"
I said, "Then is it a bad thing to be busy in the world, because it
takes off your mind from the things which matter?"
"No," said Amroth, "not a bad thing at all: because two things are going
on. Partly the framework of society and life is being made, so that men
are not ground down into that sordid struggle, when little experience is
possible because of the drudgery which clouds all the mind. Though even
that has its opportunities! And all depends, for the individual, upon
how he is doing his work. If he has other people in mind all the time,
and does his work for them, and not to be praised for it, then all is
well. But if he is thinking of his credit and his position, then he does
not grow at all; that is pomposity--a very youthful thing indeed; but
the worst case of all is if a man sees that the world must be helped and
made, and that one can win credit thus, and so engages in work of that
kind, and deals in all the jargon of it, about using influence and
living for others, when he is really thinking of himself all the time,
and trying to keep the eyes of the world upon him. But it is all growth
really, though sometimes, as on the beach when the tide is coming in,
the waves seem to draw backward from the land, and poise themselves in a
crest of troubled water.
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