Tobe really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or threehobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say:“I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates thestrain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topicsunconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. Itis no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadlyspeaking, human being may be divided into three classes: those who are toiledto death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death. Itis no use offering the manual laborer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat andeffort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturdayafternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or businessman, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, towork or worry about trifling things at the weekend.
Itmay also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are dividedinto two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure ispleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these theformer are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in theoffice or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means ofsustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and mostmodest forms. But Fortune’s favored children belong to the second class. Theirlife is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough.Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged asenforced interruptions in an absorbing vacation. Yet to both classes the needof an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort,is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasureare those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from theirminds.
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