LAPPING UP THE STARS 131 



for dreaming." And Youth is dragged from his star-gazing 

 to learn bookkeeping; the poems are snatched from his hands 

 to make place for the ledger. Ideals are all very well for 

 poets, he is told, but there is no room for them in the business 

 world. He must give up dreaming now, and become a man 

 of common sense. They stuff his ears with business plati- 

 tudes, so that he may not hear the song of the wind; they 

 dazzle his eyes with electric lamps, so that he may not gaze 

 at the stars; they tell him that motor cars are better than 

 his own strong feet, so that he may think no more of the long 

 red road. And when they have robbed him of all that made 

 youth beautiful, and bound him tight with their cruel bonds, 

 they smile with satisfaction and say, " Ah, here is a sensible, 

 clever young fellow ; he will make his way he will be a rich 

 man." 



And not for one moment do they dream that they are 

 digging at the very foundation of all they most dearly prize. 

 It is the dreamer, the idealist, who through history has opened 

 the way for the man of action. It was the spirit of romance 

 and adventure that sent the old navigators out into unknown 

 seas and they steered by the stars. It was the boy who sat 

 idly watching the kettle boil who gave us our railroads and 

 ocean liners ; it was the idealists who abolished slavery, and 

 who gave us the laws which guard and protect us. It is the 

 dreamer who coaxes from nature the secrets which fill the 

 coffers of the worldly-wise ; the man of action follows quickly 



