it should be commenced long before one discontinues business, else the
chances are that he will never take it up, but will fret away his time like
the average man who retires from an occupation which has engrossed his
attention.

The fad should not be pursued too strenuously, or its charm is lost. A lady
once told me that she had given up studying flowers because she found she
could not master botany in the time at her disposal. Another sees no use in
taking up history unless he can become an authority on some epoch. Another
declines to study because he can never overtake the college graduate. But
one of the best informed men of my acquaintance had no college education.
One of his fads was history, with which he was far more familiar than any
but the exceptional college man, outside the teachers of that branch of
learning.

The usefulness of the fad does not depend upon the perfection attained in
its pursuit, but upon the pleasure in its pursuit, and upon the diversion
of the mind from its accustomed channels. The more completely one learns
to concentrate his thoughts on an _avocation_, the more enthusiasm and
effectiveness he can bring to bear on his _vocation_ in its turn. A fad
that occupies the hands, such as carpentering, turning, or photography, is
peculiarly useful if one's taste runs in that direction.

One handicap in cultivating the fad is the lack of interest on the part of
our associates, but if we become genuinely interested in any fad that is at
all worth while, we shall inevitably add new acquaintances likely to prove
at least as interesting as those of our present friends, who have no
thoughts outside their daily round of toil. The more fads one cultivates,
so long as he avoids the obsession to obtrude them at all times and places,
the more interesting he will, in his turn, become to others.