By JAMES PAGET.
There are some rules regarding active recreations which it is well for
all to observe: for all, at least, who must work, or who wish to work as
well as play.
First, recreations should not only be compatible with the business or
duty of life, but absolutely and far subordinate; and this, not only
in kind, but in number and quantity. Their utility, and, sometimes,
even their only justification is that they may increase the power and
readiness for work; beyond this they should not be allowed to pass.
Then, they should chiefly exercise the powers which are least used in the
work; and this, not only for pleasure but for utility. For there are few
daily occupations which provide sufficient opportunities for the training
of all the powers and dispositions which may be usefully employed in them
and of which the full use, though not necessary for an average fitness,
may be essential to excellence in the business of life. They, therefore,
that work chiefly with their minds, should refresh themselves chiefly
with the exercise of their muscles; manual workers should rather rest and
have some study, or practice some gentle art, or strive to invent; or,
for one more example, they whose days are spent in money speculations
and excitement had better try to be happy in passionless thinking, in
listening to sweet sounds, in quiet reading, and so on.
It adds to the utility of every recreation if its events can be often
thought of with pleasure; so that the mind may be sometimes occupied
with them not only in careful thinking, but in those gaps or casual
intervals of time in which, both during and after work, it is apt to
wander uselessly. Especially is this true of mental recreations; they
may thus prolong their happiness and their utility from day to day or
year to year; as often as they are remembered the mind may be refreshed
far more than it is in the mere vacancy of thought. And there may be
as much refreshment in looking forward; as, for example, in planning a
good holiday, or at the best, in trying, by the light of either faith or
science, to anticipate the final decision of the doubts which now beset
us, or the wonders that will be revealed, or the new powers that will be
exercised in the far distant future.
It is an excellence in recreations if they lead us to occupy ourselves in
pursuits which give opportunities of gaining honest repute and personal
success. Competition is good in all virtuous pleasures as well as in
all work; the habit of being in earnest and of doing one’s best may be
strengthened in recreations, and then employed in its still better use in
work.
And in agreement with this it is a great addition to the happiness and
utility of a recreation if it enables us to do or to acquire something
which we may call our own. In this is a part of the advantage which any
one may find in giving part of his spare time to some study, some branch
of art, some invention or research which may be recognized, at least
among his friends as being, in some sense, his own. The study itself
must be the first and chief refreshment, but its pleasure is enhanced if
with the knowledge or the skill which it attains there is mingled some
consciousness of personal property.
Similarly, and for a like reason, the happiness of a recreation is
increased if it leads us to collect anything; books, sketches, shells,
autographs, or whatever may be associated with the studies or the active
exercises of spare times or even with those of business. I think that
none who have not tried it can imagine how great is the refreshment
of collecting and of thinking, at odd moments, of one’s specimens and
arranging and displaying them. There are few good recreations, few daily
occupations with which something of the kind may not be usefully mingled.
Cricket matches, rowing matches, foot ball, and the like, are admirable
in all the chief constituent qualities of recreations; but besides this,
they may exercise a moral influence of great value in business or in any
daily work. For without any inducement of a common interest in money,
without any low motive, they bring boys and men to work together; they
teach them to be colleagues in good causes with all who will work fairly
and well with them. They teach that power of working with others which
is among the best powers for success in every condition of life. And by
custom, if not of their very nature, they teach fairness; foul play in
any of them, however sharp may be the competition, is by consent of all,
disgraceful; and they who have a habit of playing fair will be the more
ready to deal fair. A high standard of honesty in their recreations will
help to make people despise many things which are far within the limits
of the law.
And, for one more general rule, it is an excellent quality in recreations
if they will continue good even in old age. I think the experience of men
would confirm this by the instances they see of unhappy rich old men who
have retired from business and have no habitual recreations. None seem so
unhappy as do some of these.
They used to enjoy the excitement of uncertainty in their business; now,
everything is safe and dull; then, mere rest after fatigue was happiness;
now, there is no fatigue, but there is restlessness in monotony; they
used to delight in the exercise of skill and in the counting of its
gains; now, the only thing in which they had any skill is gone; they have
no work to do, and they do not know how either to play or to rest.
It is well, therefore, that all should prepare for the decline of power
in recreations, as well as in much graver things. There are many that do
not lose their charm or their utility as we grow older. One is in the
refreshment of collections; for there are many whose value constantly
increases as they become older, and with all of them the pleasure is
enhanced the further we can look back in the memory of the events
associated with each specimen, and can recollect the difficulty of
obtaining it, and the joy of first possession. Or, there may be a change
of active recreations; the elderly cricketer may take to golf and become
sure that it is in every way the better of the two; the old hunting
man may ride to cover more cautiously. Or, with less activity, there
may be the happiness of reading or meditation, of music, or any of the
fine arts; these, if they have been prudently cultivated, do not become
wearisome in old age. If these and other like things fail, it may be a
sign that it is time to leave off work; but so long as a man can work, so
long will he be right if he will spend some of his leisure times, wisely
and actively, in recreations; they may make him both more fit to do his
work, and, at the last, more fit to leave it.—_The Nineteenth Century._