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diff --git a/17956.txt b/17956.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2b417c --- /dev/null +++ b/17956.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1003 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Recreation, by Edward Grey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Recreation + +Author: Edward Grey + +Release Date: March 10, 2006 [EBook #17956] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECREATION *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Sjaani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +RECREATION + +BY + +VISCOUNT GREY OF FALLODON, K.G. + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +_The Riverside Press Cambridge_ + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + * * * * * + +The Riverside Press +CAMBRIDGE - MASSACHUSETTS +PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. + + + +ADDRESS DELIVERED AT +THE HARVARD UNION +DECEMBER 8, 1919 + + + +RECREATION + + +It is sometimes said that this is a pleasure-seeking age. Whether it be +a pleasure-seeking age or not, I doubt whether it is a pleasure-finding +age. We are supposed to have great advantages in many ways over our +predecessors. There is, on the whole, less poverty and more wealth. +There are supposed to be more opportunities for enjoyment: there are +moving pictures, motor-cars, and many other things which are now +considered means of enjoyment and which our ancestors did not possess, +but I do not judge from what I read in the newspapers that there is more +content. Indeed, we seem to be living in an age of discontent. It seems +to be rather on the increase than otherwise and is a subject of general +complaint. If so it is worth while considering what it is that makes +people happy, what they can do to make themselves happy, and it is from +that point of view that I wish to speak on recreation. + +Let it be admitted that recreation is only one of the things that make +for happiness in life. I do not even recommend it as the most important. +There are at least four other things which are more or less under our +own control and which are essential to happiness. The first is some +moral standard by which to guide our actions. The second is some +satisfactory home life in the form of good relations with family or +friends. The third is some form of work which justifies our existence to +our own country and makes us good citizens. The fourth thing is some +degree of leisure and the use of it in some way that makes us happy. To +succeed in making a good use of our leisure will not compensate for +failure in any one of the other three things to which I have referred, +but a reasonable amount of leisure and a good use of it is an important +contribution to a happy life. How is this happy use of leisure to be +ensured? We sometimes meet people who do not seem to know what to do +with their spare time. They are like the man of whom it was said, "He +doesn't know what he wants, and he won't be happy till he gets it." The +first thing, therefore, is to take ourselves out of that category, to +know definitely what we want, and to make sure it is something that will +make us happy when we get it; and that is the beginning of recreation. +You are entitled to say to me, "That is all very well as a general piece +of advice, but tell us how you have followed and applied it yourself"; +and it would not be fair for me to shrink from answering that question. +In one respect I must plead failure. I have been a failure as regards +golf, not because I did not succeed, but because I did not want to +succeed. I have a great respect for golf. I am sure it is very good for +many people; I know very many good people who play golf; but it so +happens that it does not give me a good time, and so I leave the +recommendation of it to people who can speak of it with more +appreciation. + +But I do recommend some game or games as a part of recreation. As long +as I could see to play and had sufficient leisure, I enjoyed immensely +the game of real or court tennis, a very ancient game, requiring +activity as well as skill, a game in which Americans may take interest +and some pride, because for the first time, at any rate, in the recent +history of the game, an amateur is champion of the world and that +amateur is an American. The English are sometimes criticised for paying +too much attention to games. A British officer whom I know well, who +happened to be in Africa at the outbreak of the war and took part in the +fighting there, tells me that in one of the German posts captured by +the British there was found a map made by the Germans and showing Africa +as it was to be when the war was over. The greater part of Africa had +become German, and there was nothing left for the British excepting a +small patch in the middle of the Sahara Desert which was marked +"Footballplatz for the English." Football is a national game in America +as well as in England, but I do not suppose that either you or we think +that our soldiers fought any worse in the war for having been fond of +football. I put games definitely as a desirable part of recreation, and +I would say have one or more games of which you are fond, but let them, +at any rate in youth, be games which test the wind, the staying power, +and the activity of the whole body, as well as skill. + +Sport shall be mentioned next. I have had a liking for more than one +form of sport, but an actual passion for salmon and trout fishing. +Perhaps the following little confidence will give some idea how keen the +passion has been. The best salmon and trout fishing in Great Britain +ends in September. The best salmon fishing begins again in March. In my +opinion the very best of all is to be had in March and April. In October +I used to find myself looking forward to salmon fishing in the next +March and beginning to spend my spare time thinking about it. I lay +awake in bed fishing in imagination the pools which I was not going to +see before March at the earliest, till I felt I was spending too much +time, not in actual fishing, but in sheer looking forward to it. I made +a rule, therefore, that I would not fish pools in imagination before the +first of January, so that I might not spend more than two months of +spare time in anticipation alone. Salmon fishing as I have enjoyed it, +fishing not from a boat, but from one's feet, either on the bank or +wading deep in the stream, is a glorious and sustained exercise for the +whole body, as well as being an exciting sport; but many of my friends +do not care for it. To them I say, as one who was fond of George +Meredith's novels once said to a man who complained that he could not +read them, "Why should you?" If you do not care for fishing, do not +fish. Why should you? But if we are to be quits and you are to be on the +same happy level as I have been, then find something for yourself which +you like as much as I like fishing. + +There are many other subjects for recreation. I cannot even mention them +all, much less discuss any of them adequately. But I must mention for a +high place in recreation the pleasure of gardening, if you are fond of +it. Bacon says, "God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is +the purest of human pleasures." It is one of those pleasures which +follow the law of increasing and not of diminishing returns. The more +you develop it and the more you know about it, the more absorbing is the +interest of it. There is no season of the year at which the interest +ceases and no time of life, so long as sight remains, at which we are +too old to enjoy it. + +I have now mentioned games, sport, and gardening. No one perhaps has +time or opportunity to enjoy all three to the full. A few people may +have sufficient range of temperament to care for all three, but many +people--I would say most people--who have opportunity may find, at any +rate in one of them, something that will contribute to their happiness. +I will pass now to a subject which is more important still. + +Books are the greatest and the most satisfactory of recreations. I mean +the use of books for pleasure. Without books, without having acquired +the power of reading for pleasure, none of us can be independent, but +if we can read we have a sure defence against boredom in solitude. If we +have not that defence, we are dependent on the charity of family, +friends, or even strangers, to save us from boredom; but if we can find +delight in reading, even a long railway journey alone ceases to be +tedious, and long winter evenings to ourselves are an inexhaustible +opportunity for pleasure. + +Poetry is the greatest literature, and pleasure in poetry is the +greatest of literary pleasures. It is also the least easy to attain and +there are some people who never do attain it. I met some one the other +day who did not care for poetry at all; it gave her no pleasure, no +satisfaction, and only caused her to reflect how much better the +thought, so it seemed to her, could be expressed in prose. In the same +way there are people who care nothing for music. I knew one Englishman +of whom it was said that he knew only two tunes: one was the national +anthem, "God Save the King," and the other wasn't. We cannot help these +people if they do not care for poetry or music, but I may offer you one +or two suggestions founded on my own experience with regard to poetry. +There is much poetry for which most of us do not care, but with a little +trouble when we are young we may find one or two poets whose poetry, if +we get to know it well, will mean very much to us and become part of +ourselves. Poetry does not become intimate to us through the intellect +alone; it comes to us through temperament, one might almost say enters +us through the pores of the skin, and it is as if when we get older our +skin becomes dry and our temperament hard and we can read only with the +head. It is when we are young, before we reach the age of thirty-five, +that we must find out the great poet or poets who have really written +specially for us; and if we are happy enough to find one poet who seems +to express things which we have consciously felt in our own personal +experience, or to have revealed to us things within ourselves of which +we were unconscious until we found them expressed in poetry, we have +indeed got a great possession. The love for such poetry which comes to +us when we are young will not disappear as we get older; it will remain +in us, becoming an intimate part of our own being, and will be an +assured source of strength, consolation, and delight. + +There is another branch of literature to which I must make a passing +reference: it is that of philosophy. I am bound to refer to it here +because I know two men, both of them distinguished in public life, who +find real recreation and spend leisure time when they have it in reading +and writing philosophy. They are both living and I have not their +permission to mention their names, but as I admire them I mention their +recreation, though with an admiration entirely untinged by envy. An +Oxford professor is alleged to have said that every one should know +enough philosophy to find that he can do without it. I do not go quite +so far as that. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford I read Plato +because I was made to read it. After I left Oxford I read Plato again to +see if I liked it. I did like it so much that I have never found the +same pleasure in other philosophical writers. I hope you will not think +that I am talking flippantly. I am talking very seriously--about +recreation, and I feel bound to mention philosophy in connection with it +out of respect to my friends, but I do not lay much stress upon it as a +means of recreation. + +I come now to the main source of literary recreation in reading: the +great books of all time on which one generation after another has set +the seal of excellence so that we know them certainly to be worth +reading. There is a wide and varied choice, and it is amongst the old +books that the surest and most lasting recreation is to be found. Some +one has said, "Whenever a new book comes out read an old one." We need +not take that too literally, but we should give the old and proved books +the preference. Some one, I think it was Isaac Disraeli, said that he +who did not make himself acquainted with the best thoughts of the +greatest writers would one day be mortified to observe that his best +thoughts are their indifferent ones, and it is from the great books that +have stood the test of time that we shall get, not only the most lasting +pleasure, but a standard by which to measure our own thoughts, the +thoughts of others, and the excellence of the literature of our own day. +Some years ago, when I was Secretary for Foreign Affairs in England, +when holidays were often long in coming, short and precious when they +did come, when work was hard and exhausting and disagreeable, I found +it a good plan when I got home to my library in the country to have +three books on hand for recreation. One of them used to be one of those +great books of all time dealing with great events or great thoughts of +past generations. I mention Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire" as an instance of one such book, which had an atmosphere of +greatness into which one passed right out of the worries of party +politics and official work. Such books take one away to another world +where one finds not only pleasure, but rest. "I like large still books," +Tennyson is reported to have said. And great books not only give +pleasure and rest, but better perspective of the events of our own time. +I must warn you that Gibbon has been called dull. It is alleged that +Sheridan, a man of brilliant wit, said so, and when a friend reminded +him that in a famous speech he had paid Gibbon the compliment of +speaking of the "luminous page of Gibbon," Sheridan said he must have +meant to say "voluminous." If you take the same view of Gibbon, find +some other great author whom you do not find dull. There is a host of +great writers to choose from. There are plenty of signposts to direct us +to old books of interest and value. They have well-known names, and so +they stand out and are known like great peaks in mountain ranges of the +human intellect. + +The second of my books would also be an old book, a novel which had been +approved by successive generations. The third would be some modern book, +whether serious or light, and in modern books the choice is not so easy. +There are many that are excellent, but there are many in which we may +find neither pleasure nor profit. If our leisure is short we have not +much time to experiment. The less spare time we have, the more precious +it is, and we do not want to waste any of it in experimenting with +modern books which we do not find profitable. It is worth while to +cultivate a few friends whose intelligence we can respect and whose +taste is sympathetic and who read, and to get from them from time to +time the names of modern books which they have read and found good. I +have had too little time for reading, but that my advice may not be +entirely academic I will recommend you, at any rate, one good modern +novel. Its name is "The Bent Twig," the authoress is Dorothy Canfield, +and I can tell you nothing except that she is an American, but the book +seems to me one of the best pieces of work in novel writing that has +happened to come under my own observation recently. There are others, no +doubt, in plenty, and if you get half a dozen friends who are fond of +reading each to recommend you one book as I have done, you will have +provision for a little time to come. + +To conclude my suggestions about reading I would urge this. Like all the +best things in life, the recreation of reading needs a little planning. +When we have a holiday in prospect we make plans beforehand so that when +the time comes we may know exactly where we want to go, what we want to +do, how the holiday is to be spent, and have all our preparations ready. +If we do not do that the holiday finds us unprepared and the greater +part of it is wasted. So with our spare time, our casual leisure. Do not +let it find us unprepared. It is a good plan to make a list of books +which either from our own thought, our own experience, or the +recommendation of friends, we feel a desire to read. We should have one +or two of these books always at hand, and have them in mind, too, as +something which we are longing to read at the first opportunity. I +think some people lose the habit and pleasure of reading because they do +not take this trouble and make no plan, and when the spare evening or +the long railway journey or the wet day comes it finds them without any +book in anticipation, and they pick up a newspaper or a magazine, not +because they specially want to read it, but because they have nothing +present to their minds or at hand which they really care for. The habit +of planning ahead is essential to real cultivation of the pleasure of +reading, just as essential as planning is for sport or travel or games +or any of the other pleasures of life. I know friends who are fond of +sport. They choose a long time beforehand the river they will fish or +the sort of shooting they will pursue. Another friend likes travel and +plans months in advance where he will go and what he will see. Without +this fore-thought and planning they would not get their pleasure, and so +it is with reading. If we once acquire the habit of planning, we find +out increasingly what it is that we like, and our difficulty at any +spare moment is not to find some book that we are longing to read, but +to choose which book of those to which we are looking forward in +anticipation we shall take first. + +I have spoken about planning for a holiday, and I will give an instance +of how thoroughly President Roosevelt planned for a holiday. Several +years ago when I was at the Foreign Office in London, I got a letter +from Mr. Bryce, who was then British Ambassador at Washington, saying +that President Roosevelt intended to travel as soon as he was out of +office. He was going to travel in Africa, to visit Europe, and to come +to England, and he was planning his holiday so minutely as to time his +visit to England for the spring, when the birds would be in full song +and he could hear them. For this purpose he wanted it to be arranged +that somebody who knew the songs of the English birds should go for a +walk with him in the country, and as the songs were heard tell him what +the birds were. That is a pretty good instance of thorough planning in +advance for a holiday. It seemed to me very attractive that the +executive head of the most powerful country in the world should have +this simple, healthy, touching desire to hear the songs of birds, and I +wrote back at once to Mr. Bryce to say that when President Roosevelt +came to England I should be delighted to do for him what he wanted. It +is no more a necessary qualification for the Secretary for Foreign +Affairs in London than it is for the President of the United States that +he should know the songs of the birds, and it is an amusing coincidence +that we should have been able to arrange this little matter +satisfactorily between us as if it were part of our official duties, +without feeling obliged to call in experts. + +Time passed, and when the President retired from office he went to +Africa and had much big-game shooting and travel there. Then he came by +way of the Sudan and Egypt to Europe. The leading countries of Europe +were stirred to do him honour, England not less than others. He had a +great reception and everywhere a programme of great and dignified +character was arranged for him. European newspapers were full of it long +before he got to England, and I thought this little walk to hear the +songs of English birds suggested some two years previously would be +forgotten and crowded out by greater matters. But it was not so. Without +any reminder on my part I got an intimation from the English friend who +was to be Colonel Roosevelt's host in London that Colonel Roosevelt had +written to him to say that this promise had been made and that he wished +time to be found for the fulfilment of it. I saw Colonel Roosevelt once +soon after he came to London. The day was arranged and at the appointed +time we met at Waterloo Station. We had to ask the newspaper reporters +not to go with us, not because it made any difference to Colonel +Roosevelt, but because birds are not so tame, or perhaps I should say +are more self-conscious than public men and do not like to be +photographed or even interviewed at close quarters, and it was +necessary, not only that Colonel Roosevelt and I should be alone, but +that we should make ourselves as inconspicuous and unobtrusive as +possible. + +So we went alone, and for some twenty hours we were lost to the world. +We went by train to a country station where a motor was awaiting us. +Thence we drove to the little village of Titchborne in Hampshire, and +got there soon after midday. In the village of Titchborne there lives +also the family of Titchborne, and in the old village church there is a +tomb with recumbent figures of one of the Titchbornes and his wife who +lived in the time of James the First; on it is inscribed the statement +that he chose to be buried with his wife in this chapel, which was built +by his ancestor in the time of Henry the First. That shows a continuous +record of one family in one place for some eight hundred years. I forget +whether we had time to go into the church and look at it, but the songs +of the birds which we had come to hear are far more ancient. They must +be the same songs that were heard by the inhabitants of England before +the Romans came, for the songs of birds come down unchanged through +great antiquity, and we are listening to-day, in whatever part of the +world we may be, to songs which must have been familiar to races of men +of which history has no knowledge and no record. + +I was a little apprehensive about this walk. I had had no personal +acquaintance with Colonel Roosevelt before he came to England in 1910, +and I thought to myself, "Perhaps, after all, he will not care so very +much about birds, and possibly after an hour or so he will have had +enough of them. If that be so and he does not care for birds, he will +have nothing but my society, which he will not find sufficiently +interesting for so long a time." I had relied upon the birds to provide +entertainment for him. If that failed, I doubted my own resources. I +need have had no fear about his liking for birds. I found, not only that +he had a remarkable and abiding interest in birds, but a wonderful +knowledge of them. Though I know something about British birds I should +have been lost and confused among American birds, of which unhappily I +know little or nothing. Colonel Roosevelt not only knew more about +American birds than I did about British birds, but he knew about +British birds also. What he had lacked was an opportunity of hearing +their songs, and you cannot get a knowledge of the songs of birds in any +other way than by listening to them. + +We began our walk, and when a song was heard I told him the name of the +bird. I noticed that as soon as I mentioned the name it was unnecessary +to tell him more. He knew what the bird was like. It was not necessary +for him to see it. He knew the kind of bird it was, its habits and +appearance. He just wanted to complete his knowledge by hearing the +song. He had, too, a very trained ear for bird songs, which cannot be +acquired without having spent much time in listening to them. How he had +found time in that busy life to acquire this knowledge so thoroughly it +is almost impossible to imagine, but there the knowledge and training +undoubtedly were. He had one of the most perfectly trained ears for +bird songs that I have ever known, so that if three or four birds were +singing together he would pick out their songs, distinguish each, and +ask to be told each separate name; and when farther on we heard any bird +for a second time, he would remember the song from the first telling and +be able to name the bird himself. + +He had not only a trained ear, but keen feeling and taste for bird +songs. He was quick to express preferences, and at once picked out the +song of the English blackbird as being the best of the bird songs we +heard. I have always had the same feeling about the blackbird's song. I +do not say it is better than the songs of American birds, which I have +not heard, and I think Colonel Roosevelt thought one or two of the +American bird songs were better than anything we had in England; but his +feeling for the English blackbird's song I found confirmed the other day +in a book published by Dr. Chapman, of the Natural History Museum at +New York. He has written a chapter on English birds and picks out the +song of the blackbird for excellence because of its "spiritual quality." +Colonel Roosevelt liked the song of the blackbird so much that he was +almost indignant that he had not heard more of its reputation before. He +said everybody talked about the song of the thrush; it had a great +reputation, but the song of the blackbird, though less often mentioned, +was much better than that of the thrush. He wanted to know the reason of +this injustice and kept asking the question of himself and me. At last +he suggested that the name of the bird must have injured its reputation. +I suppose the real reason is that the thrush sings for a longer period +of the year than the blackbird and is a more obtrusive singer, and that +so few people have sufficient feeling about bird songs to care to +discriminate. + +One more instance I will give of his interest and his knowledge. We were +passing under a fir tree when we heard a small song in the tree above +us. We stopped and I said that was the song of a golden-crested wren. He +listened very attentively while the bird repeated its little song, as +its habit is. Then he said, "I think that is exactly the same song as +that of a bird that we have in America"; and that was the only English +song that he recognized as being the same as any bird song in America. +Some time afterwards I met a bird expert in the Natural History Museum +in London and told him this incident, and he confirmed what Colonel +Roosevelt had said, that the song of this bird would be about the only +song that the two countries had in common. I think that a very +remarkable instance of minute and accurate knowledge on the part of +Colonel Roosevelt. It was the business of the bird expert in London to +know about birds. Colonel Roosevelt's knowledge was a mere incident +acquired, not as part of the work of his life, but entirely outside it. +I remember thinking at the time how strange it seemed that the +golden-crested wren, which is the very smallest bird which we have in +England, should be the only song bird which the great continent of North +America has in common with us. + +But points of view are different in different countries. We may find +ourselves looking, not only at political questions, but at incidents in +natural history from a different point of view when we are on different +sides of an ocean. The other day I was in a contemplative mood not far +from Washington. I was thinking what a great country I was in, how much +larger the rivers were and how vast the distances, and generally working +up in my own mind an impression of the great size of the country. Then I +happened to recall this incident of the golden-crested wren, and I +found myself thinking, of course, in a tiny little island like Great +Britain, where one cannot go in an express train at fifty miles an hour +from east to west or from north to south in a straight line for more +than fifteen hours without falling into the sea, the only song we could +have in common with a great continent like this would be the song of the +smallest bird. + +One trivial incident there was in our walk which gave us some amusement. +We were going by footpaths down a river valley, a very beautiful, but a +very tame and settled country, where anything like an adventure seemed +impossible. We were on a path which I had known for many years, and +along which I had walked many times, not only without adventure, but +without even incident. Suddenly we found ourselves stopped--the path was +flooded, some weeds had blocked the river close by, and instead of a dry +path we had about twenty yards of water in front of us. The water was +not very deep, certainly not above our knees, but I had not intended +that there should be any wading in our walk nor had I prepared for it. I +asked if he would mind going through the water, to which, of course, he +replied that he would not. So we went through, got wet, and in the +course of the afternoon got dry again as we walked. Nothing of the same +kind had happened there before; nothing has happened since. I think +there was some magnetism about Colonel Roosevelt's personality which +created incidents. + +After going a few miles down the valley we got into our motor, which was +waiting at a village inn, and drove to what is called the New Forest, +though it is more than eight hundred years old. We were now in a country +of wild heath, quite uncultivated, and the part we went through was +mostly natural forest. Here we heard some birds different from any we +had heard in the valley of the Itchen, and got to a little inn standing +on the open heath about nine o'clock in the evening. We had dinner, and +next morning we breakfasted together and went to Southampton, whence +Colonel Roosevelt returned to America. + +I am not attempting here a full appreciation of Colonel Roosevelt. He +will be known for all time as one of the great men of America. I am only +giving you this personal recollection as a little contribution to his +memory, as one that I can make from personal knowledge and which is now +known only to myself. His conversation about birds was made interesting +by quotations from poets. He talked also about politics, and in the +whole of his conversation about them there was nothing but the motive of +public spirit and patriotism. I saw enough of him to know that to be +with him was to be stimulated in the best sense of the word for the +work of life. Perhaps it is not yet realised how great he was in the +matter of knowledge as well as in action. Everybody knows that he was a +great man of action in the fullest sense of the word. The Press has +always proclaimed that. It is less often that a tribute is paid to him +as a man of knowledge as well as a man of action. Two of your greatest +experts in natural history told me the other day that Colonel Roosevelt +could, in that department of knowledge, hold his own with experts. His +knowledge of literature was also very great, and it was knowledge of the +best. It is seldom that you find so great a man of action who was also a +man of such wide and accurate knowledge. I happened to be impressed by +his knowledge of natural history and literature and to have had +first-hand evidence of both, but I gather from others that there were +other fields of knowledge in which he was also remarkable. Not long ago +when an English friend of mine was dying, his business agent came over +to see him. One of the family asked the agent whether he had come on +important business. "No," he said, "I have come for a little +conversation because I was feeling depressed this morning and I wanted +to be made to feel two inches taller." That saying would, I think, have +been specially applicable to Colonel Roosevelt also. He could make +people feel bigger and stronger and better. + +And now my last discourse shall be on one sentence from Colonel +Roosevelt which I saw quoted the other day. It is this: "He is not fit +to live who is not fit to die, and he is not fit to die who shrinks from +the joy of life or from the duty of life." Observe that the joy of life +and the duty of life are put side by side. Many people preach the +doctrine of the duty of life. It is comparatively seldom that you find +one who puts the joy of life as something to be cultivated, to be +encouraged on an equal footing with the duty of life. And of all the +joys of life which may fairly come under the head of recreation there is +nothing more great, more refreshing, more beneficial in the widest sense +of the word, than a real love of the beauty of the world. Some people +cannot feel it. To such people I can only say, as Turner once said to a +lady who complained that she could not see sunsets as he painted them, +"Don't you wish you could, madam?" But to those who have some feeling +that the natural world has beauty in it I would say, Cultivate this +feeling and encourage it in every way you can. Consider the seasons, the +joy of the spring, the splendour of the summer, the sunset colours of +the autumn, the delicate and graceful bareness of winter trees, the +beauty of snow, the beauty of light upon water, what the old Greek +called the unnumbered smiling of the sea. + +In the feeling for that beauty, if we have it, we possess a pearl of +great price. I say of great price, but it is something which costs us +nothing because it is all a part of the joy which is in the world for +everybody who cares for it. It is the "joy in widest commonalty spread"; +it is a rich possession for us if we care for it, but in possessing it +we deprive nobody else. The enjoyment of it, the possession of it, +excites neither greed nor envy, and it is something which is always +there for us and which may take us out of the small worries of life. +When we are bored, when we are out of tune, when we have little worries, +it clears our feelings and changes our mood if we can get in touch with +the beauty of the natural world. There is a quaint but apposite +quotation from an old writer which runs as follows: "I sleep, I drink +and eat, I read and meditate, I walk in my neighbour's pleasant fields +and see all the varieties of natural beauty ... and he who hath so many +forms of joy must needs be very much in love with sorrow and +peevishness, who loseth all these pleasures and chooseth to sit upon his +little handful of thorns." + +There is a story of a man whom others called poor, and who had just +enough fortune to support himself in going about the country in the +simplest way and studying and enjoying the life and beauty of it. He was +once in the company of a great millionaire who was engaged in business, +working at it daily and getting richer every year, and the poor man said +to the millionaire, "I am a richer man than you are." "How do you make +that out?" said the millionaire. "Why," he replied, "I have got as much +money as I want and you haven't." + +But it is not only in the small worries of life that we may be saved by +a right use of recreation. We all realize how in the Great War your +nation and our nation and others engaged in the war were taken out of +themselves, I was going to say lost themselves, but I ought rather to +say found themselves. It was a fine thing on your part to send two +million soldiers across the sea in so short a time to risk their lives +for an ideal. It was even more impressive to us when we heard that in +this country you had adopted conscription, and that your millions of +people, distributed over so vast an extent of continent, were so moved +by one public spirit and one patriotism and one desire to help the +Allies in the war that they were rationing themselves voluntarily with +food and fuel. That voluntary action by so many millions over so great +an extent of country was a tremendous example, showing what an ideal and +a public spirit and a call to action can do for people in making them +forget private interests and convenience and making them great. + +That was an example of what could be done by not shrinking from the +duty of life; but you can get greatness, too, from some of the joys of +life, and from none more than from a keen sense of the beauty of the +world and a love for it. I found it so during the war. Our feelings were +indeed roused by the heroism of our people, but they were also depressed +by the suffering. In England every village was stricken, there was grief +in almost every house. The thought of the suffering, the anxiety for the +future, destroyed all pleasure. It came even between one's self and the +page of the book one tried to read. In those dark days I found some +support in the steady progress unchanged of the beauty of the seasons. +Every year, as spring came back unfailing and unfaltering, the leaves +came out with the same tender green, the birds sang, the flowers came up +and opened, and I felt that a great power of nature for beauty was not +affected by the war. It was like a great sanctuary into which we could +go and find refuge for a time from even the greatest trouble of the +world, finding there not enervating ease, but something which gave +optimism, confidence, and security. The progress of the seasons +unchecked, the continuance of the beauty of nature, was a manifestation +of something great and splendid which not all the crimes and follies and +misfortunes of mankind can abolish or destroy. If, as years go on, we +can feel the beauty of the world as Wordsworth felt it and get from it + + "Authentic tidings of invisible things, + Of ebb and flow and ever during power, + And central peace subsisting at the heart + Of endless agitation," + +then we have, indeed, a recreation which will give us, not merely +pleasure, but strength, refreshment, and confidence. Something of the +same feeling we may get from an appreciation of great music, beautiful +pictures, splendid architecture, and other things that stir us with an +impression of everlasting greatness. Enjoy these and cultivate the +appreciation of them, but especially, if you can, cultivate the +enjoyment of the beauty of nature, because it costs nothing and is +everywhere for everybody; and if we can find recreation in such things +as these, then, indeed, we may make the joy of life great as well as the +duty of life, and we may find that the joy of life and the duty of life +are not things adverse or even to be contrasted, but may be, as Colonel +Roosevelt puts them, companions and complements of each other. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Recreation, by Edward Grey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECREATION *** + +***** This file should be named 17956.txt or 17956.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/9/5/17956/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Sjaani and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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