One of the important things to accomplish in the forming of character in children is to find out what useful occupation is, to each of them, recreation instead of dull work. No individual of normal mental capacity is born without some useful equipment if opportunity be offered for its discovery and development. It is this which separates man from the rest of creation so distinctly that it seems almost to endow him with god-like attributes. As children are tireless and persistent in play, even so will men be tireless and persistent in work if the particular useful occupation, that to them is recreative, can be selected by them. The venerable historian and diplomat, Bancroft, while residing in Washington, and still assiduously pursuing his life-work when he was nearly ninety years of age, was interviewed by an eminent journalist of his acquaintance for the purpose of collecting biographical data. The interviewer expressed amazement at the evidences of hard work on the desk and scattered about the study of the historian, and inquired, "At your time of life do you not find your work something of a burden? Most men aim to retire long before they have reached your age." Mr. Bancroft's face took on an amused expression and then a broad smile at the question as he replied, "Work is but a comparative term. I never work. That is, I never work in the sense that is usually meant by the use of the word. I was very fortunate in the choice of an occupation. A person is lucky who in his youth selects the occupation that can furnish him with recreation in his old age." Jacque, the great animal painter of the last generation, once said to the writer, "I am beginning to suffer weakness in my eyes so that I cannot work more than half an hour at a time. I feel it with great sorrow, for I have yet so much that I want to do in this life." These happen to be examples from men who had earned success and reaped great honor, but they are not unusual. There are many who never tire of helping nature to raise crops useful to man, others who never are weary of cultivating fine breeds of domestic animals, and yet others who are never quite happy when absent from the bench or the lathe. The contention of pessimists, that there must always be some unskilled and needy units to perform the drudgery of society that would otherwise remain undone, is pernicious falsehood. There always will be found some means of performing the drudgery of work even if the time should come when there are no longer any misfit occupations and consequent drudgery and discontent among men. When there are no longer any machine men there will be automata of iron, steel or wood to take their place.