts to many undiscovered forms of permanent
mayhem. Its struggle is usually longer and less interrupted by pauses than
pugilism, and its situations and conclusions often develop slowly, so that all in
all, its character among contests is unique. As a school of posture for art, its
varieties are extremely manifold and by no means developed, for it contains
every kind of emphasis of every part and calls out every muscle group and
attitude of the human body; hence its training is most generic and least
specialized, and victories have been won by very many kinds of excellence.
Perhaps nothing is more opposed to the idea of a gentleman than the sæva animi
tempestas [Fierce tempest of the soul] of anger. A testy, quarrelsome, mucky
humor is antisocial, and an outburst of rage is repulsive. Even non-resistance,
turning the other cheek, has its victories and may be a method of moral combat.
A strong temper well controlled and kept in leash makes a kinetic character; but
in view of bullying, unfair play, cruel injustice to the weak and defenseless, of
outrageous wrong that the law can not reach, patience and forbearance may
cease to be virtues, and summary redress may have a distinct advantage to the
ethical nature of man and to social order, and the strenuous soul must fight or
grow stagnant or flabby. If too repressed, righteous indignation may turn to
sourness and sulks, and the disposition be spoiled. Hence the relief and
exhilaration of an outbreak that often clears the psychic atmosphere like a
thunderstorm, and gives the "peace that passeth understanding" so often dilated
on by our correspondents. Rather than the abject fear of making enemies
whatever the provocation, I would praise those whose best title of honor is the
kind of enemies they make. Better even an occasional nose dented by a fist, a
broken bone, a rapier-scarred face, or even sometimes the sacrifice of the life of
one of our best academic youth than stagnation, general cynicism and
censoriousness, bodily and psychic cowardice, and moral corruption, if this
indeed be, as it sometimes is, its real alternative.