352 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



because there is nothing to do, nothing to occupy their 

 minds, nothing to save them from ennui after the novelty 

 wears off. The busy, active man can secure rest only by 

 diverting the muscular and nervous energies in new and 

 unaccustomed channels. This may be accomplished, in a 

 measure, by cards, chess, music, reading, etc., as purely 

 intellectual recreations; while riding, driving, boating, 

 yacthing, archery, shooting, etc., furnish ample means for 

 muscular skill and exercise ; but angling brings into play 

 both the mental and physical capacities. To be a good 

 angler requires good judgment, much patience, rare skill, 

 a full share of endurance, and a lively imagination; the 

 latter quality is not absolutely essential, but it helps 

 mightily when "luck" is bad, and on it depends the aes- 

 thetic and poetical features of the art. 



But the persons who are disposed to " take time " to 

 indulge in these or similar recreations, in our country, are 

 quite limited. In England, it is considered part of a gen- 

 tleman's education to know how to ride, to row, to shoot, 

 to sail, and to cast a fly, and he is the better for it, mor- 

 ally, physically, and intellectually. In our own country it 

 is too often considered " a waste of time " to acquire or 

 practice these manly and healthful accomplishments. Our 

 girls may learn music, and dancing, and painting, as means 

 and acquirements necessary to the securing of a husband, 

 but any attempt on the part of our boys to learn any of 

 the manly sports, in a regular and systematic way, must be 

 frowned down as opposed to all our ideas of thrift and 

 economy, and a gross misuse of " time." What we need 

 is more muscular Christianity ; we would then have sounder 

 minds in sounder bodies. 



A few weeks taken from the fifty-two composing the 



