HOBBIES.
LORD BEACONSFIELD tells us in "Endymion" that "life is always interesting, when you have a purpose and live in its fulfilment ;" and with this sentiment we thoroughly agree, and are furthermore convinced that only in proportion as any one acts according to this rule is he or she safe from the clutches of the demon ennui. There are, however, a large number of people in the world who have a difficulty about doing this,—people whose time is either not at all or else only par- tially occupied ; who have no necessary work thrust upon them by external circumstances, whether they like it or not ; and who are, therefore, peculiarly exposed to the insidious attacks of the afore-mentioned demon. And for these unfortunate in- dividuals, Nature seems to have provided a refuge from danger by furnishing Hobbies, since whoever is mounted thereon may confidently laugh the foe to scorn.
In the sense of the word with which we are now concerned the term " Hobby " is to be defined as an absorbing interest in something which is neither a duty nor a necessity ; it is a sort of " extra" in life—a strange feature, that does not belong naturally, and that appears suddenly ou the scene, without any notice of its approach. It may be a thing for which you have never before had the least fancy,—which, in- deed, you may have hitherto regarded with contempt, or even aversion. But all at once there comes a surprising change. You discover that the formerly ignored pursuit has, as it were, taken possession of you ; that it has become as the very apple of your eye ; that you are ready to give yourself up to it heart and soul, without grudging the time, trouble, or money that it may cost ; that you cheerfully labour at it, with whatever faculties of mind or body are required, in order thoroughly to understand and carry it on. For example, take the case of a lady of our acquaintance who had always greatly despised fishing. What attraction people could find in it was to her incomprehensible ; rat-catching, she said, she might bring herself possibly to take an interest in, but never fishing. At last, some years ago, she happened to go to an Irish moor with her brother ; and he, not knowing what to do for her amusement, sent her out fly-fishing, under the keeper's care. She caught three fish, and also caught her hook in her thumb, and had to have it cut out ; and from that day the spirit of izatik Walton entered into her. She bought a pair of fishing-stockings, and was to bo seen in all weathers perseveringly wading and flogging the water, till she became an expert angler, and is now competent to discourse learnedly on the relative merits of flies, fishing-rods, and all such topics. Another lady, again, who had been mounted on a variety of hobbies, Dante, music, algebra, arithmetic, &c., had always had a strong dislike to everything connected with a farm. It bored her ; she knew and cared nothing about it, and thought it associated with nasty smells which she could not endure. But suddenly agricultural matters assumed a new aspect, for farming became her hobby, and she discovered it to be the one thing worth living for and taking the trouble of studying. Books on thorough bass, Italian, and sums were left languishing on the shelves, and her table was covered ex- clusively with works upon the treatment of land, rotations of crops, manures, the management and feeding of stock, and similar subjects. She learnt to tell at a sniff whether a field were being dressed with guano, bones, superphosphate, or slaughter-house manure ; and would lean long over the doors of the pigsties, or stand seriously pondering upon the " long " or " short " condition of a dung-heap, without heeding the savoury odours therefrom arising. And because the foregoing illustra- tions happen to have been taken from the weaker sex, it is by no means intended to convey that hobby-riding prevails more amongst women than men. Do we not know an artistic young man who, if an unusually striking sunset should occur when he is out shooting, will at once dismiss all further thought of making a good bag, send the keeper after sketch-book and colours, lay aside his gun, and calmly proceed to paint,—to the considerable disgust of his fellow-sportsmen P And have we not seen another gentleman, with any number of gardeners at command, who devotes every spare minute to his Auriculas, and is perpetually rushing off to their houses, that he may with his own hands move pots into or out of a drip, or open or shut panes of glass, to regulate the amount of air that is to blow upon the precious plants, just as if their welfare depended entirely upon his personal efforts ?
The Hobby may be chemistry, music, lace, science, china, algebra, languages, history, politics, Volunteers, farming, gardening, athletics, painting, architecture, horse-racing, or what not. Be it what it may, and however little choice you may have had in the matter, you are, nevertheless, completely enchanted with it, and quite prepared to maintain that that particular pursuit, and no other, is the most worthy and ele- vated of all that can possibly engage the attention of the human race. And what rapture do you not then experience, if you chance to encounter another person with the same craze upon him as yourself ! With what unwearying relish is the common point of interest talked over, and how exalted is the opinion you mutually entertain for one another's good- sense and good-taste ! The discussion that goes on between you and the kindred spirit whom you have met is apt to recall to the mind of a listener the negro's idea of an argument :- " Golly, masse, how me lab argeyment ! Pompey, him say— paint dat wall white ; me say—paint him white, too ; and den we argey 'pen de point for half the day,—oh, lubly !" .
One of the leading peculiarities of Hobbies is decidedly the unaccountable way in which they come and go, without refer- ence to any rule that can be discovered. Perhaps there may be some subject which you have a particular wish to make a Hobby of, and go so far as to cultivate with that view ; but it by no means follows that you will succeed in your intention, for the thing is stronger than you are, and will seize upon you or not,. irrespectively of your wishes. It is as impossible to ensure• mounting a Hobby at pleasure as it is to catch a sickness;: however carefully you put yourself in the way of it, you may fail, after all; one nature will take it and another will not, or a
man is liable to it at one period of life and not at another, and no certain way of accounting for the difference is to be found. And then, again, however loyal and devoted you may be to your Hobby, yet you must not therefore suppose that you will always, regard it in the same light ; you may remain constant to it for days, weeks, months, or even years, but there is always the possibility that the interest may at any moment collapse almost as suddenly as it came, and be superseded by sonic totally different and unexpected one. But what does that matter I' Whatever a Hobby may be, it is sure to be delightful, and the absolute uncertainty as to how long-one will last and what the next will be, adds a zest to life, and welcome element of excite- ment, as you look forward speculatively to wonderful possibilities. that the future may have in store for you, and undreamt-of seas wherein you may presently be steering your course.
One great value of Hobbies is that they train the mind in the art of how to learn. It gains power with each subject that it masters, and is thereby rendered more fit to acquire another one, however different, in the same way that a rough rider strengthens his muscles and adds to his experience with every fresh horse that he overcomes. And another property which may well make Hobbies interesting to the student of human nature is the important part they often play in shaping people's actions, so that in them alone is to be found the true explanation of many an apparent vagary. That the state. of being constantly occupied about something or other is indis- pensable to the happiness of most people, is a fact which is too. often forgotten or overlooked by those whose lives are amply filled with necessary affairs that have come upon them un- sought; and such busy individuals are frequently guilty of great injustice, in habitually accounting for .whatever happens to puzzle them in the behaviour of a neighbour by ascribing it either to crackiness, or else to some interested and unworthy motive. Supposing, for instance, that a person is just mounted upon a fresh Hobby to which he or she is devoted, simply and solely for its own sake ; is it not rather hard, if the world insists upon declaring that the new pursuit has been adopted with an obvious view to the will of a rich relation who approves thereof,. or else out of love for some one of the opposite sex of similar tastes P And yet is not this the common way of judging P Lot it not be supposed that every mere selfish whim is to be raised to the dignity of a Hobby, or that there is no distinction to be made between the genuine thing and its spurious imita tion. We can scarcely give a better instance of the real article than the valorous Don Quixote, exposing himself without a murmur to every imaginable privation and hardship in order worthily to perform the part of a knight-errant, and to accom- plish the restoration of the days of chivalry, to which he thought himself specially appointed. But how great is the contrast between the robust vigour of his actions, and the lackadaisical, washiness which characterises those of the modern twaddling devotees of so-called high art, whose ridiculously exaggerated aestheticism, and adoration for lilies, peacocks' feathers, &c., are so happily satirised in Punch by Mr. Du Maurice, in the persons of Mrs. Cimabue Brown and Messrs. Maudle and Postlethwaite and their admirers ! The real aim of these quite too supremely in- effable and consummate nincompoops being merely self-glorifica- tion, by the setting up of their own flabby selves as the standard of all perfection, their proceedings are only likely to result in the morbidness which comes of much self-contemplation, and not to achieve that salvation from ennui which appears to us to be the primary cause of hobby-riding. It is of the very essence- of a hobby that it should be of sufficient force to take a man. out of himself, and that is just what we do not believe that the limp, self-concentrated enthusiasm of the Maudles and Postle• thwaites will ever succeed in doing.
And now we can imagine that some readers may complain of Hobby-riding being upheld as an advantageous part of moral• training, on the ground that nothing should be so regarded, if it is contrary to the principles of perseverance. " What,"' say they, "take up a thing suddenly, and devote yourself frantically to it for a while, and then drop it again like- n, hot potato P A most dangerous course to advocate !" To such an objection we reply, first, that a man's powers of plodding perseverance should be reserved rather for duties than for pleasures, and that we have expressly stated that Hobbies are not to be included in the category of duties ; and, secondly, that when a person takes up a subject enthusias- tically for a short while, and really devotes himself to it con amore, the probability is that he will accomplish as much solid. work in the way of i -reasiug his knowledge, forwarding his
.education, and infix eg his character during that tempo- rary ardour, as he w '-'.ave done during a longer, steadier,
and less vehement stn, of the same subject. If you have a certain number of colours to wear in a life-time, it will not make much difference whether you choose to wear them all simul- taneously or only one at a time, without ever allowing a second to appear side by side with whatever may be the favourite hue of the moment ; and will not the same rule hold good in regard to the various phases through which the mind has to pass F
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