GOSPEL OF RELAXATION. 279 



ness. The remark current in England that, when 

 the American travels, his aim is to do the greatest 

 amount of sight seeing in the shortest time, I find 

 current here also. It is recognized that the satisfac- 

 tion of getting on devours nearly all other satisfac- 

 tions. When recently at Niagara, which gave us a 

 whole week's pleasure, I learned from the landlord of 

 the hotel that most Americans come one day and go 

 away the next. Old Froissart, who said of the Eng- 

 lish of his day, that ' they take their pleasures sadly, 

 after their fashion/ would, doubtless, if he lived now, 

 say of the Americans that they take their pleasures 

 hurriedly, after their fashion. In large measure, with 

 us, and still more with you, there is not that aban- 

 donment to the moment which is requisite for full 

 enjoyment ; and this abandonment is prevented by 

 the ever present sense of multitudinous responsibili- 

 ties. So that, beyond the serious physical mischief 

 caused by overwork, there is the further mischief that 

 it destroys what value there would otherwise be in the 

 leisure part of life. 



"Nor do these evils end here. There is the injury 

 to posterity. Damaged constitutions reappear in 

 children, and entail on them far more of ill than great 

 fortunes yield them of good. When life has been duly 

 rationalized by science, it will be seen that among a 

 man's duties, care of the body is imperative, not only 

 out of regard for personal welfare, but also out of re- 

 gard for descendants. His constitution will be con- 

 sidered as an entailed estate, which he ought to pass 

 on uninjured, if not improved, to those who follow ; 

 and it will be held that millions bequeathed by him 



