WHAT MY CRITICS WILL SAY. 43 



writing articles for which misguided publishers 

 of newspapers pay me. I devote a certain num- 

 ber of hours in the week to writing, nor in my 

 humble opinion is it the easy writing which is 

 supposed to make such hard reading. There is 

 no reason why other people who choose to cut 

 loose from city life, having found its cost greater 

 than its worth, should not employ a certain 

 number of hours every day at the kind of work 

 for which they happen to have a particular 

 bent. I see already that my eldest boy will 

 probably turn his attention to machinery, and 

 perhaps become an electrician. It is not abso- 

 lutely necessary that he should remain in the 

 machine-shop all his life in order to contribute 

 something to the world's stock of machinery. 

 Some of the greatest inventions and most valu- 

 able suggestions have been made by men far 

 away from the great centres of life. 



Again, if in our bustling New York we saw 

 that most men really do produce valuable worl^ 

 essential to the happiness of mankind, there 

 might be some misgiving as to the policy of 

 isolating one's self from the crowd and endeav- 

 oring to get as much enjoyment upon com- 

 paratively nothing a year as the millionaire. 



