Parrying

If you wish to parry a blow effectually, first know what your opponent is about to do. This is a paramount necessity. For this purpose your eyes should be fixed upon his, with the object of divining his intentions. It will be no use to look at his hands or his shoulders. His head determines what he means to do. His eyes may or may not be early tell-tales, but sooner or later you will be able to form a shrewd guess at his purposes, from the persistent endeavor to read them. A hard rap or two you may encounter unexpectedly in your search after knowledge. This, you will find all the better. Your brain will be practically cultivated, and practival cultivation is one of the few things that man ever forgets, while he retains any degree of mental and physical power. Having given you this bit of preparatory advice, we shall endeavor to descrive the parries as plainly as we have done the blows.

As there are seven blows, so there are seven corresponding parries, although some few of them have variations which will be pointed out as we come to them.

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