3 io POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



from an occupation which brings into the home none of 

 the irritation so often produced by the piano or violin. 

 Music, no doubt, not merely in cases of real talent, but also 

 when only ordinary proficiency is attained, is the most 

 sociable of hobbies. It brings other musical people to 

 the house, and gives far more pleasure to those among 

 non-performers who like it, if more annoyance to those 

 who do not, than drawing. Many natures, however, 

 have the temperament of genius without its creative 

 power, and I doubt very much whether music gives the 

 same vent and the same satisfaction to these which even 

 a slight taste for drawing affords when cultivated. There 

 is a rare delight in the exercise of creative power, however 

 limited ; and this pleasure is given by drawing, even at its 

 most elementary stage. What was a piece of white 

 paper has something on it, and you have put it there. It 

 has also the great advantage that it can be practised at all 

 times and in all places when travelling, at the dull sea- 

 side lodging, in town, or at the empty or sad backwater 

 times of life that everyone experiences. Its danger to 

 each individual is the same as that of all other pleasures 

 and occupations to which we give our hearts, it en- 

 courages selfish absorption. But everything has its 

 reverse side ; and I am sure that, to the person with no 

 ear for music and no taste for independent study in 

 science or literature, drawing may prove a lasting delight, 

 a source of peace and content, a stimulus to moral and 

 intellectual growth. The occupation, to those who have 

 learnt to love it, causes time to fly on the wings of 

 pleasure ; it adds new interest and zest to life, opening 

 the eyes to a whole world of beauty which has hitherto 

 lain unknown or unnoticed. Balzac said : ' The genius 

 of observation is almost the whole of human genius.' If 

 this aphorism is not comprehensively true, it serves at 

 least to prove how life is enriched, even for the stupid, by 



