We
admire a man who goes on making money long after he has made far
more than he needs; we think a life honourably spent in editing
Greek books. Socrates in one of Plato's dialogues quotes the
opinion of a philosopher to the effect that when a man has made
enough to live upon, he should begin to practise virtue. "I think
he should begin even earlier," says the interlocutor; and I am
wholly in agreement with him. Travel is one of the expedients to
which busy men resort, in order that they may forget their
existence. I do not venture to think this exactly culpable, but I
feel sure that it is a pity that people do not do less and think
more. If a man asks what good comes from thinking, I can only
retort by asking what good comes from the multiplication of
unnecessary activity. I am quite as much at a loss as any one else
to say what is the object of life, but I do not feel any doubt that
we are not sent into the world to be in a fuss. Like the lobster in
The Water-Babies, I cry, "Let me alone; I want to think!" because I
believe that that occupation is at least as profitable as many
others.
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