Games not only keep the body
in health, but give a command over the muscles and limbs which cannot be
overvalued. Moreover, there are temptations which strong exercise best
enables us to resist.
It is the idle who complain they cannot find time to do that which they
fancy they wish. In truth, people can generally make time for what they
choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is wanting: and
the advantage of leisure is mainly that we may have the power of choosing
our own work, not certainly that it confers any privilege of idleness.
"Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I'll tell you who time
ambles withal, who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who he
stands still withal." [1]
For it is not so much the hours that tell, as the way we use them.
"Circles are praised, not that excel
In largeness, but th'exactly framed;
So life we praise, that doth excel
Not in much time, but acting well." [2]
"Idleness," says Jeremy Taylor, "is the greatest prodigality in the world;
it throws away that which is invaluable in respect of its present use, and
irreparable when it is past, being to be recovered by no power of art or
nature.
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