Ingenuas pugni didicisse fideliter artes,
Mollitos mores non sinit esse viri.
The faithful study of the fistic art
From mawkish softness guards a Briton's heart.
[Plate:
INGENUAS PUGNI DIDICISSE FIDELITER ARTES
MOLLITOS MORES NON SINIT ESSE VIRI.]
Who can doubt it? But, besides, we have much to say in praise of boxing.
In the first place, it is a _classical_ accomplishment. To say nothing
of the Olympic and Isthmian Games, which are of themselves sufficient
proof of the elegant and _fanciful_ tastes of the ancients; we need only
allude to the fact, that the _Corinthians_ are universally celebrated
for their proficiency in this science. Then, of its eminently _social_
tendency, there can be no doubt. What can be more conducive to good
fellowship, and conviviality than the frequent _tapping of claret_,
attendant both on its study and practice? Nor can its beneficial
influence on the fine arts be called in question, seeing that its
immediate object is to teach us the _use of our hands_. And (which
perhaps is the most pursuasive argument of all), it is particularly
pleasing to the fair sex, who besides their well known admiration of
_bravery_, are, to a woman, devotedly attached to the _ring_.
Sometimes an adverb with a genitive case stands in the place of the
nominative, as--
Partim astutorum mordebantur,
Part of the knowing ones were bit.
We must contend that the above is a _racy_ observation.