Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/63

38 of the sword alone a key to the political and social classifications of Europe, and, probably, of Asia also, could we trace the evolution of its military arms and methods.

In all countries and times where the common man was ready and able to fight, singly and combined, freedom was at its highest. The ability of the common man to assert himself is everywhere and always the measure of popular liberty.

The growth of armaments and governments everywhere corresponds with the decrease of personal and popular freedom. This may be followed from the fist, staff, or knife of the peasant or mechanic, to the sword of the "gentleman," the lance, horse, and armor of the lord, the multiplied muskets of the king, and the Krupp guns and iron-clads of the emperor.

The knowing how to fight makes common men self-reliant and independent. A people are preparing for their own subjection to a class, or a tyranny, where a generation is allowed to grow up without physical training and emulation.

It has always been the aim of royalty and aristocracy to lower the individual liberty and independence of the common people.

A baron and a minute-man could not breathe the same air.

Every boy in a free country ought to be