o explore the bush, to
row on the river, to stroll along the sands, to poke among the rocks,
and to fish in the stream. I must cultivate the friendship of the
fields and the ferns and the flowers. I must lie back in my easy
chair, with my feet on the fender, and laugh with my friends. And pity
me, men and angels, if I am too busy to romp with the children and to
tell them a tale if they want it! There are many things in a man's
life that he can give up, just as there are many things in a book that
can be skipped, but the last thing to go must be the margin.

Now, rising from my desk for a moment, just to stretch my legs a
little, I glance out of my study window at the busy world outside. I
see men making bargains, reading newspapers, and talking politics. And
really, when you come to analyse the thing, this matter of the margin
touches that bustling world at every point. To begin with, the
essential difference between life here in Australia and life in the old
world is mainly a difference in the breadth of the margin. Here life
is not so hemmed in and cramped up as it must of necessity be there.
Then, too, the whole tendency of modern legislation is in the direction
of widening the margin. Everything tends to increase the leisure of
the people. Early closing has come into its own. Shopkeepers put up
their shutters quite early in the evening; the hours of the labourer
have been considerably curtailed; and in other ways the leisure of the
people has been greatly increased. Now in this broadening of life's
margin there lie both tremendous possibilities and tremendous perils.
The idleness of an entire community during a considerable proportion of
its waking hours may become a huge national asset or a serious menace
to the general wellbeing. People are too apt to suppose that character
is determined by the main business of life. It is a fallacy. It is,
as I have said, the margin that really matters. There is a section of
time that remains to a man after the main business of life has been
dealt with. It is the use to which that margin is put that reveals the
true propensities of the individual and that, in the long run,
determines the destiny of the nation.

Here, for example, are two bricklayers. They walk down the street side
by side on their way to their work. From the time that the hour
strikes for them to commence operations until the time comes to lay
aside their trowels for the day, they are pretty