practise _often_, so as to keep the eye and hand both steady and
quick.

When walking along a country road it is a good plan to make cuts with
your stick at weeds, etc., in the hedges, always using the true edge,
_i.e._ if aiming at a certain part of a bramble or nettle, to cut at it,
just as though you were using a sabre. By this sort of practice, which,
by the way, is to be deprecated in a young plantation or in a friend's
garden, you may greatly increase the accuracy of your eye.

It is merely an application of the principle which enables a fly-fisher
to place his fly directly under such and such over-hanging boughs, or
gives the experienced driver such control over his whip that he can
flick a midge off the ear of one of his galloping leaders.

Much does not, in all probability, depend upon the success or failure of
the piscator's cast, and very likely the midge might safely be allowed
to remain on the leader's ear; but if you are walking in a lonely suburb
or country lane, your _life_ may depend upon the accuracy with which you
can deliver one single cut or thrust with your faithful blackthorn.

I can almost hear people say, "Oh, this is all rubbish; I'm not going to
be attacked; life would not be worth living if one had to be always 'on
guard' in this way." Well, considering that this world, from the time we
are born to the time we die, is made up of uncertainties, and that we
are never really secure from attack at any moment of our lives, it does
seem worth while to devote a little attention to the pursuit of a
science, which is not only healthful and most fascinating, but which
may, in a second of time, enable you to turn a defeat into a victory,
and save yourself from being mauled and possibly killed in a fight which
was none of your own making. Added to all this, science gives a
consciousness of power and ability to assist the weak and defenceless,
which ought to be most welcome to the mind of any man. Though always
anxious to avoid anything like "a row," there are times when it may be
necessary to interfere for the sake of humanity, and how much more easy
is it to make that interference dignified and effective if you take your
stand with a certainty that you can, if pushed to extreme measures, make
matters very warm indeed for the aggressor? The consciousness of power
gives you your real authority, and with it you are far more likely to be
calm and to gain your point than you would be without the knowledge