game in America
as well as in England, but I do not suppose that either you or we think
that our soldiers fought any worse in the war for having been fond of
football. I put games definitely as a desirable part of recreation, and
I would say have one or more games of which you are fond, but let them,
at any rate in youth, be games which test the wind, the staying power,
and the activity of the whole body, as well as skill.

Sport shall be mentioned next. I have had a liking for more than one
form of sport, but an actual passion for salmon and trout fishing.
Perhaps the following little confidence will give some idea how keen the
passion has been. The best salmon and trout fishing in Great Britain
ends in September. The best salmon fishing begins again in March. In my
opinion the very best of all is to be had in March and April. In October
I used to find myself looking forward to salmon fishing in the next
March and beginning to spend my spare time thinking about it. I lay
awake in bed fishing in imagination the pools which I was not going to
see before March at the earliest, till I felt I was spending too much
time, not in actual fishing, but in sheer looking forward to it. I made
a rule, therefore, that I would not fish pools in imagination before the
first of January, so that I might not spend more than two months of
spare time in anticipation alone. Salmon fishing as I have enjoyed it,
fishing not from a boat, but from one's feet, either on the bank or
wading deep in the stream, is a glorious and sustained exercise for the
whole body, as well as being an exciting sport; but many of my friends
do not care for it. To them I say, as one who was fond of George
Meredith's novels once said to a man who complained that he could not
read them, "Why should you?" If you do not care for fishing, do not
fish. Why should you? But if we are to be quits and you are to be on the
same happy level as I have been, then find something for yourself which
you like as much as I like fishing.

There are many other subjects for recreation. I cannot even mention them
all, much less discuss any of them adequately. But I must mention for a
high place in recreation the pleasure of gardening, if you are fond of
it. Bacon says, "God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is
the purest of human pleasures." It is one of those pleasures which
follow the law of increasing and not of diminishing returns. The more
you develop it and the more y