demanding care and solicitude rather than irregular intense efforts of
the brain, then let his distraction be such as will make a powerful
call upon his brain. But if, on the other hand, the course of his
business runs in crises that string up the brain to its tightest
strain, then let his distraction be a foolish and merry one. Many men
fall into the error of assuming that their hobbies must be as
dignified and serious as their vocations, though surely the example of
the greatest philosophers ought to have taught them better! They seem
to imagine that they should continually be improving themselves, in
either body or mind. If they take up a sport, it is because the sport
may improve their health. And if the hobby is intellectual it must
needs be employed to improve their brain. The fact is that their
conception of self-improvement is too narrow. In their restricted
sense of the phrase, they possibly don't need improving; they possibly
are already improved to the point of being a nuisance to their
fellow-creatures; possibly what they need is worsening. In the broad
and full sense of the phrase self-improvement, a course of
self-worsening might improve them. I have known men--and everybody has
known them--who would approach nearer to perfection if they could only
acquire a little carelessness, a little absent-mindedness, a little
illogicalness, a little irrational and infantile gaiety, a little
unscrupulousness in the matter of the time of day. These
considerations should be weighed before certain hobbies are dismissed
as being unworthy of a plain man's notice.

Then comes the hour of decision, in which the wise plain man should
exert all that force of will for which he is famous in his house. For
this hour may be of supreme importance--may be the close of one epoch
in his life and the beginning of another. The more volitional energy
he can concentrate in it, the more likely is he to succeed in the fine