A NATION'S PROSPERITY 19 



suggestion would be absurd. But we cannot 

 shut our eyes to the fact that there can be too 

 much of the amusement fetich. It is overdone, 

 and its devotees act as if the only aim in life 

 is to be amused. The prosperity of the nation 

 does not depend upon the amount of amusement 

 that can be crammed into our lives, but upon 

 the intellectual attainments of the units that 

 make up the nation. 



There are hundreds of thousands of people 

 in certain counties whose whole conversation 

 is permeated with football and cricket language, 

 showing the uppermost and paramount thoughts 

 in their minds. 



It is not at all unlikely that this ' amusement 

 and not education ' desire is the cause of our 

 trade finding its way barred by better work 

 by other peoples, the cause of a good deal of 

 the want of employment among our working 

 classes, and the direct or indirect cause of an 

 amount of poverty and crime. 



There are too many places of amusement in 

 our cities, too many trashy and pernicious 

 novels read in our free libraries, too much time 



