V

THE FUTURE

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United States amongst the wives of the well-to-do classes, unfortunate women, many ofthem, who have been deprived by their wealthof their traditional tasks and occupations—whocannot find it sufficiently amusing, when de-prived of the spur of economic necessity, to cookand clean and mend, yet are quite unable tofind anything more amusing.

To those who sweat for their daily breadleisure is a longed-for sweet—until they get it.

There is the traditional epitaph written forherself by the old charwoman:—

Don’t mourn for me, friends, don’t weep for me never,For I’m going to do nothing for ever and ever.

This was her heaven. Like others who lookforward to leisure, she conceived how nice itwould be to spend her time listening-in—forthere was another couplet which occurred inher poem:—

With psalms and sweet music the heavens’ll be ringing,But I shall have nothing to do with the singing.

Yet it will only be for those who have to dowith the singing that life will be tolerable—and how few of us can sing!

Thus for the first time since his creation manwill be faced with his real, his permanent prob-lem—how to use his freedom from pressingeconomic cares, how to occupy the leisure,which science and compound interest will havewon for him, to live wisely and agreeably andwell.