Lenitives

From an editorial in last week's London Times:

"Nothing can be less wise than to allow those hours of darkness to become hours of inactive gloom. The temptation to do this presses heavily on those whose occupations end with daylight and on those multitudes of elderly folk whose chief sorrow now is that age debars them from public service. . . . Lenitives are available and among the best of them is wisely chosen reading and rereading. . . . Some readers will find an inexhaustible solace in Sir Walter Scott; others will feel that Thackeray has for too long gathered dust upon their shelves. ... In the months to come many old favorites may be rehabilitated, and enthusiastic readers may rediscover or learn for the first time the magic of Tennyson, the robust courage of Browning, the thoughtfulness and lyric poetry of Landor, the observant accuracy of Crabbe.

"Among lenitives of other kinds many people will give a high place to the daily cross word. . . . Specially fortunate in wartime evenings is the chess player with a friendly opponent on the other side of the table. . . . A lenitive wisely used will lessen strain, will increase courage and composure, will help us through the hours of darkness, literal and metaphorical, to the sunlight that surely lies beyond."

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