the universal duty.  “We must all toil or steal (howsoever we name our stealing), which is worse.” [Footnote:  Carlyle’s writings are full of such wholesome declarations.  And cf.  W. Dew.  Hyde:  “An able-bodied man who does not contribute to the world at least as much as he takes out of it is a beggar and a thief; whether he shirks the duty of work under the pretext of poverty or riches.”  Cf. also Tolstoy, in What to Do?  For example (from chap.  XXVI), “How can a man who considers himself to be, we will not say a Christian, or an educated and humane man, but simply a man not entirely devoid of reason and of conscience, how can he, I say, live in such a way that, not taking part in the struggle of all mankind for life, he only swallows up the labor of others, struggling for existence, and by his own claims increases the labor of those who struggle, and the number of those who perish in struggle?”] relieved from the necessity of earning a living” (unless one intends to use that freedom for unpaid service), an ideal dangerous to social welfare, and shortsighted for the individual.  Work makes up a large part of the worth of life.  Drudgery it may be at the time, a weary round, with no compensation apparent; but it is of just such stuff that real life is made.  What ennobles it, what gives it meaning, is the courageous attack, the putting of heart into work, the facing of monotony, the finding of the zest of accomplishment.  There is no such thing as “menial” work; the washing of dishes and the carting away of garbage are just as necessary and important as the running of a railway or the making of laws.  The real horror is the dead weight of ennui, the aimlessness and fruitlessness of a life that has done nothing and has nothing to do.  If the thought of the day’s work depresses, it is probably because of ill health, over fatigue, unpleasant surroundings or companions, because of worry, or because the particular work is not congenial.  The finding of the right work for the right man and woman is one of the great problems which we have hardly begun to solve.  But all of these sources of the distaste for work can normally, or eventually, be reached and the evil remedied.  In spite of the burden and the strain, if we could have our way with the order of things, one of the most foolish things we could do would be to take away the necessity of work.  Here, as usual, personal and social needs coincide; in the working life alone can be found a lasting satisfaction for the soul and the hope of salvation for society.  Are competitive athletics desirable?  As samples of the concrete problems involved in the ideal of health and efficiency, we may briefly discuss two questions that confront particularly the young man.  And first, that concerning athletic sports are of marked value: 

(1) They are to any normal man or woman, and especially to the young who have not yet become immersed in the more serious game of life, one of the greatest and most tonic joys.  The stretching and tension of healthy muscles, the deep draughts of out-of-door air, the excitement of rivalry, the comradeship of cooperative endeavor, the abandon of effort, the glow of achievement, contribute much in immediate and retrospective pleasure to the worth of living.