Chapter XVIII.

But if you argue that the racecourse is mentioned in Scripture, I grant it at once. But you will not refuse to admit that the things which are done there are not for you to look upon: the blows, and kicks, and cuffs, and all the recklessness of hand, and everything like that disfiguration of the human countenance, which is nothing less than the disfiguration of God’s own image. You will never give your approval to those foolish racing and throwing feats, and yet more foolish leapings; you will never find pleasure in injurious or useless exhibitions of strength; certainly you will not regard with approval those efforts after an artificial body which aim at surpassing the Creator’s work; and you will have the very opposite of complacency in the athletes Greece, in the inactivity of peace, feeds up. And the wrestler’s art is a devil’s thing. The devil wrestled with, and crushed to death, the first human beings.  Its very attitude has power in it of the serpent kind, firm to hold—tortures to clasp—slippery to glide away.  You have no need of crowns; why do you strive to get pleasures from crowns?

CAPUT XVIII.

Sin et doctrinam saecularis litteraturae, ut stultitiae apud Deum deputatam, aspernamur, satis praescribitur nobis et de illis speciebus spectaculorum, quae saeculari litteratura lusoriam vel agonisticam scenam dispungunt. Quod si tragoediae et comoediae scelerum et libidinum actrices , cruentae et lascivae, impiae et prodigae: nullius rei aut atrocis, aut vilis, commemoratio melior est: quod in facto rejicitur, etiam in dicto non est recipiendum. Quod si et stadium contendas in Scripturis nominari, sane obtinebis. Sed quae in stadio geruntur, indigna conspectui tuo non negabis, pugnos et calces et colaphos et omnem petulantiam manus, et quamcumque 0650C humani oris , id est, divinae imaginis depugnationem. Non probatis usquam vanos cursus jaculatus 0651A et saltus vaniores, nusquam tibi vires aut injuriosae aut vanae placebunt, sed nec cura factitii corporis, ut plasticam Dei supergressa. Et propter otium Graeciae altiles homines oderis. Et palaestrica diaboli negotium est . Primos homines diabolus elisit (Genes. III). Ipse gestus colubrina vis, est tenax ad occupandum, tortuosa ad obligandum, liquida ad elabendum. Nullus tibi coronarum usus est, quid de coronis voluptates aucuparis?