II. 



AT THE ROOKERY. 



It can not be supposed that one who has not been ac- 

 customed to it should find that refreshment in going 

 a-fishing which is so welcome to him who knows it by 

 old experience ; yet it is a habit of body and mind easily 

 cultivated, and much to be commended. Every hard- 

 working man should have a hobby. This is sound doc- 

 trine. Especially should the professional man and the 

 active business man remember this. He whose mind is 

 occupied during the day with severe labor will find it im- 

 possible at evening to abandon his work. The responsi- 

 bilities of the day will weigh on him at night ; he can not 

 rid himself of them. Social enjoyment, conversation, or- 

 dinary amusement, and recreation will serve but a tem- 

 porary purpose, and can not be relied on to divert the 

 mind from anxiety and care. Try the experiment. Take 

 to collecting engravings or coins or shells, or any thing 

 else, so it be a subject to interest you, and make a hobby 

 of it. It will absorb the mind, enable it to throw off all 

 business thought, afford sensible relief and refreshment, 

 and be a great insurance against those diseases of the 

 brain which close the labors and usefulness of so many 

 strong intellects. 



The summer vacation, which is about the only recre- 

 ation that an American professional or business man 



