50 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



take one hour from those devoted to pleasure 

 for any purpose, however laudable or urgent it 

 might be. Consequently he gives a fifty pound 

 note to save himself the trouble of enquiry, and 

 gratifies his sheer vanity in a case where 

 perhaps ten pounds would have sufficed, and 

 the other forty have brought relief and com- 

 fort to the hearth of four other deserving per- 

 sons. Am I wrong in saying that man is 

 selfish who will not deprive himself of a moment's 

 self-gratification, and that a gratification in no wa}'- 

 commendable, for the benefit of any living being? 

 The anxieties and necessities of others occasionally 

 flit before his recollection or observation, but 

 the love of self is ever before his eyes. And with 

 a mind thus constituted, and so constituted are 

 the minds of most young men, we can only deplore 

 not wonder that he listens to the never ceasing 

 demands made by his self-indulgent propensities. 

 Old age becomes selfish or rather ceases to 

 feel for others from two leading causes. Many 



