INTRODUCTORY 17 



we take pleasure in doing our best. The last 

 stage may be a long one; it begins with the 

 admission that we are past our best. Strength 

 is not diminished, and indeed we may even have 

 more sheer strength than ever, but the effort of 

 using it has become greater. The first sign of 

 deterioration is when our powers seem as great, 

 but it becomes more exhausting to use them, and 

 when in a hard game we do not last so well. 

 The next symptom follows very soon ; we cannot 

 do so quickly what can no longer be done so 

 easily ; our performance suggests retrospect ; the 

 personal element wanes, and we find satisfaction 

 more and more in contemplation and less and 

 less in excitement and competition ; at last we sit 

 amongst the onlookers, and are advised by our 

 friends to practise golf. There is much that is 

 analogous to all this in the pleasure which is 

 found in sport. 



It would be tedious and perhaps invidious to 

 enter here upon a comparison of angling with 

 other sports. Each man sees special advantages 

 in his own favourite pursuit, and possibly pays 

 for this by overlooking some advantages which 

 are to be found elsewhere. One thing I must 



