‘If we do,’ I replied, ‘I expect we shall have to be quick to save it. For many business men told me that the manufacturers will forbid it, because it distracts their workmen from their factory tasks. They purpose to substitute universal compulsory basket ball, which will keep their workers fit but unexcited.’ ‘Is not football in danger?’ said Agathon. ‘It is most completely a students’ spectacle,’ I answered, ‘and I think our guardians will be in time to save it, and thus make their rule delightful to the young men.’ ‘Explain about this game,’ said Lysis, ‘and why you will still allow them to watch it.’ Then I told them of the field marked out in lines, the gridiron and of the teams of sixty or seventy warriors a side, of whom only eleven might do battle at any one time. I described the armour of these warriors, and how they were the widest and weightiest of all the young Americans, fit foemen for Ajax or Hector. And I explained the discipline under which they lived and how the combinations were worked out by the coaches as a general prepares his campaign, and how the men learnt over and over the cipher signs that told to each his part in the brief struggle. And I told of the fine tradition that made it disgraceful to flee from the field or avoid the ball, even for commercial benefits, and I told of the heroes who preferred fierce hacks to the displeasure of their coach and death on the field to his being dismissed. ‘It must be good fun being a coach,’ said Lysis. ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘they are held in great honour provided they bring victory. They do what they will with the minds and bodies of the students, and the Professors are proud to carry water for them. Often the chosen students are kept shut up by their coaches before any great battle, lest their minds should be disturbed. That will be a good similitude for us to use when we are moving the young girls to Athens. For we deserve as great privileges as games coaches.’ ‘But in these contests,’ said Lysis, ‘only a few can be used. What is the education of the vast majority?’ ‘They cheer to order,’ I replied. ‘For the Americans are a practical people and scheme that no single breath shall be wasted, but shall be used where it will be most effective. Moreover the game is so designed that the better it is played the more difficult is it for the onlooker to follow the fortunes of the ball, the players struggling in a great bunch, pushing against one another. There must be some heralds to tell the crowd which player has been pushing hardest that he may be rewarded with a loud shout.’ ‘But is shouting like that really the best education?’ asked Lysis, ‘for you will have to say a lot more to convince me.’ ‘Have you not often agreed with me, Lysis, that it is in youth one learns most easily?’ ‘I agree.’ ‘And that it is good to master early those activities which are to fill our after-lives?’ ‘Very often it is good.’