y, foolishness, mysticism, good fellowship, aesthetics,
humanity, and humanities in general. The fact that many a man has thrown
himself away by putting all his time into these things, and lived solely
for good fellowship, for foolishness, or for imagination without
attainment, is no reason why you should not partake in a small measure of
these qualities, which is like the wheel grease on the axle or the clown
in the circus. It is apt to be even more important yet, as it may prove to
be the road to friendship, societies, society, and love. Moreover, you
should not forget that, in the pursuit of your object, you must provide a
material recreation for yourself,--literature, music, art, billiards,
anything; something that will give you (and others, if possible) pleasure
and diversion, and render your happiness independent of your work, if for
any reason you are prevented from devoting your life to it.

We are now prepared to go over some of your pursuits with our touchstone,
and see which ones we can recommend and which we cannot, which of the
desires with which you are confronted or may be confronted are worth while
or worth the expenditure of energy.

FOOD?

You should make no stipulation about your food, except that it be
wholesome. The pleasantness of its taste in your mouth should have little
weight with you. If you confine yourself to just that food which you like,
and get so that your comfort depends on it, you will deliver over your
freedom just as though you delivered yourself to be bound hand and foot in
a dungeon. When the time comes that you must cut down your expenditure and
live less "well," you become unhappy, as you have taught yourself to look
upon all food with the idea that it should give you pleasure rather than
sustenance.

YACHTING?

By all means. It gives judgment, coolness, and readiness to face and
overcome danger, muscle, ozone, handiness of hands, steadiness of eye,
experience, and a sense of the depth and expanse of the ocean. By all
means, yachting, but not for the purpose of show, as giving orders before
other people, of taking dilatory trips in fair weather only, and lounging
in an easy-chair on the deck of some yacht while others take the
responsibility and do the work. While going to the expense of keeping a
boat, you should so mould your life as to use it constantly. If you keep a
boat on the off chance of wanting it every other week or just for the
sense of having it ready, you w