Lesson 46 HobbiesFirst listen and then answer the following question.Who, according to the author, are 'Fortune's favoured children'?A gifted American psychologist has said, 'Worry is a spasm of the emotion;the mind catches hold of something and will not let it go.'It is useless to argue with the mind in this condition.The stronger the will, the more futile the task.One can only gently insinuate something else into its convulsive grasp.And if this something else is rightly chosen, if it is really attended by the illumination of another field of interest,gradually, and often quite swiftly, the old undue grip relaxes and the process of recuperation and repair begins.The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of the first importance to a public man.But this is not a business that can be undertaken in a day or swiftly improvised by a mere command of the will.The growth of alternative mental interests is a long process.The seeds must be carefully chosen; they must fall on good ground; they must be sedulously tended, if the vivifying fruits are to be at hand when needed.
