272 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



in spite of education being more complete and universal 

 in that country. Is it not possible that they adjust the 

 balance better between study and muscular development? 



I am often accused by my friends of being too 

 ambitious — indeed, worldly-minded — from caring too 

 much for the success in hfe of those whom I know 

 well and am fond of. The justification to myself of this 

 accusation, the truth of which I admit, is that the youth 

 of life is a time of preparation, and if we get no results — 

 no outward demonstration — that when a man has done 

 his best he has done well, it seems to me like going up 

 for an examination and then not caring if you pass, like 

 acting to empty houses, writing books which no one 

 reads, painting pictures which no one buys, or losing 

 money instead of making it. Every now and then a 

 genius is passed over by his generation and acknow- 

 ledged later on, but this is the exception. Broadly 

 speaking, the average get very much what they deserve, 

 and, in vaguely generalising, one can only speak of the 

 average. I do think that, having travelled half the 

 road of hfe, we have a right to expect moderate success, 

 and to feel disappointed if we do not get it. I am sure 

 to be asked, perhaps a little scoffingly, 'What do you 

 mean by success? Happiness?' No, certainly not. 

 "What I mean is easy to understand, though difficult to 

 define. It is the generally-accepted meaning of success, 

 perhaps in its lowest sense, the contrary of failure ; and I 

 mean the same as Mr. Morley does when he speaks of 

 success in the following words:— 'It is the bitterest 

 element in the vast irony of human life that the time- 

 worn eyes to which a son's success would have brought 

 the purest gladness are so often closed for ever before 

 success has come.' 



If the fashion grows of parents handing over to 

 children some of the money which would otherwise come 



