HOBBIES OF THE GREAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 17

HOBBIES OF THE GREAT.

STRANGE AN^lyAßlEfc.

MAN AND HIS TOtfa

It<; i«- notorious that. a great:.man's 'hobby often '« creates a more popular interest than his really weighty achievements. . We like to see genius in • a playful mood. To-know, for example, that Augustus, when, he had .finished with his civil wars, found welcome re-' taxation 'in'; f potball, . just ? as'' JuKus» •XSieaar, did r |s to feel. that"'after allVe have-- something -.in '.o.oihmG.a r: : with".-*the ; mightiest of ■ aacrent • days.;."»"w > p:* ; ; •

So, too, when- we read about Aristotle playing with, terrarcotta animals and birds, we "sense : the • common touch, and agree with "Leibnitz, the. famous philosopher, that, "man never displayed greater -wisdom than in the invention of.'.toys?'/' '~\ "...-.'"*- .' '• ■'*' .-'•■

All great men cultivate; hobbies, of, some sort, even if it be only drinking tea, like Dr. Johnson, .'•' or smoking. a .seasoned briar, like -Sir. Stanley Baldwirir Mr.-"GTadstpTxe'' feUedVt'rees; v: and; is-tlie more -likeajble^for'.having*;, doric So.<- Lotd Balfttur ■ has 'his tennisj *and; tiord, Oxford, lu> golf. Eoird Grey plies the rodj-and Mt, Churchill'plays polo It is said "that Mr.; lEdfson; finds relief from work in still more work, while other..;; busy men turn for* relaxation from one kind of:work to another.

•3p it has always beenl Socrates, sought freedom from his philosophical exertions in convivial society where the flowing bowl was much in evi.rdence.. Nero spent his, leisure with his heloved? fiddle, •* Spinoza:: smoked and; talked with friends or watched the movements of spiders when -he was not .Bacon found"'ample pleasure in his garden, though, he was hardly ao attached to'it" as Diocletian, who, when' summoned to resume, his exalted,liriperial rank, .replied.: "You woujd Jnot have asked' such 'a thing- of me,' ifrypu-i saw the" fine melons — I—anr*how v _ripen-

ing:" •;;•';.•,:. ; „,. •.- ; .'.^—..'V.:.'".. The poet. Pope -was another K yi}fw prided himself on liis garden, which he managed with great skill and in: diistry, as did " also Scott, Browning, Tennyson, and a. host, of others. i v ;

; Byron, paid more, attention...to ani-. mals, and. to . his '■', morbidly . egotisticalself. At one time he. bad ten horses, eight dogs, an eagle and a falcon, five cats, arid three monkeys. . George: Stephenson, when he had got.his', steam engine to go, also' took up .gardenings and devoted his' energies especially to the growing' of cucumbers.- ''■

Charles V. collected clocks and' watches, and found great interest and; amusement in ' observing how some of), them went fast and some slow. \

Many great statesmen have found: their chief diversion in literary pursuits, and a large proportion >©f them', in translating the classics. •' Disraeli, of course, wrote novels. .A few of them took to philosophical speculation, and one or' two; tried their hand *t poetry. ' '*'■■ "? ■ ~' } ? v - ."; .Social : gossip claimed, the. leisure; of Dr. Johnsoh;;!Bosw6ll, Pepys, and their like-minded-; brethren, Johnson ' was "the most, home-keeping ■ vof ( ' -townsmen." He detested smoking, music, and the countryside. . . LikeV Lord.. \ Birken - head, he seems to haye A found all tunes pretty much'the same;, and once when Mr/Thrale was dilating on the beauties of rural, scenery,.-he'interrupted .with: the impatient remark:. "A blade of grass' is always a' : blade .HiK grass;" let us, if we do ,'talk; talk about' some-.

thing' 3 '-.' ( " Of course, one can easily understand from his bulky proportions' his antipathy to.rambles in the country, but nevertheless the countryside lias given more pleasure to genius in its idle moods than, all the. other hobbies put together. Philosophers like Kant and. Hobbes, poets like - Wordsworth, Rousseau, Scott, Southey, Burns, arid the rest-—what an infinitude of quiet' arid inspiration the hills and- dales and moorlands have -avorded .to the men who made our country great! ' .