A balancing force, a counterpoise to the intellectual excesses of a sedentary, nervous civilisation which is agitated by a perpetual excitement, that is what sport ought to be. I hasten to add that I cannot claim the credit for this definition, not that it is in itself a very striking discovery. An opponent might even say that it is almost a platitude; a special application of that principle which is as old as the hills, and which the Greeks expressed in their formula, μηδὲν ἅγαν, nothing in excess. Granted; but it is sometimes a good thing to repeat platitudes, for human wisdom is not an inexhaustible mine of ever-new principles and ideas. Its treasure-house is stored with platitudes, which have only become such because man is always requiring their repetition. Besides, when questions touching moral and social life are under discussion, the intellectual point of view is not by any means the most important. Those principles of wisdom which seem the easiest and simplest to announce are not those which are always the simplest in practice, and the easiest to carry into execution. μηδὲν ἅγαν—nothing in excess—has been to men the cry of wisdom since the beginning of time. Is it not the clearest and the simplest of principles? Need one be a profound philosopher to understand that moderation in the use of everything, even of good things, is necessary? This truth is indeed one which the simplest mind is capable of understanding. Yet life is but an eternal struggle against excesses of all sorts, to which man is continually tempted to give way. Why? Because though the precept be clear and evident, to apply it man has to struggle with his passions, with his own interests, and those of others, and with the illusions and errors that assail him on all sides. Consequently, he must be under no illusion.