Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

bad. The athlete and the Alpine climber know it well. It is proverbial that the navvy, who is said to eat enormously with a view to keeping up his strength, is worth nothing at all in the way of work by the time he is forty. Nowhere are gout and rheumatism so prevalent, in spite of the beauty of the climate, as in Australia, where meat is cheap, and people live principally upon it. I maintain that if more, and more decided, abstinence were enjoined, there would be no necessity for the number of hours that are now wasted in exercise. Mr. John Morley, in a recent speech to some schools, refers to this point. He says : ' Is there not a little too much addiction to pleasure nowadays? Do not young men attend rather more to their athletics and sports than is wholly good? This was what had been said: — In Germany, young men who were going into the family business travelled and acquired languages, and learnt to know the tastes and habits of the natives. In England the sons of the house devoted themselves to pleasure — to billiards, the theatre, sport, and so on. In Germany the father said, " Thank God I have a son ! " In England the son said, " Thank God I have a father ! " ' Mr. Morley wound up, after saying that those who worked hard ought to have pleasure, as follows : — ' There was no doubt, taking the country as a whole, that pleasure and sport were now absorbing an amount of time and mental occupation which must block out some other objects to which it would be well if men and women paid atten- tion.' The way to diminish exercise without loss of health is by the very economical method of diminishing food, especially food of that kind which is well known to increase muscle. From the little I know of French schools it seems to me that the exercise there is very inadequate. We are told that Germany is our successful rival in many forms of physical prowess and staying power, 472 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN in spite of education being more complete and universal in that country. Is it not possible that they adjust the balance better between study and muscular development? I am often accused by my friends of being too ambitious — indeed, worldly-minded — from caring too much for the success in life of those whom I know well and am fond of. The justification to myself of this accusation, the truth of which I admit, is that the youth of life is a time of preparation, and if we get no results — no outward demonstration — that when a man has done his best he has done well, it seems to me like going up for an examination and then not caring if you pass, like acting to empty houses, writing books which no one reads, painting pictures which no one buys, or losing money instead of making it. Every now and then a genius is passed over by his generation and acknow- ledged later on, but this is the exception. Broadly speaking, the average get very much what they deserve, and, in vaguely generalising, one can only speak of the average. I do think that, having travelled half the road of life, we have a right to expect moderate success, and to feel disappointed if we do not get it. I am sure to be asked, perhaps a little scomngly, 'What do you mean by success? Happiness?' No, certainly not. What I mean is easy to understand, though difficult to define.