The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-06-27
Subscription, One Dollar per Year.
GREAT MEMS DIVERSIONS.

Greatness unbending from its dignifed
surroundings to refresh itself with the amuse-
ments Of commoner folk envelopes itself. in SO
doing, with a peculiar charm Many a man
plays on the floor with his children without
any fear that such rompings may go to make
history When Charles [, however. was
found doing the same thing, the incident was
at once related to the historian as worthy of
posterlty's attention. You do not as a rule
take much notice of your immediate neigh
bors at the theatre; but should you chance
to discover some evening that the modest
looking elderly gentleman sitting on your
right, bore striking resem blance to Mr. Her
bert Spencer, and should be told next day
what is true-that one of Mr.. Spencer's few
relaxatlons is slipping out to the play with his
landlady, you would frequently mention your
chance encounter with the great sociolopist.
with as much delight as if you had met Mr..
Bentham at the Derby or seen John Stuart
Mill playing baccarat. The diversions of busy
men are seldom what we should imagine them
to be; for the reason that in order to pro-
duee the desired effect, they must as far as
possible present contrast to their daily toll
Beethoven when in want of a change after
mental labor, liked best of all to run
round the largest square in his vicinity
Hartley Coleridge, in the same way, was
fond of tearing wildly round field Rich
ter's favorlte relaxation was a long walk on
rainy day He took his family with him-all
being clad IN clothing that thorough wetting
would not spoil. Jean Paul averred that the
electrical effect of such rain-bath on the
human system is one of the best therapeutics
IN the world; and we incline to agree with
him. Victor Hugo does his locomotion by
proxy; next to playing with his grandchil-
dren he loves to knock about Paris on the
tops of omnibuses
Carlyle, on the other hand, liked travelling
inside an omnibus, though why, nobody, ap-
parently, has discovered. Adam Smiths sole
indulgence beyond taste for finely bound
books was a passion for pedestrianism.
Never was there more peripatetic philoso-
pher One Sunday morning, in ITS, he
went to his door in Kirkcaldy to feel the fresh
air the peripatetic instinct came upon him
unawares He walked straight away to Burnt
island, many miles from Kirkcaldy, and as
tonished the kirk going folk there with an APP
partition in dressing gown and slippers Dur
ing this particular walk Smith excogitated the
first chapter of the g Wealth of Nations"
Scott was great pedestrian, lame though
he was. Christopher North once walked
seventy miles in one day for some loch fish
ing; Dickens could have emulated the feat;
and Professor Blackie has boosted that he
has not only walked seventy miles in one day,
but slept by the roadside during the following
night. This eccentric Scotch professor has
made such good use of his legs that there are
few towns in England and none in Scotland
to which he has not walked. Mr.. Fawcett,
though blind, takes the keenest delight in
fishing, and casts fly with the utmost skill
Mr.. Knight is another votary of the rod. At
the Reform Club, in winter, he may be found
playing billiards with the zest of good
cue" But his highest enjoyment lies in our
poets. He reads himself to sleep every night
with the work of one of our classic bards 1t
may be wondered whether, in some secret
drawer the orator preserves some little bun
die of his own verses, prompted by such con-
tinuous readings in the harmonious thoughts
of mighty men. Campbell declared that there
was no inspiration to the writing of poetry SO
good as the reading of poetry. Exchange.