300 The Angling Cyclist 
What do such people know of the pleasures 
or possibilities of the wheel ? Nothing. They 
ride over the same park roads or asphalt boule- 
vards week in and week out, they stop at the 
same resorts so often that even the waiters 
know what they will ask for, and save them the 
exertion of doing so by serving it unordered. 
To such riders cycling is but a modern suc- 
cessor to the blind horse in the mill, who for- 
ever goes round and round, regardless and 
careless of what happens outside of that nar- 
row circle his feet have worn in the earth 
which in the end must receive into its kindly 
bosom all that remains of the patient plodder. 
Cycling is to this half-baked contingent a kind 
of machine which must be propelled just so 
far, then brought back to the starting point, 
and the whole thing repeated ad znfinitum. 
Thismay be many things, but one thing it is 
not, and that one is legitimate cycling. 
The true cyclist must have something Alex- 
ander-like in his make-up—he must be con- 
stantly seeking for new worlds to conquer, He 
must experiment, investigate and decline to 
leave well enough alone. Noroad mustto him 
be so perfect that no new road should be 
sought for, no wheel so good that, perhaps, a 
.better one for his purpose could not be found, 
no arrangement of his machine so absolutely 
correct that it could not be made more so. 
Progress is the first principle of cycling. Had 
the world been content with pedestrian loco- 
motion or makeshift aids thereto by means of 
the brute, we should to-day have no railways, 
bicycles or electric cars. The explorer and the 
investigator should both be embodied in the 
make-up of the wheelman. Eliminate either 
or both and the residue is a something value- 
less to any one, its owner most of all. 
Be as thorough in your cycling as you find it 
profitable and wise to be in your business. 
Know full well what you and the machine you 
bestride can do, and then see that both accom- 
plish wisely and well all that in them exists. 
Don’t dawdle along without ever seeking a 
change. Even if your search for something 
newer and better leads you into barren ways, 
yet your exploring will not have been without 
value, since it will have made you more appre-, 
ciative of the pleasures you temporarily for- 
sook. Let not one such failure discourage you, 
Continuance will in the end most surely bring 
you a reward worthy of all and more than it 
cost you to gain it. 
Brsvee 
