Culture along one or more lines broadens the mind and makes a person
more worth while not only to himself, but to others. We can not estimate
the value of the beauty in life in dollars and cents, but he is poor
indeed who is rich in worldly goods alone.
It is necessary to be interested in the activities about us. Those who
think of nothing or no one except themselves are almost dead to the
world, even though they go through the same physical activities as other
people. The tendency is to get into a rut with advancing years and
remain there. It is easy to keep both a pliable mind and a pliable body
in spite of age, and this can be done by intelligent use. A short time
daily should be spent in becoming informed of what is happening
throughout the world and thinking it over. A mental hobby is most
excellent. A garden or a few birds can furnish an almost inexhaustible
source of interest. Those who doubt this should read of the comedy and
tragedy among such humble beings as the spider, the fly and the beetle.
J. H. Fabre has written charmingly about these, investing them with an
interest rarely to be found in good fiction. This naturalist is a good
example of what can be accomplished when one has years to do it in and
is content to labor along from day to day without giving too much
thought for the morrow.
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