"This sort of thing is mistaken prejudice. The assault ought to be a
sham fight.
"It follows that everyone should have liberty of action. Do not attempt
to force A. to be graceful and elegant, if he is not built that way.
Permit B. to develope his own style in his own fashion, and do not
try to make him a servile copy of yourself, merely for the sake of
emphasising your superiority. If he makes mistakes, take advantage of
them, that is the most convincing kind of correction. If his play is
dangerous but incorrect, show him that you can be at once correct and
dangerous.
"In short we ask for a fair field and no favour for every sort of style
and theory that is based on a study of the weapon. Science you know is
the result of intelligent application. Do you seriously believe that
these fencers are devoid of science, because they refuse to be judged
by your standard, or because they try to obtain new results, where you
persist in seeing nothing but annoying tricks?
"You must allow one of two things. Either the methods which these
fencers employ, their plans of attack and defence, are based on policy
and their knowledge of the weapon, and their source of inspiration is
the same as yours; in that case they are justified by results, they
have teeth and can bite, and are not the easy prey, which you expected
to find them. Or on the contrary, they go to work without judgment,
they let fly at random, and advance or retire without any notion of
time or distance, their parries are wide and weak, without any sense of
touch, their attacks uncertain, wild and incoherent. In that case they
are not dangerous. Chance may perhaps protect them once, but you with
your experience and skill of course will easily defeat them, and their
slap-dash play will lead them promptly into every trap which you choose
to set for them.