business of life. This revives, inspires, and cultivates them
perpetually. It matters little what it is, if only it is real and
personal, is large enough to last, and possesses the power of
growth. .A young sea-captain from a New England village on a long
and lonely voyage falls upon a copy of Shelley. Appeal is made
to his fine but untrained mind, and the book of the boy poet
becomes the seaman's university. The wide world of poetry and
of the other fine arts is opened, and the Shelleyian specialist
becomes a cultivated, original, and charming man. A busy merchant
loves flowers, and in all his free hours studies them. Each new
spring adds knowledge to his knowledge, and his friends continually
bring him their strange discoveries. With growing wealth he
cultivates rare and beautiful plants, and shares them with his
fortunate acquaintances. Happy the companion invited to a walk
or a drive with such observant eyes, such vivid talk! Because of
this cheerful interest in flowers, and this ingenious skill in
dealing with them, the man himself is interesting. All his powers
are alert, and his judgment is valued in public life and in private
business. Or is it more exact to say that because he is the kind
of man who would insist upon having such interests outside his
daily work, he is still fresh and young and capable of growth
at an age when many other men are dull and old and certain that
the time of decay is at hand?

There are two reasons why women need to cultivate these large
and abiding interests even more persistently than men. In the
first place, they have more leisure. They are indeed the only
leisure class in the country, the only large body of persons who
are not called upon to win their daily bread in direct wage-earning
ways. As yet, fortunately, few men among us have so little