4 FLY FISHING 



of other people. There are even men and 

 women who do not care to play golf, and prefer 

 to avoid the subject ; and all of us, in talking 

 about a hobby, run the risk that our words may 

 fall upon unwilling ears. Sympathy will not 

 flow unless interest is felt, and this latter is a 

 slow growth. The interest that springs up on 

 the spur of the moment is not intelligent ; to 

 be satisfactory either to listener or speaker, it 

 must have a firm root in remembered feelings 

 and associations. Nor must it be taken for 

 granted that an interest felt by people in 

 the same subject necessarily implies a common 

 pleasure. One man may care for flowers be- 

 cause he likes to live amongst them and loves 

 the effects of landscape gardening : another 

 because he studies the life and growth of a 

 plant, and takes infinite pains to bring indi- 

 vidual plants to perfection and produce a perfect 

 bloom : a third may care less to grow the 

 flower than to examine it scientifically ; and 

 so the pleasure may vary through all degrees, 

 from the highest and driest botany to the most 

 anlearned sensuous appreciation of colour, scent 

 and form. 



