406 A Sportswoman in India 



solid nature, having found its place, stays there, makes 

 home worth living in, and contributes towards making 

 a nation. He does not go to meet adventure nor 

 foreign lands and men ; content to wait, his day comes, 

 and all nationalities upon earth travel to England in 

 order to see the result of the blood of John Bull. 



It is only a sophism to argue that without having 

 travelled, a man is necessarily narrow and prejudiced ; 

 the " best things," happily, " are nearest him, lie close 

 about his feet" ; life teaches him that lesson, if it 

 teaches him nothing else. 



Though young blood must have its course, and 

 every dog his day, yet 



When all the world is old, lad, 



And all the trees are brown, 

 And all the sport is stale, lad, 



And all the wheels run down, 

 Creep home and take your place there, 



The spent and maimed among : 

 God grant you find one face there 



You loved when all was young. 



Travel is in part a superstition. The leisured class 

 in England says to itself, " I must travel, or it will be 

 said of me that I am doing nothing " ; thus it fosters 

 its luxuriant, vagabond habits, and wilfully turns its 

 back upon a useful sphere. Travel is apt to induce an 

 idle life and an inordinate love of change, which grows 

 with years and in time effectually paralyses more solid 

 impulses : for such travellers do little good as they 

 hurry over continent after continent ; the view they 



