INTRODUCTORY 15 



work is of this kind, and in most if not in all 

 of it, there is much drudgery, so that we are 

 tormented from time to time by a strong desire 

 to get away from it ; we seem to be doing it, not 

 because we have any genius or gifts for it, but 

 because we are not better suited for anything else. 

 Men whose task is imposed by necessity may well 

 feel that the struggle for something which is not 

 work, for opportunities of recreation, is not only 

 legitimate and just, but imperative. On the other 

 hand, if complete idleness be possible, we are 

 again tormented by the sense of waste or of 

 power unused, by the thought that everything 

 leads to nothing, by the "weight of chance 

 desires" increasing till it produces intolerable 

 restlessness, and the curse of the wandering Jew 

 seems to be working in our nature. Therefore 

 it is that most of us endeavour to divide our 

 lives into three parts, work, rest, and recreation ; 

 and it is with the management of the third part, 

 and the place of angling with regard to it, that 

 this book is concerned. 



We probably wish our recreation to be not only 

 apart from our work, but in contrast to it, and 

 those who labour with their brain indoors seek for 



