“Αριστον ὕδωρ,” says Pindar. “Water is good,” as it is often translated. But why should a hymn in honour of a victor in the games begin with a sentiment which would be much better suited to an anti-alcoholic league? ὕδωρ here does not mean water; it is the corresponding word to the Latin _sudor_, which means sweat,—the symbol of the physical effort made by the athlete. “Excellent is sweat,” that is to say, the effort made by the victor in training himself and in winning an arduous victory. [1] Speech delivered at the opening of the Congress of the Psychology of Sport at Lausanne, May 6, 1913. Αριστον ὕδωρ, then, says the clarion voice of one of the noblest sons of Greece, the great poet who, in honour of the sport of his times, has clothed in lyric poetry the dazzling myths of Hellenic polytheism. The motto has travelled down the ages, and we, too, are assembled here to interpret it after the fashion of our times. Is it not inevitable that the speech I have to make should be merely a development of this undying theme, ἄριστον ὕδωρ? And yet you would be justified in asking why this task should devolve on this occasion upon a man who spends his whole life in plying a tool—the pen—which is too light to convince him of the truth of Pindar’s apothegm. It is true that there was a time when he who has the honour of addressing you was not yet an examiner of historical documents nor a student of philosophical problems; when he was, on the contrary, an ardent gymnast. I will even confess to you that the first time his name appeared in the newspapers, it was in the accounts of gymnastic and athletic meetings, in connection with which some amiable reporters thought it proper to comment on his squirrel-like agility. But those times are, alas! long past. The over-violent passion for physical exercises which was his between the ages of ten and fifteen years obliged him suddenly to drop them. He has allowed his muscles gradually to be invaded and eaten up by that physical laziness which enervates so many thinkers of the present day, and which upsets the balance of their bodily forces.