The Code of Health and Longevity

ON ATHLET l G EXERC I SES . T i g modei-nEnglish practice of boxing. When it isconfidered that the man who obtained a prize at the Olympic, the Pythian, or any of the public games, where candidates reforted from all the different states of Greece to contend in thefe exercifes, not only acquired a diftindlion highly gratifying to himfelf, but which refle£ledhonour on hi^ family, and even on his country ; it maybe fairly infer­ red, that every attention was paid to the previous edu­ cation of the individuals, deftined to excel in thefe exer­ tions of mufcular ftrength. Of the particular diet, and kinds of exercife in ufe among the Greeks, previous to the folemn conteft at the public games, I have not been fortunate enough to find any detailed account. Paufa- nias mentions, that, ten months previous to the folemn combat, the candidates took an oath in the temple of Ju­ piter, faithfully to comply with all the ancient laws and ufages of the champions ; and from that time till the pe­ riod of the folemnity, they were daily anddiligently ex- ercifed in whatever was requilke to produce excellence in the profeffion to which they had devoted themfelves. A proof that the means they employed were admirably calculated to develope and improve all the corporeal powers of the human animal, is afforded by the flatues of antiquity. The fuperiority of the Grecian fculpture, which the world has ever fince attempted in vain to ri­ val, was doubtlefs in grfeat meafure owing to the fre­ quent opportunities the artifts of thofe times enjoyed, of beholding the human body brought to the higheft pitch of perfeclion, which conflant exercife in the open air, combined with appropriate regimen, under a genial cli­ mate, had a natural tendency to produce. To the individuals who excelled in fome particular kinds of exercife, we learn from Pliny that a flatue was decreed as the appropriate reward j fo that many of thofe h 2 figures