Equally  valuable  are  our  avocations  as  a
means  of  expression.  It  matters  little  if  we
have  not  genius;  if  with  violin  or  cello,  with
pencil  or  brush,  we  can  do  reasonably  well


Hobbies  223

and  are  capable  of  doing  better,  we  have
several  means  of  exercising  the  faculties  and
of  keeping  alive  our  interests.  Parts  of  the
self  are  brought  into  play  which  would  other-
wise perish  for  lack  of  recognition.  We  must
keep  alive  as  much  as  we  can,  not  alone  in
root  and  stem  but  in  every  limb;  for  dead
wood  encumbers  the  tree  and  mars  its  sym-
metry. The  dilettante  with  no  life  work  is  a
tree  dying  at  the  root ;  while  the  worker,  with
no  interests  aside  from  his  treadmill,  is  a  tree
sound  at  the  core  it  may  be,  but  blighted  in
leaf  and  flower.  All  men  are  partly  dead
from  lack  of  cultivation ;  in  each  some  faculties
are  nourished  at  the  expense  of  others,  some
are  starved.  None  are  completely  nourished;
none  are  wholly  alive.  Hearn  somewhere
comments  on  the  first  cry  of  the  Japanese
babe  which,  being  translated  into  speech,
means  good-bye.  To  what  is  the  little  soul
saying  good-bye?  he  asks.  It  is  perhaps  to
some  world  of  beauty  to  which  it  has  just
died,  which  seers  and  poets  dimly  recall  in
their  moments  of  ecstasy.  Do  we  not  die
to  that  world  as  one  by  one  fade  the  early
perceptions  of  beauty,  as  one  by  one  are  closed
the  channels  of  expression?  Such  indeed  is
the  sad  truth.     Yet  there  have  been  miracles ;


224  Resources

for  such  is  the  vitalising  power  of  immortal
words  and  works,  that  the  dead  have  been
known  to  hear  their  message  and  to  come
forth  from  the  grave.
