Part 27 (1/1)

AND THIS OUR LIFE

”I would admonish the world that all persons, indifferently, are not fit for this sort of diversion”

Whereas the average toeller could not endure the commonplaces of Nature which entertain ratify hts, so his pursuits are to me devoid of purpose, insipid, disy if you like) is that he is not as other men are--fond of society and of society's occupations, pastile is ardens; all this amplitude of time and space than the one ”crowded hour” Here I calorious of all possessions: freedom--freedom beyond the dreams of most men in its comprehensiveness and exactitude These few haphazard notes refer to the exercise of rare independence They cannot be otherwise than trivial and dull, but they at least fulfil the purpose to which I was pledged They reveal my puny efforts to be none other than myself So tranquil, so uniform are our days, that but for the diary--the civilised substitute for the notched stick--count of theht be lost

And this extorts yet another confession One year, Good Friday passed, and Easter-tinisance of the season came Speedy is the descent to the automaton A mechanical mis-entry in the diary threw all the orderly days of the week into a whirling jumble We knew not Wednesday froh we calculated and checked notes of the transactions and traits of successive days To what purpose was the effort to memorise one day from another when all were precisely alike in colour and uneventfulness? Each day had been blue--radiantly blue--nothing matic assertions of disproof

But the steamer cuts a deep weekly notch We jolted into it and becaid calendar of the workaday world

Thus we keep the noiseless tenor of our way, finding in life if not great and gaudy pleasures, at least content and relief fronaay the lives of the o to be--indecorous--an aboh his h it may seem blank and colourless, thin and watery, devoid of expectation, and the hope of fame, name, and that kind of success which comes of the acquirement of riches, yet--and in a spirit of thankfulness be it said--the obscure and ic-coratification He does what he likes to do He frankly confesses that he sought isolation because of the lack of those qualities which make for dutiful citizenshi+p, because of indifference to the ordinary enchantments of the kaleidoscopic world, not because of any lack of appreciation of the wisdom of the majority

He has dared to be what he is, rather than submit to be pulled this way and that on the rack of fashi+on and custo well is whether a man likes what he has chosen” Other men have other ranks to take, other fates to command Do not politicians and publicists; professional men and princes of trade; those who toil for others, with brain or hands; the charitable and the miserly; those who pine if removed from the noise and breath of the crowd; those who spend their days in meditation and study; those who live conscientiously every ateway of the life eternal”; those who are at enmity to law and order; the honest toiler and the iue, each and all respectively find pleasure in the particular walk of life he elects to take? ”Each to the favourite happiness attends” When God gave manna to His people, every Israelite found in it what best pleased hi tasted bread, the old honey, and the children oil” No doubt an expert burglar feels as keen a sense of joy in the planning and execution of a deed of darkness de and resourcefulness, as does the hueon in the performance of an operation for the salvation of a valuable life, or as does his lordshi+p the bishop in the delivery of a holar has his appreciation of pleasure, and the others theirs; and so long as the pleasures of the individual are not ihts and liberties of others, let each pursue that which allures

In the long run he will find himself responsible to himself; and if his days have been ill spent, and his opportunities slighted, his the punishht are such that you greet therance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal--that is your success”