the water, or a man pulling his boat up on the beach, or a smith
beating the hot iron with heavy blows of his hammer, or a hunter
scaling mountain crags to reach an eagle’s nest, we take part in the
struggle with difficulty and enjoy success as if it were our own. The
sympathetic interest is even greater in witnessing a fight between
two combatants; indeed, it can be playful only when the onlooker
can restrain his emotions and regard the struggle going on before
him as a theatrical representation, as is often enough the case.
When two boys are tussling, when adults quarrel with high words,
when a rider attempts to control his vicious horse, when a man
defends himself with a stick against a brutal dog, when the
champions of opposing parties fight in the presence of their backers,
the spectators may take such impersonal interest in the combat.
Much more to our purpose, however, is the witnessing of playful
fights where the contestants engage merely for amusement or to
test their prowess, whether or not they are in playful mood. In this
case, overcoming difficulties is the leading feature. Then, too, there
are myriad forms of juggling, contortionism, prestidigitating, etc., in
which the spectator, at least in part, inwardly joins; and the wild
excitement of animal and ring fights, bull baiting, fencing matches,
racing on foot, wheel, and horse. Even for the fighting plays which
are not intended as an exhibition, such as football and cricket
games, there is usually collected a crowd of intensely sympathetic
spectators, and the players themselves, when not in action, are
entirely out of the game, yet they still take part through inner
imitation which has frequent outward manifestations. Moreover,
whoever sees a difficult piece of work accomplished feels a desire to
test his own skill with a like task. The merest onlooker at a prize
fight will assume belligerent postures, as Defregger says, and
savages are often so wrought upon by witnessing a war dance that
serious brawls ensue.
These facts lead us insensibly to the realm of art, of which I merely
remark in passing that certain echoes of the fray may be detected in
architecture and music, and that the representative arts and
especially painting devote a wide field to combat, but that the real