THE PHILOSOPHY OF FAILURE 167 



of them the diary was discarded, only to be utilized 

 once more that year, and then to receive the details of 

 a red-letter day, whose entry was quite unnecessary ; 

 red-letter days are not forgotten, whether they be 

 inscribed or no. 



The blank days, on the other hand, it is surely well 

 to pass by. What possible profit can there be in 

 reading, in one's own handwriting, about the north- 

 easterly gale that blew on such-and-such a date, or 

 about the road-washings that distinguished such 

 another date ? The entry of " One unsizeable fish 

 returned " is possibly gratifying to an occasional mood 

 of self-righteousness, but it is neither interesting nor 

 instructive. On the whole, therefore, it were well to 

 keep no damning script of one's past incapacity or ill 

 luck, and to leave the compilation of statistics to those 

 who have on blank days, if there be such persons ; or, 

 at any rate, to those who, touching their very occasional 

 days of only partial success, can cite reasons that are 

 convincing to others and creditable to themselves. 

 Nevertheless, the blank day is not without its value, 

 provided it be not remembered too acutely. 



I was very much impressed one blank day by the 

 effect that it had had on a friend. We were seeing 

 the last of the trout season on the Itchen, and seeing 

 it in a manner that will not be recorded, in my diary 

 at least. But at the end of a day of thunderous skies, 

 cross-winds, and fugitive trout my friend was splendidly 

 serene. The quiet hours of fishless contemplation 

 had, he said, enabled him to realize an ambition and 

 to formulate and put into working order a really sound 

 philosophy. To me all things that day had been 



