These writers apparently
consider it a merit in this man that when his country was in a death-
grapple, instead of taking arms and hurrying to the defense of the
cause he believed right, he should have placidly gone about his usual
sports. Of course, in reality the chief serious use of fox-hunting is
to encourage manliness and vigor, and to keep men hardy, so that at
need they can show themselves fit to take part in work or strife for
their native land. When a man so far confuses ends and means as to
think that fox-hunting, or polo, or football, or whatever else the
sport may be, is to be itself taken as the end, instead of the mere
means of preparation to do work that counts when the time arises, when
the occasion calls--why, that man had better abandon sport altogether.
No boy can afford to neglect his work, and with a boy work, as a rule,
means study. Of course there are occasionally brilliant successes in
life where a man has been worthless as a student when a boy. To take
these exceptions as examples would be as unsafe as it would be to
advocate blindness because some blind men have won undying honor by
triumphing over their physical infirmity and accomplishing great
results in the world.
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