In private and in public life, Capt. Barclay has ever evinced inflexible adherence to those strict principles of honor and integrity which characterise a gentleman; and, whether as transacting with mankind, individually, or as a public character, responsible for his opinions and conduct at the shrine of his country, he has always proved his sincere respect for the rights of others, and his unfeigned attachment to the British constitution.
CHAPTER VI.
ON TRAINING.
The art of training for athletic exercises, consists in purifying the body and strengthening its powers, by certain processes, which thus qualify a person for the accomplishment of laborious exertions. It was known to the ancients, who paid much attention to the means of augmenting corporeal vigour and activity; and accordingly, among the Greeks and Romans, certain rules of regimen and exercise were prescribed to the candidates for gymnastic celebrity.
We are not, however, in possession of any detailed account of the particular kind of Diet in use among the Greeks previously to the solemn contest at the public games; but we are assured, that the strictest temperance, sobriety, and regularity in living, were indispensably requisite. The candidates, at the same time, were subjected to daily exercise in the Gymnasium for ten months, which, with the prescribed regimen, constituted the preparatory course of training adopted by the Athletæ of ancient Greece.
Among the Romans, the exercises of the Palæstra degenerated from the rank of a liberal art, and became a profession, which was embraced only by the lowest of mankind. The exhibitions of the Gladiators were bloody and ferocious spectacles, which evinced the barbarous taste of the people. The combatants, however, were regularly trained by proper exercise, and a strict observance of regimen. In the more early stages, their diet consisted of dried figs, new cheese, and boiled grain. But afterwards, animal food was introduced as a part of the athletic regimen, and PORK was preferred to any other. Galen asserts, that “pork contains more real nutriment than the flesh of any other animal which is used as food by man: this fact,” he adds, “is decidedly proved by the example of the athletæ, who, if they lived but for one day on any other kind of food, found their vigour manifestly impaired the next[22].”
The preference given to pork by the ancients, does not correspond with the practice of modern trainers, who entirely reject it in their regimen: But in the manner of preparing the food they exactly agree—ROASTING or BROILING being preferred to BOILING, by both; and bread unfermented, to that prepared by leaven. A very small quantity of fluid was allowed, and this was principally water. When the daily exercises of the Athletæ were finished, they were refreshed by immersion in a tepid bath, “where the perspiration and sordes were carefully removed from the surface of the body by the use of the STRYGIL. The skin was then diligently rubbed dry, and again anointed with oil. If thirsty, they were permitted to drink a small quantity of warm water. They then took their principal repast, after which they never used any exercise. They occasionally also went into the cold bath in the morning. They were permitted to sleep as many hours as they chose; and great increase of vigour, as well as of bulk, was supposed to be derived from long-continued and sound repose[23].”
Previously to entering on this regimen, the Athletæ were subjected to the evacuating process by means of emetics, which they preferred to purgatives. The sexual intercourse was strictly prohibited. “To exercise their patience, and accustom them to bear pain without flinching, they were occasionally flogged on the back with the branches of a kind of rhododendron, till the blood flowed pretty plentifully. By diminishing the quantity of the circulating fluid, this rough kind of cupping was also considered as salutary, in obviating the tendency to plethora, to which they were peculiarly liable[24].”