Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/806

786 prevail over it that it should agitate the whole inwardly, and by ardent application to learned pursuits cause the body to waste away. Nor is this to be regretted, because if the danger so stated were a prevailing one we should have two evils to cure in lieu of one which is all-sufficient for the reforming work of many of the coming generations of men.

I have not, I trust, dwelt too long on what I may call the practical definition of recreation as it ought, I think, to be understood, as it once was understood and practiced, and as it is still practiced, if not systematically understood, by a few whose varied and delightful works and tastes make them the healthiest and longest-lived among us.

It is well always to have a standard before us, though it be seemingly unapproachable, and the illustrations I have endeavored to supply of all work and all play, and of long-continued recreation thereupon, form the standard I now wish to set up for observation.

To make all England, and all the world, for the matter of that, a recreation ground; to make all life a grand recreation; to make all life thereby healthier, happier, and longer—this is the question before us.

Confining our observations to our own people and time, it may now be worth a few moments of analytical inquiry as to how far we, in different classes of our English community, are away from so desirable a consummation—the consummation of all human effort toward the perfected human life: the dream of some poets that such a life has been and will return—"Redeunt Saturnia regna"—the dream of many poets that it is to be, if it has not been.

The Registrar-General, with much judgment, due to long and wide experience of the component parts of the nation comprised under the title of England and Wales, has divided the community into six great classes, which classes are, in many respects, so distinct that they may almost be considered as great nations of themselves, having their own individual pursuits, habits, tastes, and, if the word be allowable, recreations. He describes for us—1. A professional class, made up of governing, defending, and learned persons, and numbering some 684,102 persons, chiefly of the male sex; 2. A domestic class, wives and women of the household, and hotel and lodging-house keepers—a large class, the great majority women, numbering as many as 5,905,171—nearly, in fact, six millions; 3. A commercial class of buyers, sellers, lenders, and transporters of goods and produce, chiefly men, and numbering 815,424; 4. An agricultural class, cultivators, growers, and animal-keepers, the majority men, numbering 1,657,138; 5. An industrial class, mechanics, fabric manufacturers, food and drink producers, and purveyors of animal, vegetable, and mineral produce—a very large class, having in it members of both sexes, and numbering 5,137,725; 6. An indefinite, non-productive class; persons of rank and property; and scholars and children; nearly an equality of representation of numbers of both sexes; the whole class including a total of 8,512,706, of whom