Athena
is first simply what in the Modern Athens you practically find her, the
breeze of the mountain and the sea; and wherever she comes, there is
purification, and health, and power. The sea-beach round this isle of
ours is the frieze of our Parthenon; every wave that breaks on it
thunders with Athena's voice; nay, wherever you throw your window wide
open in the morning, you let in Athena, as wisdom and fresh air at the
same instant; and whenever you draw a pure, long, full breath of right
heaven, you take Athena into your heart, through your blood; and, with
the blood, into the thoughts of your brain.
Now, this giving of strength by the air, observe, is mechanical as well
as chemical. You cannot strike a good blow but with your chest full;
and, in hand to hand fighting, it is not the muscle that fails first, it
is the breath; the longest-breathed will, on the average, be the victor,
--not the strongest. Note how Shakespeare always leans on this. Of
Mortimer, in "changing hardiment with great Glendower":
"Three times they breathed, and three times did they drink,
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood.
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