it shall not crush them. For such persons the question of leisure demands attention. They may be sure that in this industrial era their work will find them out; but the secret of enjoying their work is something which they must find out for themselves.

LEISURE WHILE YOU WAIT

MUCH has been written in praise of leisure. Leisurely writing and leisurely reading have been commended as good for the soul's health. The mind should not always be on the stretch. but there should be intervals in which we should do no manner of work; at least any that imposed upon us. The intellect should have leisure to refresh itself at the fountain head. It should not be made a wheezy pump to lift water from a half-filled cistern. There should be a sense of effortless abundance.

To all this we agree, but there is one consideration that causes pain. The cultivation of leisure seems to take a great deal of time.,

"The wisdom of the learned man," says the son of Sirach, "cometh by the opportunity of leisure, and he that hath little business shall be wise." He then turns to those who do not belong to the leisure class, and quenches their aspirations after wisdom. It is a luxury that is beyond their station in life.

"How can he get wisdom that holdeth the

plough and glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is bullocks? So is every carpenter and work master that laboreth day and night. The smith also sitting by the anvil and considering the iron work and fighting with the heat of the furnace." In no better plight is "the potter sitting at his work, and turning the wheel with his feet, and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh."

All these busy people, he says, are necessary. Without them the city cannot be inhabited. "They maintain the state of the world and their desire is in the work of their hands." They are very useful, very indispensable, but they have not leisure to grow wise. Their minds cannot ripen properly. "They cannot declare justice and judgment, and they shall not be found where parables are spoken."

This is so, but it is not the whole story. Skilled artisans are not the only persons who suffer from the lack of the opportunities of leisure. The intellectual classes, as their interests become highly specialized, find it difficult to give their minds free play. One who aims at what is called "productive scholarship" has not the

time to sit at ease "where parables are spoken." The parable must be cut short. If only he who has little business shall be wise, then there is small hope for the University Professor. Wherein does the potter, turning the wheel with his foot while his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh, differ from the harassed candidate for a Ph.D. degree, as he looks at the pattern of the thesis that he maketh? Wherein does a society of scholars whose tasks are set by an efficiency expert differ from any other well-organized body of industrialists? It is hard to evade the consequences of all work and no play.

It is our habit to think of everything in terms of big business, and yet there are times when we rebel against the creed that the whole duty of man is to keep busy. Surely we were not born to spend our lives in involuntary servitude. It must be right now and then to do as we please. But how can we find time for such laudable truancies? That is what causes anxious thought.

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There is a letter of Cornelius Fronto to his pil, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, which takes up this matter from the standpoint of health. The young Emperor's conscience was a taskmaster

demanding continual toil. Fronto reminds him that it is possible for one with the best intentions to destroy his own powers for usefulness by overstrain.

"What do circumstances demand of you? Not study, not toil, not duties. What bow is forever strung?"

He suggests to him that the very best service he could render to the Roman Empire would be that he should get into such a state of mind that after each day's work he would be sure of a good night's sleep. He urges him not to look upon his duties with a prolonged stare. "Learn to wink.” It was good advice for the serious Stoic. "Remember your father, that godlike man who excelled others in continence and righteousness, yet he knew how to relax. He baited a hook and laughed at buffoons."

Then Fronto put his good advice in the form of an apologue. In the beginning, Father Jove divided man's life into two parts and gave equal value to both. The day he assigned to work, the night to rest. But he did not think of creating sleep, for he took it for granted that every one would be wise enough to rest while awake.

But little by little business began to encroach