eculiar interest, the peculiar satisfaction that
lies in a sustained research when one is not hampered by want of money.
It is a different thing from any other sort of human effort. You
are free from the exasperating conflict with your fellow-creatures
altogether--at least so far as the essential work goes; that for me is
its peculiar merit. Scientific truth is the remotest of mistresses;
she hides in strange places, she is attained by tortuous and laborious
roads, but SHE IS ALWAYS THERE! Win to her and she will not fail you;
she is yours and mankind's for ever. She is reality, the one reality I
have found in this strange disorder of existence. She will not sulk with
you nor misunderstand you nor cheat you of your reward upon some petty
doubt. You cannot change her by advertisement or clamour, nor stifle her
in vulgarities. Things grow under your hands when you serve her, things
that are permanent as nothing else is permanent in the whole life of
man. That, I think, is the peculiar satisfaction of science and its
enduring reward....

The taking up of experimental work produced a great change in my
personal habits. I have told how already once in my life at Wimblehurst
I had a period of discipline and continuous effort, and how, when I
came to South Kensington, I became demoralised by the immense effect
of London, by its innumerable imperative demands upon my attention and
curiosity. And I parted with much of my personal pride when I gave
up science for the development of Tono-Bungay. But my poverty kept me
abstinent and my youthful romanticism kept me chaste until my married
life was well under way. Then in all directions I relaxed. I did a large
amount of work, but I never troubled to think whether it was my maximum
nor whether the moods and indolences that came to me at times were
avoidable things. With the coming of plenty I ate abundantly and
foolishly, drank freely and followed my impulses more and more
carelessly. I felt no reason why I should do anything else. Never at any
point did I use myself to the edge of my capacity. The emotional crisis
of my divorce did not produce any immediate change in these matters of
personal discipline. I found some difficulty at first in concentrating
my mind upon scientific work, it was so much more exacting than
business, but I got over that difficulty by smoking. I became an
inordinate cigar smoker; it gave me moods of profound depression, but
I treated these usually by the hom