18 PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 



crossed his care-worn countenance as he replied : 

 " Yours is the true philosophy. I have been work- 

 ing very hard for thirty years, and this is my first 

 vacation ; and I am here now, not from choice but 

 from necessity. My doctor tells me I have impaired 

 my constitution by over-work, and that my only 

 hope is rest. But I fear I have postponed this rest 

 too long. You and those like you, who will have 

 your recreation whatever becomes of business, are 

 the wisest men. You rest to preserve health and 

 not to regain it. I am seeking what, by my too 

 close application to business, I have prematurely 

 lost ; and it is very doubtful whether I shall find 

 what I am seeking." And his fear was prophetic. 

 He died in the midst of his years a man exem- 

 plary in all things save in this neglect of himself. 

 And for this he paid the inevitable penalty. 



It is a sorry sight to see an over-worked, sallow- 

 visaged, prematurely aged man of business, volun- 

 tarily digging his own grave. Yet thousands are 

 doing this, because they will not seek rest until 

 their accumulations will permit them to " retire " to 

 enjoy what they have " made," and when such men 

 do " retire," they find themselves possessed of a 

 fortune and a broken constitution. Who, then, are 

 the wise men ? They who work without cessation 

 or intermission until they are compelled to seek 

 lost health, or they who prefer " prevention " to 

 " cure ? " If to merely " work " was all of life, even 



