The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-05
an PRAISE OF TIE FIST"
w.ETERLINCK,S DEFENCE or
uoxING AS A MEANS OF ATTACK.

voy4t. Maetsnfnek In London Daily Mad.

,hould occupy on rselves with the aptitudee
=, o,r body, once more restored TO nature,
nd IL particular with the exercises that
most increase its strength, Its agility, n
,he qualities which 1t possesses as the body
ofa fine, healthy, formidable animal, ready
10 face all life's exigencies.
remember in this connection that
lately, when writing of the sword, i allowed
mvself 10 be carried away by my subject
and that | was guilty Of a certain injustice
toward the only specific weapon with which
nsture has endowed US; l mean the fist.
Tbis In INJUSTICE | am anxious TO rerar.
The sword and the fist form each others
oounlement, and II II be not ungracious
thus to express oneself, are on good terms
together; but the sword is or should be only
an exceptional weapon, a sort Of ultima Ell
,otyd ratio. We should not have recourse
N it save with solemn precautions m a
ceremonial equivalent to that with which
We surround those criminal trials which
NAV end in a sentence OF death.
The fist, on the contrary, Ia prominently
the everyday, the human weapon, the only
weapon graphically adapted to the sensi-
biity, the resistance, the offensive and de-
fensive structure Of our body.
The fact ia that II we examine ourselves
well we must rank ourselves, without
vanity, among the most unprotected, the
most naked, the most fragile, the most
brittle and iaccid beings in creation. Com
pare US, for instance, with the insect, 80
iormidably equipped for attack and 30
Enthusiastically armor casedl Contemplate
among others the ant, upon which you may
heap ten or twenty thousand times the
weight Of its body without apparently
mountaineering it. Consider the cock
chafer. the least robust of the beetles, and
weigh what it is able to carry before the
rings OF its abdomen crack or the castings
OF its forewings yield. As for the resist
ance Of the stag beetle, it Is, so to speak,
unlimited.
In comparison, therefore, we and the
majority of mammals ara unsolicited
beings, still in the g%elatinous state and
very near to the primitive %protoplasm.
Our skeleton alone, which is, as it we're,
the rough sketch Of our defnitive form,
offers a certain consistency; but how
wretched is this skeleton, which one would
think constructed by a child! Look at our
spine, the basis OF our whole system, whose
III set vertebre hold together only by a
mira Gle, and our thoracic ca &c, which pre-
cents only a series of %diagonals which we
hardly dare touch with the finger tips.
Now, it is against this slack and inco-
herent machine, which resembles an abor-
tive effort Of nature, against this pitiful
organism, from which life tends to escape
on every side, that we have contrived
p capable OF annihilating US eve
II we possessed the abulous armor ca sc,
the prodigious strength and the incredible
vitality Of the most indestructible insects.
We nave here, it must be agreed, a very
curious and a very disconcerting aberra-
ton, an initial folly, peculiar to the human
race. that goes on increasing daily. In
order to return to the natural logic fol-
lowed by all other living things, though
We be permitted to use extra ordina ry
weapons against our enemies of a different
order, we ought among ourselves, among
men, to employ only the means Of alta ok
and defence provided by our own bodies.
We're mankind to conform strictly to the
evident will Of nature, the fist which is to
ma what it's horns are to the bull and its
claws and teeth to the lion-the fist should
suffice for all our needs Of protection, JUS
tice and revenge. A wiser race would for
bid a ny other mode of combat al an irremis-
eible crime a ga inst the essential la WIS Of the
species. At the end of a few generations
we should thus succeed in sprea ding and
putting into force a sort Of pa mic st ricken
respect of human life.
How prompt, how exactly in accord
ance with natures wishes, would be the
selection brought about by the intensive
practice Of pugilism. in which all the hopes
OF military glory would be centred. Now
selection is, after all, the only really i'm
portant thing that claims our p~reoccupa-
ton; it is the first, the greatest and the
most eternal Of our duties toward the race.
Meanwhile the study Of boxing gives US
excellent lessons in humility and throws a
somewh hat alarming light upon the for
fixture OF some Of our most valuable in
stincts. We soon perceive that, in all that
concerns the use Of our lim~bs-agility,
dexterty, muscular strength, resistance
to pain-we have SUM to the lowest rank OF
the mammals or batrachians. From this
point OF view, in a we'll conceived hierarchy,
we should be entitled to a modest place
between the frog and the sheep. The
kick nf the horse. the butt Of the bull, the
bite Of the dog, are mechanically and ana
improve by the most learned lessons their
instructive manner Of using their natural
weapons. But we. the "hominians." the
proudest Of the primates, do not know
how to strike a blow with our fist. We
do not even know which exactly is the
weapon Of our kind.
Look at two draymen, two peasants, who
come to blows; nothing could be more pitia-
BILE, After a copious and dilatory broad
side Of insults and threats, they seize each
other by the throat and the hair. make
play with their feet, will their knees. at
random. bite each other, scratch each
other, get entangled in their motionless
rage, dare not leave go. and il one OF them
succeeds in releasing an arm. he strikes
out blindly and most often into space a
series OF hurried. stunted and sputtering
little blows; nor would the combat eve
end did not the treacherous knife, evoked
by the disgrace Of the incongruous sight,
suddenly, almost spontaneously, leap from
the pocket Of one or the other.
On the contrary, watch two pugilists; no
Useless words, no groupings, no anger; the
calmress Of two certainties that know what
lies before them. The athletic attitude Of
the guard, one Of the finest Of the male body,
logically exhibits all the muscles Of the
organism to the best advantage. From
head to foot, M particle Of strength can now
30 sstray. zach single one has its pole in
DIV, or other Of the two massive fists charged
to the full with energy. Three blows, 10
more, the fruits Of secular experience,
automatically exhaust the thousand use