of the kingdom of heaven.

Of course there is a sense in which it is a mistake to let habits
become too tyrannical; one ought not to find oneself hopelessly
distracted and irritated if one's daily programme is interfered with at
any point; one ought to be able to enjoy leisure, to pay visits, to
converse volubly. Like Dr. Johnson, one ought to be ready for a frolic.
But, on the other hand, if a man takes himself seriously--and I am here
not speaking of people with definite engagements, but of people, like
writers and artists, who may choose their own times to do their
work--he ought to have a regular though not an invariable programme. If
he is possessed of such superabundant energy as Walter Scott possessed,
he may rise at five, and write ten immortal octavo pages before he
appears at breakfast. But as a rule the vitality of ordinary people is
more limited, and they are bound to husband it, if they mean to do
anything that is worth the name; an artist then ought to have his
sacred hours, secure from interruption; and then, let him fill the rest
of the day with any amusement that he finds to be congenial.

Of course the thing is easy enough if one's work is really the thing in
which one is most interested. There is very little danger, in the case
of a man who likes and relishes the work he is doing more than he
relishes any form of amusement; but we many of us have the unhappy
feeling that we enjoy our work very much, if we can once sit down to
it; only we do not care about beginning it. We read the paper, we write
a few letters, we look out an address in Who's Who, and we become
absorbed in the biographies of our fellow-men; very soon it is time for
luncheon, and then we think that we shall feel fresher if we take a
little exercise; after tea, the weather is so beautiful that we think
it would be a pity not to enjoy the long sunset lights; we come in; the
piano stands invitingly open, and we must strike a few chords; then the
bell rings for dressing, and the day is gone, because we mistrust the
work that we do late at night, and so we go to bed in good time. Not so
does a big book get written!

We ought rather to find out all about ourselves; when we can work our
best, how long we can work continuously with full vigour; and then
round these fixed points we should group our sociability, our leisure,
our amusement. If we are altruistically inclined, we probably say that
it is a duty to see something of our fellow-creat