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