A word on the derivation of our words, pugilism, pugilist, and boxing, all of which have a common origin. _Pugilism_ comes to us through the Latin _pugilatus_, the art of fighting with the fist, as also does _pugnus_, a fight. The Latin again took these words from the Greek πυγμὴ (_pugmè_), the fist doubled for fighting; whence also they had πύγμάχος (_pugmachos_), a fist-fighter, and πύγμαχια (_pugmachia_), a fist-fight. They had also πυγδον (_pugdon_), a measure of length from the elbow (_cubitus_) to the end of the hand _with the fingers clenched_. Another form of the word, the Greek adverb πυξ (_pux_), _pugno vel pugnis_, gives us πυξος (_puxos_, Lat. _buxus_), in English, BOX; and it is remarkable that this form of the closed hand is the Greek synonyme for anything in the shape of a closed _box_ or receptacle, and so it has passed to the moderns. The πυξ, _box_ or _pyx_, is the chest in which the sacramental vessels are contained. Thus mine Ancient Pistol pleads for his red-nosed comrade:— “Fortune is Bardolph’s foe, and frowns on him; For he hath stolen a PYX, and hanged must ’a be. Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free, But Exeter hath given the doom of death, For PYX of little price.” HENRY V., act iii., sc. vi. The French have also imported _le boxe_ into their dictionaries, where the Germans had it already, as _buchs_, a box. But enough of etymology; wherever we got the word, the thing itself—fair boxing, as we practise it—is of pure English origin. The Greeks, however, cultivated the science in their fashion, confined it by strict rules, and selected experienced masters and professors, who, by public lessons, delivered gratis in Palestræ and Gymnasiæ, instructed youth in the theory and practice of the art. Kings and princes, as we learn from the poets, laid aside their dignity for a few hours, and exchanged the sceptre for the cæstus; indeed, in Greece, boxing, as a liberal art, was cultivated with ardour, and when (once in three years) the whole nation assembled at Corinth to celebrate their Isthmian games, in honour of Neptune, the generous admiration of an applauding people placed the crown on the brow of the successful pugilist, who, on his return home, was hailed as the supporter of his country’s fame. Even Horace places the pugilist _before_ the poet:— “Quem tu, Melpomene, semel Nascentem placido lumine videris, Illum non labor Isthmius Clarabit pugilem.” Lib. iv., Ode 3, l. 1‒4. And in another place:— “Musa debit fidibus divos, puerosque deorum, Et PUGILEM victorem, et equum certamine primum.” _De Arte Poet._, l. 83‒84. The sententious Cicero also says:—“It is certainly a glorious thing to _do_ well for the republic, but also to _speak_ well is not contemptible.”