diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2274-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 37129 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2274-h/2274-h.htm | 2266 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2274.txt | 1757 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2274.zip | bin | 0 -> 35888 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/24hrs10.txt | 1607 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/24hrs10.zip | bin | 0 -> 34263 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/24hrs11.txt | 1771 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/24hrs11.zip | bin | 0 -> 35281 bytes |
11 files changed, 7417 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2274-h.zip b/2274-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed9685b --- /dev/null +++ b/2274-h.zip diff --git a/2274-h/2274-h.htm b/2274-h/2274-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce99549 --- /dev/null +++ b/2274-h/2274-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2266 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day + +Author: Arnold Bennett + +Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #2274] +Release Date: August, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY *** + + + + +Produced by Tony Adam. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Arnold Bennett +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap00"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE TO THIS EDITION +</H3> + +<P> +This preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be, +should be read at the end of the book. +</P> + +<P> +I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this small +work, and many reviews of it—some of them nearly as long as the book +itself—have been printed. But scarcely any of the comment has been +adverse. Some people have objected to a frivolity of tone; but as the +tone is not, in my opinion, at all frivolous, this objection did not +impress me; and had no weightier reproach been put forward I might +almost have been persuaded that the volume was flawless! A more +serious stricture has, however, been offered—not in the press, but by +sundry obviously sincere correspondents—and I must deal with it. A +reference to page 43 will show that I anticipated and feared this +disapprobation. The sentence against which protests have been made is +as follows:—"In the majority of instances he [the typical man] does +not precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not +dislike it. He begins his business functions with some reluctance, as +late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his +engines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at their full +'h.p.'" +</P> + +<P> +I am assured, in accents of unmistakable sincerity, that there are many +business men—not merely those in high positions or with fine +prospects, but modest subordinates with no hope of ever being much +better off—who do enjoy their business functions, who do not shirk +them, who do not arrive at the office as late as possible and depart as +early as possible, who, in a word, put the whole of their force into +their day's work and are genuinely fatigued at the end thereof. +</P> + +<P> +I am ready to believe it. I do believe it. I know it. I always knew +it. Both in London and in the provinces it has been my lot to spend +long years in subordinate situations of business; and the fact did not +escape me that a certain proportion of my peers showed what amounted to +an honest passion for their duties, and that while engaged in those +duties they were really <I>living</I> to the fullest extent of which they +were capable. But I remain convinced that these fortunate and happy +individuals (happier perhaps than they guessed) did not and do not +constitute a majority, or anything like a majority. I remain convinced +that the majority of decent average conscientious men of business (men +with aspirations and ideals) do not as a rule go home of a night +genuinely tired. I remain convinced that they put not as much but as +little of themselves as they conscientiously can into the earning of a +livelihood, and that their vocation bores rather than interests them. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, I admit that the minority is of sufficient importance to +merit attention, and that I ought not to have ignored it so completely +as I did do. The whole difficulty of the hard-working minority was put +in a single colloquial sentence by one of my correspondents. He wrote: +"I am just as keen as anyone on doing something to 'exceed my +programme,' but allow me to tell you that when I get home at six thirty +p.m. I am not anything like so fresh as you seem to imagine." +</P> + +<P> +Now I must point out that the case of the minority, who throw +themselves with passion and gusto into their daily business task, is +infinitely less deplorable than the case of the majority, who go +half-heartedly and feebly through their official day. The former are +less in need of advice "how to live." At any rate during their +official day of, say, eight hours they are really alive; their engines +are giving the full indicated "h.p." The other eight working hours of +their day may be badly organised, or even frittered away; but it is +less disastrous to waste eight hours a day than sixteen hours a day; it +is better to have lived a bit than never to have lived at all. The real +tragedy is the tragedy of the man who is braced to effort neither in +the office nor out of it, and to this man this book is primarily +addressed. "But," says the other and more fortunate man, "although my +ordinary programme is bigger than his, I want to exceed my programme +too! I am living a bit; I want to live more. But I really can't do +another day's work on the top of my official day." +</P> + +<P> +The fact is, I, the author, ought to have foreseen that I should appeal +most strongly to those who already had an interest in existence. It is +always the man who has tasted life who demands more of it. And it is +always the man who never gets out of bed who is the most difficult to +rouse. +</P> + +<P> +Well, you of the minority, let us assume that the intensity of your +daily money-getting will not allow you to carry out quite all the +suggestions in the following pages. Some of the suggestions may yet +stand. I admit that you may not be able to use the time spent on the +journey home at night; but the suggestion for the journey to the office +in the morning is as practicable for you as for anybody. And that +weekly interval of forty hours, from Saturday to Monday, is yours just +as much as the other man's, though a slight accumulation of fatigue may +prevent you from employing the whole of your "h.p." upon it. There +remains, then, the important portion of the three or more evenings a +week. You tell me flatly that you are too tired to do anything outside +your programme at night. In reply to which I tell you flatly that if +your ordinary day's work is thus exhausting, then the balance of your +life is wrong and must be adjusted. A man's powers ought not to be +monopolised by his ordinary day's work. What, then, is to be done? +</P> + +<P> +The obvious thing to do is to circumvent your ardour for your ordinary +day's work by a ruse. Employ your engines in something beyond the +programme before, and not after, you employ them on the programme +itself. Briefly, get up earlier in the morning. You say you cannot. +You say it is impossible for you to go earlier to bed of a night—to do +so would upset the entire household. I do not think it is quite +impossible to go to bed earlier at night. I think that if you persist +in rising earlier, and the consequence is insufficiency of sleep, you +will soon find a way of going to bed earlier. But my impression is +that the consequences of rising earlier will not be an insufficiency of +sleep. My impression, growing stronger every year, is that sleep is +partly a matter of habit—and of slackness. I am convinced that most +people sleep as long as they do because they are at a loss for any +other diversion. How much sleep do you think is daily obtained by the +powerful healthy man who daily rattles up your street in charge of +Carter Patterson's van? I have consulted a doctor on this point. He +is a doctor who for twenty-four years has had a large general practice +in a large flourishing suburb of London, inhabited by exactly such +people as you and me. He is a curt man, and his answer was curt: +</P> + +<P> +"Most people sleep themselves stupid." +</P> + +<P> +He went on to give his opinion that nine men out of ten would have +better health and more fun out of life if they spent less time in bed. +</P> + +<P> +Other doctors have confirmed this judgment, which, of course, does not +apply to growing youths. +</P> + +<P> +Rise an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours earlier; and—if +you must—retire earlier when you can. In the matter of exceeding +programmes, you will accomplish as much in one morning hour as in two +evening hours. "But," you say, "I couldn't begin without some food, +and servants." Surely, my dear sir, in an age when an excellent +spirit-lamp (including a saucepan) can be bought for less than a +shilling, you are not going to allow your highest welfare to depend +upon the precarious immediate co-operation of a fellow creature! +Instruct the fellow creature, whoever she may be, at night. Tell her +to put a tray in a suitable position over night. On that tray two +biscuits, a cup and saucer, a box of matches and a spirit-lamp; on the +lamp, the saucepan; on the saucepan, the lid—but turned the wrong way +up; on the reversed lid, the small teapot, containing a minute quantity +of tea leaves. You will then have to strike a match—that is all. In +three minutes the water boils, and you pour it into the teapot (which +is already warm). In three more minutes the tea is infused. You can +begin your day while drinking it. These details may seem trivial to +the foolish, but to the thoughtful they will not seem trivial. The +proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the +feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +A. B. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap00">PREFACE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">THE DAILY MIRACLE<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CONTROLLING THE MIND<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">THE REFLECTIVE MOOD<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">INTEREST IN THE ARTS<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">SERIOUS READING<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">DANGERS TO AVOID<BR></A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DAILY MIRACLE +</H3> + +<P> +"Yes, he's one of those men that don't know how to manage. Good +situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries as well as +needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellow's always in +difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his money. Excellent +flat—half empty! Always looks as if he'd had the brokers in. New +suit—old hat! Magnificent necktie—baggy trousers! Asks you to +dinner: cut glass—bad mutton, or Turkish coffee—cracked cup! He +can't understand it. Explanation simply is that he fritters his income +away. Wish I had the half of it! I'd show him—" +</P> + +<P> +So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our +superior way. +</P> + +<P> +We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer: it is the pride of the +moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live on +such-and-such a sum, and these articles provoke a correspondence whose +violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a daily organ, +a battle raged round the question whether a woman can exist nicely in +the country on L85 a year. I have seen an essay, "How to live on eight +shillings a week." But I have never seen an essay, "How to live on +twenty-four hours a day." Yet it has been said that time is money. +That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than +money. If you have time you can obtain money—usually. But though you +have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you +cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the +fire has. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is +the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; +without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an +affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the +morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours +of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is +yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular +commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity +itself! +</P> + +<P> +For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no +one receives either more or less than you receive. +</P> + +<P> +Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no +aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is +never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no +punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you +will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious +power will say:—"This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not +deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain +than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. +Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! +You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to-morrow; it +is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you. +</P> + +<P> +I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not? +</P> + +<P> +You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it +you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the +evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective +use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling +actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness—the elusive prize +that you are all clutching for, my friends!—depends on that. Strange +that the newspapers, so enterprising and up-to-date as they are, are +not full of "How to live on a given income of time," instead of "How to +live on a given income of money"! Money is far commoner than time. +When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest +thing there is. It encumbers the earth in gross heaps. +</P> + +<P> +If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a +little more—or steals it, or advertises for it. One doesn't +necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a +thousand pounds a year; one braces the muscles and makes it guineas, +and balances the budget. But if one cannot arrange that an income of +twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of +expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely. The supply of +time, though gloriously regular, is cruelly restricted. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say "lives," +I do not mean exists, nor "muddles through." Which of us is free from +that uneasy feeling that the "great spending departments" of his daily +life are not managed as they ought to be? Which of us is quite sure +that his fine suit is not surmounted by a shameful hat, or that in +attending to the crockery he has forgotten the quality of the food? +Which of us is not saying to himself—which of us has not been saying +to himself all his life: "I shall alter that when I have a little more +time"? +</P> + +<P> +We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, +all the time there is. It is the realisation of this profound and +neglected truth (which, by the way, I have not discovered) that has led +me to the minute practical examination of daily time-expenditure. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME +</H3> + +<P> +"But," someone may remark, with the English disregard of everything +except the point, "what is he driving at with his twenty-four hours a +day? I have no difficulty in living on twenty-four hours a day. I do +all that I want to do, and still find time to go in for newspaper +competitions. Surely it is a simple affair, knowing that one has only +twenty-four hours a day, to content one's self with twenty-four hours a +day!" +</P> + +<P> +To you, my dear sir, I present my excuses and apologies. You are +precisely the man that I have been wishing to meet for about forty +years. Will you kindly send me your name and address, and state your +charge for telling me how you do it? Instead of me talking to you, you +ought to be talking to me. Please come forward. That you exist, I am +convinced, and that I have not yet encountered you is my loss. +Meanwhile, until you appear, I will continue to chat with my companions +in distress—that innumerable band of souls who are haunted, more or +less painfully, by the feeling that the years slip by, and slip by, and +slip by, and that they have not yet been able to get their lives into +proper working order. +</P> + +<P> +If we analyse that feeling, we shall perceive it to be, primarily, one +of uneasiness, of expectation, of looking forward, of aspiration. It +is a source of constant discomfort, for it behaves like a skeleton at +the feast of all our enjoyments. We go to the theatre and laugh; but +between the acts it raises a skinny finger at us. We rush violently +for the last train, and while we are cooling a long age on the platform +waiting for the last train, it promenades its bones up and down by our +side and inquires: "O man, what hast thou done with thy youth? What +art thou doing with thine age?" You may urge that this feeling of +continuous looking forward, of aspiration, is part of life itself, and +inseparable from life itself. True! +</P> + +<P> +But there are degrees. A man may desire to go to Mecca. His +conscience tells him that he ought to go to Mecca. He fares forth, +either by the aid of Cook's, or unassisted; he may probably never reach +Mecca; he may drown before he gets to Port Said; he may perish +ingloriously on the coast of the Red Sea; his desire may remain +eternally frustrate. Unfulfilled aspiration may always trouble him. +But he will not be tormented in the same way as the man who, desiring +to reach Mecca, and harried by the desire to reach Mecca, never leaves +Brixton. +</P> + +<P> +It is something to have left Brixton. Most of us have not left +Brixton. We have not even taken a cab to Ludgate Circus and inquired +from Cook's the price of a conducted tour. And our excuse to ourselves +is that there are only twenty-four hours in the day. +</P> + +<P> +If we further analyse our vague, uneasy aspiration, we shall, I think, +see that it springs from a fixed idea that we ought to do something in +addition to those things which we are loyally and morally obliged to +do. We are obliged, by various codes written and unwritten, to +maintain ourselves and our families (if any) in health and comfort, to +pay our debts, to save, to increase our prosperity by increasing our +efficiency. A task sufficiently difficult! A task which very few of +us achieve! A task often beyond our skill! Yet, if we succeed in it, +as we sometimes do, we are not satisfied; the skeleton is still with us. +</P> + +<P> +And even when we realise that the task is beyond our skill, that our +powers cannot cope with it, we feel that we should be less discontented +if we gave to our powers, already overtaxed, something still further to +do. +</P> + +<P> +And such is, indeed, the fact. The wish to accomplish something +outside their formal programme is common to all men who in the course +of evolution have risen past a certain level. +</P> + +<P> +Until an effort is made to satisfy that wish, the sense of uneasy +waiting for something to start which has not started will remain to +disturb the peace of the soul. That wish has been called by many names. +It is one form of the universal desire for knowledge. And it is so +strong that men whose whole lives have been given to the systematic +acquirement of knowledge have been driven by it to overstep the limits +of their programme in search of still more knowledge. Even Herbert +Spencer, in my opinion the greatest mind that ever lived, was often +forced by it into agreeable little backwaters of inquiry. +</P> + +<P> +I imagine that in the majority of people who are conscious of the wish +to live—that is to say, people who have intellectual curiosity—the +aspiration to exceed formal programmes takes a literary shape. They +would like to embark on a course of reading. Decidedly the British +people are becoming more and more literary. But I would point out that +literature by no means comprises the whole field of knowledge, and that +the disturbing thirst to improve one's self—to increase one's +knowledge—may well be slaked quite apart from literature. With the +various ways of slaking I shall deal later. Here I merely point out to +those who have no natural sympathy with literature that literature is +not the only well. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING +</H3> + +<P> +Now that I have succeeded (if succeeded I have) in persuading you to +admit to yourself that you are constantly haunted by a suppressed +dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life; and that +the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling +that you are every day leaving undone something which you would like to +do, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do when you have "more +time"; and now that I have drawn your attention to the glaring, +dazzling truth that you never will have "more time," since you already +have all the time there is—you expect me to let you into some +wonderful secret by which you may at any rate approach the ideal of a +perfect arrangement of the day, and by which, therefore, that haunting, +unpleasant, daily disappointment of things left undone will be got rid +of! +</P> + +<P> +I have found no such wonderful secret. Nor do I expect to find it, nor +do I expect that anyone else will ever find it. It is undiscovered. +When you first began to gather my drift, perhaps there was a +resurrection of hope in your breast. Perhaps you said to yourself, +"This man will show me an easy, unfatiguing way of doing what I have so +long in vain wished to do." Alas, no! The fact is that there is no +easy way, no royal road. The path to Mecca is extremely hard and +stony, and the worst of it is that you never quite get there after all. +</P> + +<P> +The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one's life so +that one may live fully and comfortably within one's daily budget of +twenty-four hours is the calm realisation of the extreme difficulty of +the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands. I +cannot too strongly insist on this. +</P> + +<P> +If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by +ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, +you had better give up hope at once. If you are not prepared for +discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a +small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down again and +resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence. +</P> + +<P> +It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and sombre? And yet I think +it is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing of the +will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. +I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by +the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," you say, "assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume that +I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous remarks; how +do I begin?" Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no magic method of +beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a swimming-bath and +wanting to jump into the cold water should ask you, "How do I begin to +jump?" you would merely reply, "Just jump. Take hold of your nerves, +and jump." +</P> + +<P> +As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant supply +of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the +next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as +unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in +all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You +can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. Therefore no object +is served in waiting till next week, or even until to-morrow. You may +fancy that the water will be warmer next week. It won't. It will be +colder. +</P> + +<P> +But before you begin, let me murmur a few words of warning in your +private ear. +</P> + +<P> +Let me principally warn you against your own ardour. Ardour in +well-doing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out +loudly for employment; you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more and +more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the course of rivers. +It isn't content till it perspires. And then, too often, when it feels +the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all of a sudden and dies, +without even putting itself to the trouble of saying, "I've had enough +of this." +</P> + +<P> +Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite a +little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your +own. +</P> + +<P> +A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a +loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence. But just as nothing +succeeds like success, so nothing fails like failure. Most people who +are ruined are ruined by attempting too much. Therefore, in setting +out on the immense enterprise of living fully and comfortably within +the narrow limits of twenty-four hours a day, let us avoid at any cost +the risk of an early failure. I will not agree that, in this business +at any rate, a glorious failure is better than a petty success. I am +all for the petty success. A glorious failure leads to nothing; a +petty success may lead to a success that is not petty. +</P> + +<P> +So let us begin to examine the budget of the day's time. You say your +day is already full to overflowing. How? You actually spend in +earning your livelihood—how much? Seven hours, on the average? And in +actual sleep, seven? I will add two hours, and be generous. And I will +defy you to account to me on the spur of the moment for the other eight +hours. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLES +</H3> + +<P> +In order to come to grips at once with the question of time-expenditure +in all its actuality, I must choose an individual case for examination. +I can only deal with one case, and that case cannot be the average +case, because there is no such case as the average case, just as there +is no such man as the average man. Every man and every man's case is +special. +</P> + +<P> +But if I take the case of a Londoner who works in an office, whose +office hours are from ten to six, and who spends fifty minutes morning +and night in travelling between his house door and his office door, I +shall have got as near to the average as facts permit. There are men +who have to work longer for a living, but there are others who do not +have to work so long. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately the financial side of existence does not interest us here; +for our present purpose the clerk at a pound a week is exactly as well +off as the millionaire in Carlton House-terrace. +</P> + +<P> +Now the great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in regard +to his day is a mistake of general attitude, a mistake which vitiates +and weakens two-thirds of his energies and interests. In the majority +of instances he does not precisely feel a passion for his business; at +best he does not dislike it. He begins his business functions with +reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as +he can. And his engines while he is engaged in his business are seldom +at their full "h.p." (I know that I shall be accused by angry readers +of traducing the city worker; but I am pretty thoroughly acquainted +with the City, and I stick to what I say.) +</P> + +<P> +Yet in spite of all this he persists in looking upon those hours from +ten to six as "the day," to which the ten hours preceding them and the +six hours following them are nothing but a prologue and epilogue. Such +an attitude, unconscious though it be, of course kills his interest in +the odd sixteen hours, with the result that, even if he does not waste +them, he does not count them; he regards them simply as margin. +</P> + +<P> +This general attitude is utterly illogical and unhealthy, since it +formally gives the central prominence to a patch of time and a bunch of +activities which the man's one idea is to "get through" and have "done +with." If a man makes two-thirds of his existence subservient to +one-third, for which admittedly he has no absolutely feverish zest, how +can he hope to live fully and completely? He cannot. +</P> + +<P> +If my typical man wishes to live fully and completely he must, in his +mind, arrange a day within a day. And this inner day, a Chinese box in +a larger Chinese box, must begin at 6 p.m. and end at 10 a.m. It is a +day of sixteen hours; and during all these sixteen hours he has nothing +whatever to do but cultivate his body and his soul and his fellow men. +During those sixteen hours he is free; he is not a wage-earner; he is +not preoccupied with monetary cares; he is just as good as a man with a +private income. This must be his attitude. And his attitude is all +important. His success in life (much more important than the amount of +estate upon what his executors will have to pay estate duty) depends on +it. +</P> + +<P> +What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours will +lessen the value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, it +will assuredly increase the value of the business eight. One of the +chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental +faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire +like an arm or a leg. All they want is change—not rest, except in +sleep. +</P> + +<P> +I shall now examine the typical man's current method of employing the +sixteen hours that are entirely his, beginning with his uprising. I +will merely indicate things which he does and which I think he ought +not to do, postponing my suggestions for "planting" the times which I +shall have cleared—as a settler clears spaces in a forest. +</P> + +<P> +In justice to him I must say that he wastes very little time before he +leaves the house in the morning at 9.10. In too many houses he gets up +at nine, breakfasts between 9.7 and 9.9 1/2, and then bolts. But +immediately he bangs the front door his mental faculties, which are +tireless, become idle. He walks to the station in a condition of +mental coma. Arrived there, he usually has to wait for the train. On +hundreds of suburban stations every morning you see men calmly +strolling up and down platforms while railway companies unblushingly +rob them of time, which is more than money. Hundreds of thousands of +hours are thus lost every day simply because my typical man thinks so +little of time that it has never occurred to him to take quite easy +precautions against the risk of its loss. +</P> + +<P> +He has a solid coin of time to spend every day—call it a sovereign. He +must get change for it, and in getting change he is content to lose +heavily. +</P> + +<P> +Supposing that in selling him a ticket the company said, "We will +change you a sovereign, but we shall charge you three halfpence for +doing so," what would my typical man exclaim? Yet that is the +equivalent of what the company does when it robs him of five minutes +twice a day. +</P> + +<P> +You say I am dealing with minutiae. I am. And later on I will justify +myself. +</P> + +<P> +Now will you kindly buy your paper and step into the train? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL +</H3> + +<P> +You get into the morning train with your newspaper, and you calmly and +majestically give yourself up to your newspaper. You do not hurry. +You know you have at least half an hour of security in front of you. +As your glance lingers idly at the advertisements of shipping and of +songs on the outer pages, your air is the air of a leisured man, +wealthy in time, of a man from some planet where there are a hundred +and twenty-four hours a day instead of twenty-four. I am an +impassioned reader of newspapers. I read five English and two French +dailies, and the news-agents alone know how many weeklies, regularly. +I am obliged to mention this personal fact lest I should be accused of +a prejudice against newspapers when I say that I object to the reading +of newspapers in the morning train. Newspapers are produced with +rapidity, to be read with rapidity. There is no place in my daily +programme for newspapers. I read them as I may in odd moments. But I +do read them. The idea of devoting to them thirty or forty consecutive +minutes of wonderful solitude (for nowhere can one more perfectly +immerse one's self in one's self than in a compartment full of silent, +withdrawn, smoking males) is to me repugnant. I cannot possibly allow +you to scatter priceless pearls of time with such Oriental lavishness. +You are not the Shah of time. Let me respectfully remind you that you +have no more time than I have. No newspaper reading in trains! I have +already "put by" about three-quarters of an hour for use. +</P> + +<P> +Now you reach your office. And I abandon you there till six o'clock. +I am aware that you have nominally an hour (often in reality an hour +and a half) in the midst of the day, less than half of which time is +given to eating. But I will leave you all that to spend as you choose. +You may read your newspapers then. +</P> + +<P> +I meet you again as you emerge from your office. You are pale and +tired. At any rate, your wife says you are pale, and you give her to +understand that you are tired. During the journey home you have been +gradually working up the tired feeling. The tired feeling hangs heavy +over the mighty suburbs of London like a virtuous and melancholy cloud, +particularly in winter. You don't eat immediately on your arrival +home. But in about an hour or so you feel as if you could sit up and +take a little nourishment. And you do. Then you smoke, seriously; you +see friends; you potter; you play cards; you flirt with a book; you +note that old age is creeping on; you take a stroll; you caress the +piano.... By Jove! a quarter past eleven. You then devote quite forty +minutes to thinking about going to bed; and it is conceivable that you +are acquainted with a genuinely good whisky. At last you go to bed, +exhausted by the day's work. Six hours, probably more, have gone since +you left the office—gone like a dream, gone like magic, unaccountably +gone! +</P> + +<P> +That is a fair sample case. But you say: "It's all very well for you +to talk. A man <I>is</I> tired. A man must see his friends. He can't +always be on the stretch." Just so. But when you arrange to go to the +theatre (especially with a pretty woman) what happens? You rush to the +suburbs; you spare no toil to make yourself glorious in fine raiment; +you rush back to town in another train; you keep yourself on the +stretch for four hours, if not five; you take her home; you take +yourself home. You don't spend three-quarters of an hour in "thinking +about" going to bed. You go. Friends and fatigue have equally been +forgotten, and the evening has seemed so exquisitely long (or perhaps +too short)! And do you remember that time when you were persuaded to +sing in the chorus of the amateur operatic society, and slaved two +hours every other night for three months? Can you deny that when you +have something definite to look forward to at eventide, something that +is to employ all your energy—the thought of that something gives a +glow and a more intense vitality to the whole day? +</P> + +<P> +What I suggest is that at six o'clock you look facts in the face and +admit that you are not tired (because you are not, you know), and that +you arrange your evening so that it is not cut in the middle by a meal. +By so doing you will have a clear expanse of at least three hours. I +do not suggest that you should employ three hours every night of your +life in using up your mental energy. But I do suggest that you might, +for a commencement, employ an hour and a half every other evening in +some important and consecutive cultivation of the mind. You will still +be left with three evenings for friends, bridge, tennis, domestic +scenes, odd reading, pipes, gardening, pottering, and prize +competitions. You will still have the terrific wealth of forty-five +hours between 2 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Monday. If you persevere you +will soon want to pass four evenings, and perhaps five, in some +sustained endeavour to be genuinely alive. And you will fall out of +that habit of muttering to yourself at 11.15 p.m., "Time to be thinking +about going to bed." The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes +before he opens his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not +living. +</P> + +<P> +But remember, at the start, those ninety nocturnal minutes thrice a +week must be the most important minutes in the ten thousand and eighty. +They must be sacred, quite as sacred as a dramatic rehearsal or a +tennis match. Instead of saying, "Sorry I can't see you, old chap, but +I have to run off to the tennis club," you must say, "...but I have to +work." This, I admit, is intensely difficult to say. Tennis is so +much more urgent than the immortal soul. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE +</H3> + +<P> +I have incidentally mentioned the vast expanse of forty-four hours +between leaving business at 2 p.m. on Saturday and returning to +business at 10 a.m. on Monday. And here I must touch on the point +whether the week should consist of six days or of seven. For many +years—in fact, until I was approaching forty—my own week consisted of +seven days. I was constantly being informed by older and wiser people +that more work, more genuine living, could be got out of six days than +out of seven. +</P> + +<P> +And it is certainly true that now, with one day in seven in which I +follow no programme and make no effort save what the caprice of the +moment dictates, I appreciate intensely the moral value of a weekly +rest. Nevertheless, had I my life to arrange over again, I would do +again as I have done. Only those who have lived at the full stretch +seven days a week for a long time can appreciate the full beauty of a +regular recurring idleness. Moreover, I am ageing. And it is a +question of age. In cases of abounding youth and exceptional energy +and desire for effort I should say unhesitatingly: Keep going, day in, +day out. +</P> + +<P> +But in the average case I should say: Confine your formal programme +(super-programme, I mean) to six days a week. If you find yourself +wishing to extend it, extend it, but only in proportion to your wish; +and count the time extra as a windfall, not as regular income, so that +you can return to a six-day programme without the sensation of being +poorer, of being a backslider. +</P> + +<P> +Let us now see where we stand. So far we have marked for saving out of +the waste of days, half an hour at least on six mornings a week, and +one hour and a half on three evenings a week. Total, seven hours and a +half a week. +</P> + +<P> +I propose to be content with that seven hours and a half for the +present. "What?" you cry. "You pretend to show us how to live, and +you only deal with seven hours and a half out of a hundred and +sixty-eight! Are you going to perform a miracle with your seven hours +and a half?" Well, not to mince the matter, I am—if you will kindly +let me! That is to say, I am going to ask you to attempt an experience +which, while perfectly natural and explicable, has all the air of a +miracle. My contention is that the full use of those seven-and-a-half +hours will quicken the whole life of the week, add zest to it, and +increase the interest which you feel in even the most banal +occupations. You practise physical exercises for a mere ten minutes +morning and evening, and yet you are not astonished when your physical +health and strength are beneficially affected every hour of the day, +and your whole physical outlook changed. Why should you be astonished +that an average of over an hour a day given to the mind should +permanently and completely enliven the whole activity of the mind? +</P> + +<P> +More time might assuredly be given to the cultivation of one's self. +And in proportion as the time was longer the results would be greater. +But I prefer to begin with what looks like a trifling effort. +</P> + +<P> +It is not really a trifling effort, as those will discover who have yet +to essay it. To "clear" even seven hours and a half from the jungle is +passably difficult. For some sacrifice has to be made. One may have +spent one's time badly, but one did spend it; one did do something with +it, however ill-advised that something may have been. To do something +else means a change of habits. +</P> + +<P> +And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change, even a +change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and +discomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven +hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still live +your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and an +immense deal of volition, will be necessary. And it is because I know +the difficulty, it is because I know the almost disastrous effect of +failure in such an enterprise, that I earnestly advise a very humble +beginning. You must safeguard your self-respect. Self-respect is at the +root of all purposefulness, and a failure in an enterprise deliberately +planned deals a desperate wound at one's self-respect. Hence I iterate +and reiterate: Start quietly, unostentatiously. +</P> + +<P> +When you have conscientiously given seven hours and a half a week to +the cultivation of your vitality for three months—then you may begin +to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you are capable +of doing. +</P> + +<P> +Before coming to the method of using the indicated hours, I have one +final suggestion to make. That is, as regards the evenings, to allow +much more than an hour and a half in which to do the work of an hour +and a half. Remember the chance of accidents. Remember human nature. +And give yourself, say, from 9 to 11.30 for your task of ninety minutes. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CONTROLLING THE MIND +</H3> + +<P> +People say: "One can't help one's thoughts." But one can. The +control of the thinking machine is perfectly possible. And since +nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing +hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme +importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious +brain is patent. This idea is one of the oldest platitudes, but it is +a platitude whose profound truth and urgency most people live and die +without realising. People complain of the lack of power to +concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the power, if they +choose. +</P> + +<P> +And without the power to concentrate—that is to say, without the power +to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience—true life is +impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full existence. +</P> + +<P> +Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put +the mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside and out; +you run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you employ a whole +army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you +to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour. Why not devote a little +attention to the far more delicate machinery of the mind, especially as +you will require no extraneous aid? It is for this portion of the art +and craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of +quitting your door to the moment of arriving at your office. +</P> + +<P> +"What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in +the train, and in the crowded street again?" Precisely. Nothing +simpler! No tools required! Not even a book. Nevertheless, the affair +is not easy. +</P> + +<P> +When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no +matter what, to begin with). You will not have gone ten yards before +your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is larking round +the corner with another subject. +</P> + +<P> +Bring it back by the scruff of the neck. Ere you have reached the +station you will have brought it back about forty times. Do not +despair. Continue. Keep it up. You will succeed. You cannot by any +chance fail if you persevere. It is idle to pretend that your mind is +incapable of concentration. Do you not remember that morning when you +received a disquieting letter which demanded a very carefully-worded +answer? How you kept your mind steadily on the subject of the answer, +without a second's intermission, until you reached your office; +whereupon you instantly sat down and wrote the answer? That was a case +in which <I>you</I> were roused by circumstances to such a degree of +vitality that you were able to dominate your mind like a tyrant. You +would have no trifling. You insisted that its work should be done, and +its work was done. +</P> + +<P> +By the regular practice of concentration (as to which there is no +secret—save the secret of perseverance) you can tyrannise over your +mind (which is not the highest part of <I>you</I>) every hour of the day, +and in no matter what place. The exercise is a very convenient one. +If you got into your morning train with a pair of dumb-bells for your +muscles or an encyclopaedia in ten volumes for your learning, you would +probably excite remark. But as you walk in the street, or sit in the +corner of the compartment behind a pipe, or "strap-hang" on the +Subterranean, who is to know that you are engaged in the most important +of daily acts? What asinine boor can laugh at you? +</P> + +<P> +I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. It +is the mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. But +still, you may as well kill two birds with one stone, and concentrate +on something useful. I suggest—it is only a suggestion—a little +chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. +</P> + +<P> +Do not, I beg, shy at their names. For myself, I know nothing more +"actual," more bursting with plain common-sense, applicable to the +daily life of plain persons like you and me (who hate airs, pose, and +nonsense) than Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. Read a chapter—and so +short they are, the chapters!—in the evening and concentrate on it the +next morning. You will see. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, my friend, it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact. I +can hear your brain like a telephone at my ear. You are saying to +yourself: "This fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh +chapter. He had begun to interest me faintly. But what he says about +thinking in trains, and concentration, and so on, is not for me. It +may be well enough for some folks, but it isn't in my line." +</P> + +<P> +It is for you, I passionately repeat; it is for you. Indeed, you are +the very man I am aiming at. +</P> + +<P> +Throw away the suggestion, and you throw away the most precious +suggestion that was ever offered to you. It is not my suggestion. It +is the suggestion of the most sensible, practical, hard-headed men who +have walked the earth. I only give it you at second-hand. Try it. Get +your mind in hand. And see how the process cures half the evils of +life—especially worry, that miserable, avoidable, shameful +disease—worry! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE REFLECTIVE MOOD +</H3> + +<P> +The exercise of concentrating the mind (to which at least half an hour +a day should be given) is a mere preliminary, like scales on the piano. +Having acquired power over that most unruly member of one's complex +organism, one has naturally to put it to the yoke. Useless to possess +an obedient mind unless one profits to the furthest possible degree by +its obedience. A prolonged primary course of study is indicated. +</P> + +<P> +Now as to what this course of study should be there cannot be any +question; there never has been any question. All the sensible people +of all ages are agreed upon it. And it is not literature, nor is it +any other art, nor is it history, nor is it any science. It is the +study of one's self. Man, know thyself. These words are so hackneyed +that verily I blush to write them. Yet they must be written, for they +need to be written. (I take back my blush, being ashamed of it.) Man, +know thyself. I say it out loud. The phrase is one of those phrases +with which everyone is familiar, of which everyone acknowledges the +value, and which only the most sagacious put into practice. I don't +know why. I am entirely convinced that what is more than anything else +lacking in the life of the average well-intentioned man of to-day is +the reflective mood. +</P> + +<P> +We do not reflect. I mean that we do not reflect upon genuinely +important things; upon the problem of our happiness, upon the main +direction in which we are going, upon what life is giving to us, upon +the share which reason has (or has not) in determining our actions, and +upon the relation between our principles and our conduct. +</P> + +<P> +And yet you are in search of happiness, are you not? Have you +discovered it? +</P> + +<P> +The chances are that you have not. The chances are that you have +already come to believe that happiness is unattainable. But men have +attained it. And they have attained it by realising that happiness does +not spring from the procuring of physical or mental pleasure, but from +the development of reason and the adjustment of conduct to principles. +</P> + +<P> +I suppose that you will not have the audacity to deny this. And if you +admit it, and still devote no part of your day to the deliberate +consideration of your reason, principles, and conduct, you admit also +that while striving for a certain thing you are regularly leaving +undone the one act which is necessary to the attainment of that thing. +</P> + +<P> +Now, shall I blush, or will you? +</P> + +<P> +Do not fear that I mean to thrust certain principles upon your +attention. I care not (in this place) what your principles are. Your +principles may induce you to believe in the righteousness of burglary. +I don't mind. All I urge is that a life in which conduct does not +fairly well accord with principles is a silly life; and that conduct +can only be made to accord with principles by means of daily +examination, reflection, and resolution. What leads to the permanent +sorrowfulness of burglars is that their principles are contrary to +burglary. If they genuinely believed in the moral excellence of +burglary, penal servitude would simply mean so many happy years for +them; all martyrs are happy, because their conduct and their principles +agree. +</P> + +<P> +As for reason (which makes conduct, and is not unconnected with the +making of principles), it plays a far smaller part in our lives than we +fancy. We are supposed to be reasonable but we are much more +instinctive than reasonable. And the less we reflect, the less +reasonable we shall be. The next time you get cross with the waiter +because your steak is over-cooked, ask reason to step into the +cabinet-room of your mind, and consult her. She will probably tell you +that the waiter did not cook the steak, and had no control over the +cooking of the steak; and that even if he alone was to blame, you +accomplished nothing good by getting cross; you merely lost your +dignity, looked a fool in the eyes of sensible men, and soured the +waiter, while producing no effect whatever on the steak. +</P> + +<P> +The result of this consultation with reason (for which she makes no +charge) will be that when once more your steak is over-cooked you will +treat the waiter as a fellow-creature, remain quite calm in a kindly +spirit, and politely insist on having a fresh steak. The gain will be +obvious and solid. +</P> + +<P> +In the formation or modification of principles, and the practice of +conduct, much help can be derived from printed books (issued at +sixpence each and upwards). I mentioned in my last chapter Marcus +Aurelius and Epictetus. Certain even more widely known works will occur +at once to the memory. I may also mention Pascal, La Bruyere, and +Emerson. For myself, you do not catch me travelling without my Marcus +Aurelius. Yes, books are valuable. But not reading of books will take +the place of a daily, candid, honest examination of what one has +recently done, and what one is about to do—of a steady looking at +one's self in the face (disconcerting though the sight may be). +</P> + +<P> +When shall this important business be accomplished? The solitude of +the evening journey home appears to me to be suitable for it. A +reflective mood naturally follows the exertion of having earned the +day's living. Of course if, instead of attending to an elementary and +profoundly important duty, you prefer to read the paper (which you +might just as well read while waiting for your dinner) I have nothing +to say. But attend to it at some time of the day you must. I now come +to the evening hours. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INTEREST IN THE ARTS +</H3> + +<P> +Many people pursue a regular and uninterrupted course of idleness in +the evenings because they think that there is no alternative to +idleness but the study of literature; and they do not happen to have a +taste for literature. This is a great mistake. +</P> + +<P> +Of course it is impossible, or at any rate very difficult, properly to +study anything whatever without the aid of printed books. But if you +desire to understand the deeper depths of bridge or of boat-sailing you +would not be deterred by your lack of interest in literature from +reading the best books on bridge or boat-sailing. We must, therefore, +distinguish between literature, and books treating of subjects not +literary. I shall come to literature in due course. +</P> + +<P> +Let me now remark to those who have never read Meredith, and who are +capable of being unmoved by a discussion as to whether Mr. Stephen +Phillips is or is not a true poet, that they are perfectly within their +rights. It is not a crime not to love literature. It is not a sign of +imbecility. The mandarins of literature will order out to instant +execution the unfortunate individual who does not comprehend, say, the +influence of Wordsworth on Tennyson. But that is only their impudence. +Where would they be, I wonder, if requested to explain the influences +that went to make Tschaikowsky's "Pathetic Symphony"? +</P> + +<P> +There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature which +will yield magnificent results to cultivators. For example (since I +have just mentioned the most popular piece of high-class music in +England to-day), I am reminded that the Promenade Concerts begin in +August. You go to them. You smoke your cigar or cigarette (and I +regret to say that you strike your matches during the soft bars of the +"Lohengrin" overture), and you enjoy the music. But you say you cannot +play the piano or the fiddle, or even the banjo; that you know nothing +of music. +</P> + +<P> +What does that matter? That you have a genuine taste for music is +proved by the fact that, in order to fill his hall with you and your +peers, the conductor is obliged to provide programmes from which bad +music is almost entirely excluded (a change from the old Covent Garden +days!). +</P> + +<P> +Now surely your inability to perform "The Maiden's Prayer" on a piano +need not prevent you from making yourself familiar with the +construction of the orchestra to which you listen a couple of nights a +week during a couple of months! As things are, you probably think of +the orchestra as a heterogeneous mass of instruments producing a +confused agreeable mass of sound. You do not listen for details +because you have never trained your ears to listen to details. +</P> + +<P> +If you were asked to name the instruments which play the great theme at +the beginning of the C minor symphony you could not name them for your +life's sake. Yet you admire the C minor symphony. It has thrilled +you. It will thrill you again. You have even talked about it, in an +expansive mood, to that lady—you know whom I mean. And all you can +positively state about the C minor symphony is that Beethoven composed +it and that it is a "jolly fine thing." +</P> + +<P> +Now, if you have read, say, Mr. Krehbiel's "How to Listen to Music" +(which can be got at any bookseller's for less than the price of a +stall at the Alhambra, and which contains photographs of all the +orchestral instruments and plans of the arrangement of orchestras) you +would next go to a promenade concert with an astonishing +intensification of interest in it. Instead of a confused mass, the +orchestra would appear to you as what it is—a marvellously balanced +organism whose various groups of members each have a different and an +indispensable function. You would spy out the instruments, and listen +for their respective sounds. You would know the gulf that separates a +French horn from an English horn, and you would perceive why a player +of the hautboy gets higher wages than a fiddler, though the fiddle is +the more difficult instrument. You would <I>live</I> at a promenade +concert, whereas previously you had merely existed there in a state of +beatific coma, like a baby gazing at a bright object. +</P> + +<P> +The foundations of a genuine, systematic knowledge of music might be +laid. You might specialise your inquiries either on a particular form +of music (such as the symphony), or on the works of a particular +composer. At the end of a year of forty-eight weeks of three brief +evenings each, combined with a study of programmes and attendances at +concerts chosen out of your increasing knowledge, you would really know +something about music, even though you were as far off as ever from +jangling "The Maiden's Prayer" on the piano. +</P> + +<P> +"But I hate music!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you. +</P> + +<P> +What applies to music applies to the other arts. I might mention Mr. +Clermont Witt's "How to Look at Pictures," or Mr. Russell Sturgis's +"How to Judge Architecture," as beginnings (merely beginnings) of +systematic vitalising knowledge in other arts, the materials for whose +study abound in London. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate all the arts!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you more and +more. +</P> + +<P> +I will deal with your case next, before coming to literature. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM +</H3> + +<P> +Art is a great thing. But it is not the greatest. The most important +of all perceptions is the continual perception of cause and effect—in +other words, the perception of the continuous development of the +universe—in still other words, the perception of the course of +evolution. When one has thoroughly got imbued into one's head the +leading truth that nothing happens without a cause, one grows not only +large-minded, but large-hearted. +</P> + +<P> +It is hard to have one's watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief +of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment +which are as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and +one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy +that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and +effect, that absurd air which so many people have of being always +shocked and pained by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid +human nature as if human nature were a foreign country full of awful +foreign customs. But, having reached maturity, one ought surely to be +ashamed of being a stranger in a strange land! +</P> + +<P> +The study of cause and effect, while it lessens the painfulness of +life, adds to life's picturesqueness. The man to whom evolution is but +a name looks at the sea as a grandiose, monotonous spectacle, which he +can witness in August for three shillings third-class return. The man +who is imbued with the idea of development, of continuous cause and +effect, perceives in the sea an element which in the +day-before-yesterday of geology was vapour, which yesterday was +boiling, and which to-morrow will inevitably be ice. +</P> + +<P> +He perceives that a liquid is merely something on its way to be solid, +and he is penetrated by a sense of the tremendous, changeful +picturesqueness of life. Nothing will afford a more durable +satisfaction than the constantly cultivated appreciation of this. It is +the end of all science. +</P> + +<P> +Cause and effect are to be found everywhere. Rents went up in +Shepherd's Bush. It was painful and shocking that rents should go up +in Shepherd's Bush. But to a certain point we are all scientific +students of cause and effect, and there was not a clerk lunching at a +Lyons Restaurant who did not scientifically put two and two together +and see in the (once) Two-penny Tube the cause of an excessive demand +for wigwams in Shepherd's Bush, and in the excessive demand for wigwams +the cause of the increase in the price of wigwams. +</P> + +<P> +"Simple!" you say, disdainfully. Everything—the whole complex +movement of the universe—is as simple as that—when you can +sufficiently put two and two together. And, my dear sir, perhaps you +happen to be an estate agent's clerk, and you hate the arts, and you +want to foster your immortal soul, and you can't be interested in your +business because it's so humdrum. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing is humdrum. +</P> + +<P> +The tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life is marvellously shown +in an estate agent's office. What! There was a block of traffic in +Oxford Street; to avoid the block people actually began to travel under +the cellars and drains, and the result was a rise of rents in +Shepherd's Bush! And you say that isn't picturesque! Suppose you were +to study, in this spirit, the property question in London for an hour +and a half every other evening. Would it not give zest to your +business, and transform your whole life? +</P> + +<P> +You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able to +tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the longest +straight street in London is about a yard and a half in length, while +the longest absolutely straight street in Paris extends for miles. I +think you will admit that in an estate agent's clerk I have not chosen +an example that specially favours my theories. +</P> + +<P> +You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance +(disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's "Lombard Street"? +Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed it up for +ninety minutes every other evening, how enthralling your business would +be to you, and how much more clearly you would understand human nature. +</P> + +<P> +You are "penned in town," but you love excursions to the country and +the observation of wild life—certainly a heart-enlarging diversion. +Why don't you walk out of your house door, in your slippers, to the +nearest gas lamp of a night with a butterfly net, and observe the wild +life of common and rare moths that is beating about it, and co-ordinate +the knowledge thus obtained and build a superstructure on it, and at +last get to know something about something? +</P> + +<P> +You need not be devoted to the arts, not to literature, in order to +live fully. +</P> + +<P> +The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that +curiosity which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an +understanding heart. +</P> + +<P> +I promised to deal with your case, O man who hates art and literature, +and I have dealt with it. I now come to the case of the person, +happily very common, who does "like reading." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SERIOUS READING +</H3> + +<P> +Novels are excluded from "serious reading," so that the man who, bent +on self-improvement, has been deciding to devote ninety minutes three +times a week to a complete study of the works of Charles Dickens will +be well advised to alter his plans. The reason is not that novels are +not serious—some of the great literature of the world is in the form +of prose fiction—the reason is that bad novels ought not to be read, +and that good novels never demand any appreciable mental application on +the part of the reader. It is only the bad parts of Meredith's novels +that are difficult. A good novel rushes you forward like a skiff down +a stream, and you arrive at the end, perhaps breathless, but +unexhausted. The best novels involve the least strain. Now in the +cultivation of the mind one of the most important factors is precisely +the feeling of strain, of difficulty, of a task which one part of you +is anxious to achieve and another part of you is anxious to shirk; and +that feeling cannot be got in facing a novel. You do not set your +teeth in order to read "Anna Karenina." Therefore, though you should +read novels, you should not read them in those ninety minutes. +</P> + +<P> +Imaginative poetry produces a far greater mental strain than novels. It +produces probably the severest strain of any form of literature. It is +the highest form of literature. It yields the highest form of +pleasure, and teaches the highest form of wisdom. In a word, there is +nothing to compare with it. I say this with sad consciousness of the +fact that the majority of people do not read poetry. +</P> + +<P> +I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted +with the alternatives of reading "Paradise Lost" and going round +Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would choose +the ordeal of public ridicule. Still, I will never cease advising my +friends and enemies to read poetry before anything. +</P> + +<P> +If poetry is what is called "a sealed book" to you, begin by reading +Hazlitt's famous essay on the nature of "poetry in general." It is the +best thing of its kind in English, and no one who has read it can +possibly be under the misapprehension that poetry is a mediaeval +torture, or a mad elephant, or a gun that will go off by itself and +kill at forty paces. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the mental +state of the man who, after reading Hazlitt's essay, is not urgently +desirous of reading some poetry before his next meal. If the essay so +inspires you I would suggest that you make a commencement with purely +narrative poetry. +</P> + +<P> +There is an infinitely finer English novel, written by a woman, than +anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which +perhaps you have not read. Its title is "Aurora Leigh," and its author +E.B. Browning. It happens to be written in verse, and to contain a +considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to read that book +through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is fine poetry. Read +it simply for the story and the social ideas. And when you have done, +ask yourself honestly whether you still dislike poetry. I have known +more than one person to whom "Aurora Leigh" has been the means of +proving that in assuming they hated poetry they were entirely mistaken. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, if, after Hazlitt, and such an experiment made in the light +of Hazlitt, you are finally assured that there is something in you +which is antagonistic to poetry, you must be content with history or +philosophy. I shall regret it, yet not inconsolably. "The Decline and +Fall" is not to be named in the same day with "Paradise Lost," but it +is a vastly pretty thing; and Herbert Spencer's "First Principles" +simply laughs at the claims of poetry and refuses to be accepted as +aught but the most majestic product of any human mind. I do not +suggest that either of these works is suitable for a tyro in mental +strains. But I see no reason why any man of average intelligence +should not, after a year of continuous reading, be fit to assault the +supreme masterpieces of history or philosophy. The great convenience +of masterpieces is that they are so astonishingly lucid. +</P> + +<P> +I suggest no particular work as a start. The attempt would be futile +in the space of my command. But I have two general suggestions of a +certain importance. The first is to define the direction and scope of +your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a +single author. Say to yourself: "I will know something about the +French Revolution, or the rise of railways, or the works of John +Keats." And during a given period, to be settled beforehand, confine +yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure to be derived from +being a specialist. +</P> + +<P> +The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people +who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as +well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to +drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their +sole object being motion. They will tell you how many books they have +read in a year. +</P> + +<P> +Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing +reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, +your ninety minutes of a night are chiefly wasted. This means that +your pace will be slow. +</P> + +<P> +Never mind. +</P> + +<P> +Forget the goal; think only of the surrounding country; and after a +period, perhaps when you least expect it, you will suddenly find +yourself in a lovely town on a hill. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DANGERS TO AVOID +</H3> + +<P> +I cannot terminate these hints, often, I fear, too didactic and abrupt, +upon the full use of one's time to the great end of living (as +distinguished from vegetating) without briefly referring to certain +dangers which lie in wait for the sincere aspirant towards life. The +first is the terrible danger of becoming that most odious and least +supportable of persons—a prig. Now a prig is a pert fellow who gives +himself airs of superior wisdom. A prig is a pompous fool who has gone +out for a ceremonial walk, and without knowing it has lost an important +part of his attire, namely, his sense of humour. A prig is a tedious +individual who, having made a discovery, is so impressed by his +discovery that he is capable of being gravely displeased because the +entire world is not also impressed by it. Unconsciously to become a +prig is an easy and a fatal thing. +</P> + +<P> +Hence, when one sets forth on the enterprise of using all one's time, +it is just as well to remember that one's own time, and not other +people's time, is the material with which one has to deal; that the +earth rolled on pretty comfortably before one began to balance a budget +of the hours, and that it will continue to roll on pretty comfortably +whether or not one succeeds in one's new role of chancellor of the +exchequer of time. It is as well not to chatter too much about what +one is doing, and not to betray a too-pained sadness at the spectacle +of a whole world deliberately wasting so many hours out of every day, +and therefore never really living. It will be found, ultimately, that +in taking care of one's self one has quite all one can do. +</P> + +<P> +Another danger is the danger of being tied to a programme like a slave +to a chariot. One's programme must not be allowed to run away with +one. It must be respected, but it must not be worshipped as a fetish. +A programme of daily employ is not a religion. +</P> + +<P> +This seems obvious. Yet I know men whose lives are a burden to +themselves and a distressing burden to their relatives and friends +simply because they have failed to appreciate the obvious. "Oh, no," I +have heard the martyred wife exclaim, "Arthur always takes the dog out +for exercise at eight o'clock and he always begins to read at a quarter +to nine. So it's quite out of the question that we should..." etc., +etc. And the note of absolute finality in that plaintive voice reveals +the unsuspected and ridiculous tragedy of a career. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, a programme is a programme. And unless it is +treated with deference it ceases to be anything but a poor joke. To +treat one's programme with exactly the right amount of deference, to +live with not too much and not too little elasticity, is scarcely the +simple affair it may appear to the inexperienced. +</P> + +<P> +And still another danger is the danger of developing a policy of rush, +of being gradually more and more obsessed by what one has to do next. +In this way one may come to exist as in a prison, and one's life may +cease to be one's own. One may take the dog out for a walk at eight +o'clock, and meditate the whole time on the fact that one must begin to +read at a quarter to nine, and that one must not be late. +</P> + +<P> +And the occasional deliberate breaking of one's programme will not help +to mend matters. The evil springs not from persisting without +elasticity in what one has attempted, but from originally attempting +too much, from filling one's programme till it runs over. The only +cure is to reconstitute the programme, and to attempt less. +</P> + +<P> +But the appetite for knowledge grows by what it feeds on, and there are +men who come to like a constant breathless hurry of endeavour. Of them +it may be said that a constant breathless hurry is better than an +eternal doze. +</P> + +<P> +In any case, if the programme exhibits a tendency to be oppressive, and +yet one wishes not to modify it, an excellent palliative is to pass +with exaggerated deliberation from one portion of it to another; for +example, to spend five minutes in perfect mental quiescence between +chaining up the St. Bernard and opening the book; in other words, to +waste five minutes with the entire consciousness of wasting them. +</P> + +<P> +The last, and chiefest danger which I would indicate, is one to which I +have already referred—the risk of a failure at the commencement of the +enterprise. +</P> + +<P> +I must insist on it. +</P> + +<P> +A failure at the commencement may easily kill outright the newborn +impulse towards a complete vitality, and therefore every precaution +should be observed to avoid it. The impulse must not be over-taxed. +Let the pace of the first lap be even absurdly slow, but let it be as +regular as possible. +</P> + +<P> +And, having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all +costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having +accomplished a tiresome labour is immense. +</P> + +<P> +Finally, in choosing the first occupations of those evening hours, be +guided by nothing whatever but your taste and natural inclination. +</P> + +<P> +It is a fine thing to be a walking encyclopaedia of philosophy, but if +you happen to have no liking for philosophy, and to have a like for the +natural history of street-cries, much better leave philosophy alone, +and take to street-cries. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY *** + +***** This file should be named 2274-h.htm or 2274-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/2274/ + +Produced by Tony Adam. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</BODY> + +</HTML> + + diff --git a/2274.txt b/2274.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cab50ea --- /dev/null +++ b/2274.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1757 @@ +Project Gutenberg's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day + +Author: Arnold Bennett + +Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #2274] +Release Date: August, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY *** + + + + +Produced by Tony Adam. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day + + +by + +Arnold Bennett + + + + +PREFACE TO THIS EDITION + +This preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be, +should be read at the end of the book. + +I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this small +work, and many reviews of it--some of them nearly as long as the book +itself--have been printed. But scarcely any of the comment has been +adverse. Some people have objected to a frivolity of tone; but as the +tone is not, in my opinion, at all frivolous, this objection did not +impress me; and had no weightier reproach been put forward I might +almost have been persuaded that the volume was flawless! A more +serious stricture has, however, been offered--not in the press, but by +sundry obviously sincere correspondents--and I must deal with it. A +reference to page 43 will show that I anticipated and feared this +disapprobation. The sentence against which protests have been made is +as follows:--"In the majority of instances he [the typical man] does +not precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not +dislike it. He begins his business functions with some reluctance, as +late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his +engines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at their full +'h.p.'" + +I am assured, in accents of unmistakable sincerity, that there are many +business men--not merely those in high positions or with fine +prospects, but modest subordinates with no hope of ever being much +better off--who do enjoy their business functions, who do not shirk +them, who do not arrive at the office as late as possible and depart as +early as possible, who, in a word, put the whole of their force into +their day's work and are genuinely fatigued at the end thereof. + +I am ready to believe it. I do believe it. I know it. I always knew +it. Both in London and in the provinces it has been my lot to spend +long years in subordinate situations of business; and the fact did not +escape me that a certain proportion of my peers showed what amounted to +an honest passion for their duties, and that while engaged in those +duties they were really _living_ to the fullest extent of which they +were capable. But I remain convinced that these fortunate and happy +individuals (happier perhaps than they guessed) did not and do not +constitute a majority, or anything like a majority. I remain convinced +that the majority of decent average conscientious men of business (men +with aspirations and ideals) do not as a rule go home of a night +genuinely tired. I remain convinced that they put not as much but as +little of themselves as they conscientiously can into the earning of a +livelihood, and that their vocation bores rather than interests them. + +Nevertheless, I admit that the minority is of sufficient importance to +merit attention, and that I ought not to have ignored it so completely +as I did do. The whole difficulty of the hard-working minority was put +in a single colloquial sentence by one of my correspondents. He wrote: +"I am just as keen as anyone on doing something to 'exceed my +programme,' but allow me to tell you that when I get home at six thirty +p.m. I am not anything like so fresh as you seem to imagine." + +Now I must point out that the case of the minority, who throw +themselves with passion and gusto into their daily business task, is +infinitely less deplorable than the case of the majority, who go +half-heartedly and feebly through their official day. The former are +less in need of advice "how to live." At any rate during their +official day of, say, eight hours they are really alive; their engines +are giving the full indicated "h.p." The other eight working hours of +their day may be badly organised, or even frittered away; but it is +less disastrous to waste eight hours a day than sixteen hours a day; it +is better to have lived a bit than never to have lived at all. The real +tragedy is the tragedy of the man who is braced to effort neither in +the office nor out of it, and to this man this book is primarily +addressed. "But," says the other and more fortunate man, "although my +ordinary programme is bigger than his, I want to exceed my programme +too! I am living a bit; I want to live more. But I really can't do +another day's work on the top of my official day." + +The fact is, I, the author, ought to have foreseen that I should appeal +most strongly to those who already had an interest in existence. It is +always the man who has tasted life who demands more of it. And it is +always the man who never gets out of bed who is the most difficult to +rouse. + +Well, you of the minority, let us assume that the intensity of your +daily money-getting will not allow you to carry out quite all the +suggestions in the following pages. Some of the suggestions may yet +stand. I admit that you may not be able to use the time spent on the +journey home at night; but the suggestion for the journey to the office +in the morning is as practicable for you as for anybody. And that +weekly interval of forty hours, from Saturday to Monday, is yours just +as much as the other man's, though a slight accumulation of fatigue may +prevent you from employing the whole of your "h.p." upon it. There +remains, then, the important portion of the three or more evenings a +week. You tell me flatly that you are too tired to do anything outside +your programme at night. In reply to which I tell you flatly that if +your ordinary day's work is thus exhausting, then the balance of your +life is wrong and must be adjusted. A man's powers ought not to be +monopolised by his ordinary day's work. What, then, is to be done? + +The obvious thing to do is to circumvent your ardour for your ordinary +day's work by a ruse. Employ your engines in something beyond the +programme before, and not after, you employ them on the programme +itself. Briefly, get up earlier in the morning. You say you cannot. +You say it is impossible for you to go earlier to bed of a night--to do +so would upset the entire household. I do not think it is quite +impossible to go to bed earlier at night. I think that if you persist +in rising earlier, and the consequence is insufficiency of sleep, you +will soon find a way of going to bed earlier. But my impression is +that the consequences of rising earlier will not be an insufficiency of +sleep. My impression, growing stronger every year, is that sleep is +partly a matter of habit--and of slackness. I am convinced that most +people sleep as long as they do because they are at a loss for any +other diversion. How much sleep do you think is daily obtained by the +powerful healthy man who daily rattles up your street in charge of +Carter Patterson's van? I have consulted a doctor on this point. He +is a doctor who for twenty-four years has had a large general practice +in a large flourishing suburb of London, inhabited by exactly such +people as you and me. He is a curt man, and his answer was curt: + +"Most people sleep themselves stupid." + +He went on to give his opinion that nine men out of ten would have +better health and more fun out of life if they spent less time in bed. + +Other doctors have confirmed this judgment, which, of course, does not +apply to growing youths. + +Rise an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours earlier; and--if +you must--retire earlier when you can. In the matter of exceeding +programmes, you will accomplish as much in one morning hour as in two +evening hours. "But," you say, "I couldn't begin without some food, +and servants." Surely, my dear sir, in an age when an excellent +spirit-lamp (including a saucepan) can be bought for less than a +shilling, you are not going to allow your highest welfare to depend +upon the precarious immediate co-operation of a fellow creature! +Instruct the fellow creature, whoever she may be, at night. Tell her +to put a tray in a suitable position over night. On that tray two +biscuits, a cup and saucer, a box of matches and a spirit-lamp; on the +lamp, the saucepan; on the saucepan, the lid--but turned the wrong way +up; on the reversed lid, the small teapot, containing a minute quantity +of tea leaves. You will then have to strike a match--that is all. In +three minutes the water boils, and you pour it into the teapot (which +is already warm). In three more minutes the tea is infused. You can +begin your day while drinking it. These details may seem trivial to +the foolish, but to the thoughtful they will not seem trivial. The +proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the +feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour. + +A. B. + + + +CONTENTS + +PREFACE + + I THE DAILY MIRACLE + II THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME + III PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING + IV THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE + V TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL + VI REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE + VII CONTROLLING THE MIND + VIII THE REFLECTIVE MOOD + IX INTEREST IN THE ARTS + X NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM + XI SERIOUS READING + XII DANGERS TO AVOID + + + + +I + +THE DAILY MIRACLE + +"Yes, he's one of those men that don't know how to manage. Good +situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries as well as +needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellow's always in +difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his money. Excellent +flat--half empty! Always looks as if he'd had the brokers in. New +suit--old hat! Magnificent necktie--baggy trousers! Asks you to +dinner: cut glass--bad mutton, or Turkish coffee--cracked cup! He +can't understand it. Explanation simply is that he fritters his income +away. Wish I had the half of it! I'd show him--" + +So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our +superior way. + +We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer: it is the pride of the +moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live on +such-and-such a sum, and these articles provoke a correspondence whose +violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a daily organ, +a battle raged round the question whether a woman can exist nicely in +the country on L85 a year. I have seen an essay, "How to live on eight +shillings a week." But I have never seen an essay, "How to live on +twenty-four hours a day." Yet it has been said that time is money. +That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than +money. If you have time you can obtain money--usually. But though you +have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you +cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the +fire has. + + +Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is +the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; +without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an +affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the +morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours +of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is +yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular +commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity +itself! + +For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no +one receives either more or less than you receive. + +Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no +aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is +never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no +punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you +will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious +power will say:--"This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not +deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain +than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. +Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! +You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to-morrow; it +is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you. + +I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not? + +You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it +you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the +evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective +use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling +actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness--the elusive prize +that you are all clutching for, my friends!--depends on that. Strange +that the newspapers, so enterprising and up-to-date as they are, are +not full of "How to live on a given income of time," instead of "How to +live on a given income of money"! Money is far commoner than time. +When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest +thing there is. It encumbers the earth in gross heaps. + +If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a +little more--or steals it, or advertises for it. One doesn't +necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a +thousand pounds a year; one braces the muscles and makes it guineas, +and balances the budget. But if one cannot arrange that an income of +twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of +expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely. The supply of +time, though gloriously regular, is cruelly restricted. + + +Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say "lives," +I do not mean exists, nor "muddles through." Which of us is free from +that uneasy feeling that the "great spending departments" of his daily +life are not managed as they ought to be? Which of us is quite sure +that his fine suit is not surmounted by a shameful hat, or that in +attending to the crockery he has forgotten the quality of the food? +Which of us is not saying to himself--which of us has not been saying +to himself all his life: "I shall alter that when I have a little more +time"? + +We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, +all the time there is. It is the realisation of this profound and +neglected truth (which, by the way, I have not discovered) that has led +me to the minute practical examination of daily time-expenditure. + + + +II + +THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME + +"But," someone may remark, with the English disregard of everything +except the point, "what is he driving at with his twenty-four hours a +day? I have no difficulty in living on twenty-four hours a day. I do +all that I want to do, and still find time to go in for newspaper +competitions. Surely it is a simple affair, knowing that one has only +twenty-four hours a day, to content one's self with twenty-four hours a +day!" + +To you, my dear sir, I present my excuses and apologies. You are +precisely the man that I have been wishing to meet for about forty +years. Will you kindly send me your name and address, and state your +charge for telling me how you do it? Instead of me talking to you, you +ought to be talking to me. Please come forward. That you exist, I am +convinced, and that I have not yet encountered you is my loss. +Meanwhile, until you appear, I will continue to chat with my companions +in distress--that innumerable band of souls who are haunted, more or +less painfully, by the feeling that the years slip by, and slip by, and +slip by, and that they have not yet been able to get their lives into +proper working order. + +If we analyse that feeling, we shall perceive it to be, primarily, one +of uneasiness, of expectation, of looking forward, of aspiration. It +is a source of constant discomfort, for it behaves like a skeleton at +the feast of all our enjoyments. We go to the theatre and laugh; but +between the acts it raises a skinny finger at us. We rush violently +for the last train, and while we are cooling a long age on the platform +waiting for the last train, it promenades its bones up and down by our +side and inquires: "O man, what hast thou done with thy youth? What +art thou doing with thine age?" You may urge that this feeling of +continuous looking forward, of aspiration, is part of life itself, and +inseparable from life itself. True! + +But there are degrees. A man may desire to go to Mecca. His +conscience tells him that he ought to go to Mecca. He fares forth, +either by the aid of Cook's, or unassisted; he may probably never reach +Mecca; he may drown before he gets to Port Said; he may perish +ingloriously on the coast of the Red Sea; his desire may remain +eternally frustrate. Unfulfilled aspiration may always trouble him. +But he will not be tormented in the same way as the man who, desiring +to reach Mecca, and harried by the desire to reach Mecca, never leaves +Brixton. + +It is something to have left Brixton. Most of us have not left +Brixton. We have not even taken a cab to Ludgate Circus and inquired +from Cook's the price of a conducted tour. And our excuse to ourselves +is that there are only twenty-four hours in the day. + +If we further analyse our vague, uneasy aspiration, we shall, I think, +see that it springs from a fixed idea that we ought to do something in +addition to those things which we are loyally and morally obliged to +do. We are obliged, by various codes written and unwritten, to +maintain ourselves and our families (if any) in health and comfort, to +pay our debts, to save, to increase our prosperity by increasing our +efficiency. A task sufficiently difficult! A task which very few of +us achieve! A task often beyond our skill! Yet, if we succeed in it, +as we sometimes do, we are not satisfied; the skeleton is still with us. + +And even when we realise that the task is beyond our skill, that our +powers cannot cope with it, we feel that we should be less discontented +if we gave to our powers, already overtaxed, something still further to +do. + +And such is, indeed, the fact. The wish to accomplish something +outside their formal programme is common to all men who in the course +of evolution have risen past a certain level. + +Until an effort is made to satisfy that wish, the sense of uneasy +waiting for something to start which has not started will remain to +disturb the peace of the soul. That wish has been called by many names. +It is one form of the universal desire for knowledge. And it is so +strong that men whose whole lives have been given to the systematic +acquirement of knowledge have been driven by it to overstep the limits +of their programme in search of still more knowledge. Even Herbert +Spencer, in my opinion the greatest mind that ever lived, was often +forced by it into agreeable little backwaters of inquiry. + +I imagine that in the majority of people who are conscious of the wish +to live--that is to say, people who have intellectual curiosity--the +aspiration to exceed formal programmes takes a literary shape. They +would like to embark on a course of reading. Decidedly the British +people are becoming more and more literary. But I would point out that +literature by no means comprises the whole field of knowledge, and that +the disturbing thirst to improve one's self--to increase one's +knowledge--may well be slaked quite apart from literature. With the +various ways of slaking I shall deal later. Here I merely point out to +those who have no natural sympathy with literature that literature is +not the only well. + + + +III + +PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING + +Now that I have succeeded (if succeeded I have) in persuading you to +admit to yourself that you are constantly haunted by a suppressed +dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life; and that +the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling +that you are every day leaving undone something which you would like to +do, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do when you have "more +time"; and now that I have drawn your attention to the glaring, +dazzling truth that you never will have "more time," since you already +have all the time there is--you expect me to let you into some +wonderful secret by which you may at any rate approach the ideal of a +perfect arrangement of the day, and by which, therefore, that haunting, +unpleasant, daily disappointment of things left undone will be got rid +of! + +I have found no such wonderful secret. Nor do I expect to find it, nor +do I expect that anyone else will ever find it. It is undiscovered. +When you first began to gather my drift, perhaps there was a +resurrection of hope in your breast. Perhaps you said to yourself, +"This man will show me an easy, unfatiguing way of doing what I have so +long in vain wished to do." Alas, no! The fact is that there is no +easy way, no royal road. The path to Mecca is extremely hard and +stony, and the worst of it is that you never quite get there after all. + +The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one's life so +that one may live fully and comfortably within one's daily budget of +twenty-four hours is the calm realisation of the extreme difficulty of +the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands. I +cannot too strongly insist on this. + +If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by +ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, +you had better give up hope at once. If you are not prepared for +discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a +small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down again and +resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence. + +It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and sombre? And yet I think +it is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing of the +will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. +I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by +the fire. + +"Well," you say, "assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume that +I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous remarks; how +do I begin?" Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no magic method of +beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a swimming-bath and +wanting to jump into the cold water should ask you, "How do I begin to +jump?" you would merely reply, "Just jump. Take hold of your nerves, +and jump." + +As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant supply +of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the +next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as +unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in +all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You +can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. Therefore no object +is served in waiting till next week, or even until to-morrow. You may +fancy that the water will be warmer next week. It won't. It will be +colder. + +But before you begin, let me murmur a few words of warning in your +private ear. + +Let me principally warn you against your own ardour. Ardour in +well-doing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out +loudly for employment; you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more and +more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the course of rivers. +It isn't content till it perspires. And then, too often, when it feels +the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all of a sudden and dies, +without even putting itself to the trouble of saying, "I've had enough +of this." + +Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite a +little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your +own. + +A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a +loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence. But just as nothing +succeeds like success, so nothing fails like failure. Most people who +are ruined are ruined by attempting too much. Therefore, in setting +out on the immense enterprise of living fully and comfortably within +the narrow limits of twenty-four hours a day, let us avoid at any cost +the risk of an early failure. I will not agree that, in this business +at any rate, a glorious failure is better than a petty success. I am +all for the petty success. A glorious failure leads to nothing; a +petty success may lead to a success that is not petty. + +So let us begin to examine the budget of the day's time. You say your +day is already full to overflowing. How? You actually spend in +earning your livelihood--how much? Seven hours, on the average? And in +actual sleep, seven? I will add two hours, and be generous. And I will +defy you to account to me on the spur of the moment for the other eight +hours. + + + +IV + +THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLES + +In order to come to grips at once with the question of time-expenditure +in all its actuality, I must choose an individual case for examination. +I can only deal with one case, and that case cannot be the average +case, because there is no such case as the average case, just as there +is no such man as the average man. Every man and every man's case is +special. + +But if I take the case of a Londoner who works in an office, whose +office hours are from ten to six, and who spends fifty minutes morning +and night in travelling between his house door and his office door, I +shall have got as near to the average as facts permit. There are men +who have to work longer for a living, but there are others who do not +have to work so long. + +Fortunately the financial side of existence does not interest us here; +for our present purpose the clerk at a pound a week is exactly as well +off as the millionaire in Carlton House-terrace. + +Now the great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in regard +to his day is a mistake of general attitude, a mistake which vitiates +and weakens two-thirds of his energies and interests. In the majority +of instances he does not precisely feel a passion for his business; at +best he does not dislike it. He begins his business functions with +reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as +he can. And his engines while he is engaged in his business are seldom +at their full "h.p." (I know that I shall be accused by angry readers +of traducing the city worker; but I am pretty thoroughly acquainted +with the City, and I stick to what I say.) + +Yet in spite of all this he persists in looking upon those hours from +ten to six as "the day," to which the ten hours preceding them and the +six hours following them are nothing but a prologue and epilogue. Such +an attitude, unconscious though it be, of course kills his interest in +the odd sixteen hours, with the result that, even if he does not waste +them, he does not count them; he regards them simply as margin. + +This general attitude is utterly illogical and unhealthy, since it +formally gives the central prominence to a patch of time and a bunch of +activities which the man's one idea is to "get through" and have "done +with." If a man makes two-thirds of his existence subservient to +one-third, for which admittedly he has no absolutely feverish zest, how +can he hope to live fully and completely? He cannot. + +If my typical man wishes to live fully and completely he must, in his +mind, arrange a day within a day. And this inner day, a Chinese box in +a larger Chinese box, must begin at 6 p.m. and end at 10 a.m. It is a +day of sixteen hours; and during all these sixteen hours he has nothing +whatever to do but cultivate his body and his soul and his fellow men. +During those sixteen hours he is free; he is not a wage-earner; he is +not preoccupied with monetary cares; he is just as good as a man with a +private income. This must be his attitude. And his attitude is all +important. His success in life (much more important than the amount of +estate upon what his executors will have to pay estate duty) depends on +it. + +What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours will +lessen the value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, it +will assuredly increase the value of the business eight. One of the +chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental +faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire +like an arm or a leg. All they want is change--not rest, except in +sleep. + +I shall now examine the typical man's current method of employing the +sixteen hours that are entirely his, beginning with his uprising. I +will merely indicate things which he does and which I think he ought +not to do, postponing my suggestions for "planting" the times which I +shall have cleared--as a settler clears spaces in a forest. + +In justice to him I must say that he wastes very little time before he +leaves the house in the morning at 9.10. In too many houses he gets up +at nine, breakfasts between 9.7 and 9.9 1/2, and then bolts. But +immediately he bangs the front door his mental faculties, which are +tireless, become idle. He walks to the station in a condition of +mental coma. Arrived there, he usually has to wait for the train. On +hundreds of suburban stations every morning you see men calmly +strolling up and down platforms while railway companies unblushingly +rob them of time, which is more than money. Hundreds of thousands of +hours are thus lost every day simply because my typical man thinks so +little of time that it has never occurred to him to take quite easy +precautions against the risk of its loss. + +He has a solid coin of time to spend every day--call it a sovereign. He +must get change for it, and in getting change he is content to lose +heavily. + +Supposing that in selling him a ticket the company said, "We will +change you a sovereign, but we shall charge you three halfpence for +doing so," what would my typical man exclaim? Yet that is the +equivalent of what the company does when it robs him of five minutes +twice a day. + +You say I am dealing with minutiae. I am. And later on I will justify +myself. + +Now will you kindly buy your paper and step into the train? + + + +V + +TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL + +You get into the morning train with your newspaper, and you calmly and +majestically give yourself up to your newspaper. You do not hurry. +You know you have at least half an hour of security in front of you. +As your glance lingers idly at the advertisements of shipping and of +songs on the outer pages, your air is the air of a leisured man, +wealthy in time, of a man from some planet where there are a hundred +and twenty-four hours a day instead of twenty-four. I am an +impassioned reader of newspapers. I read five English and two French +dailies, and the news-agents alone know how many weeklies, regularly. +I am obliged to mention this personal fact lest I should be accused of +a prejudice against newspapers when I say that I object to the reading +of newspapers in the morning train. Newspapers are produced with +rapidity, to be read with rapidity. There is no place in my daily +programme for newspapers. I read them as I may in odd moments. But I +do read them. The idea of devoting to them thirty or forty consecutive +minutes of wonderful solitude (for nowhere can one more perfectly +immerse one's self in one's self than in a compartment full of silent, +withdrawn, smoking males) is to me repugnant. I cannot possibly allow +you to scatter priceless pearls of time with such Oriental lavishness. +You are not the Shah of time. Let me respectfully remind you that you +have no more time than I have. No newspaper reading in trains! I have +already "put by" about three-quarters of an hour for use. + +Now you reach your office. And I abandon you there till six o'clock. +I am aware that you have nominally an hour (often in reality an hour +and a half) in the midst of the day, less than half of which time is +given to eating. But I will leave you all that to spend as you choose. +You may read your newspapers then. + +I meet you again as you emerge from your office. You are pale and +tired. At any rate, your wife says you are pale, and you give her to +understand that you are tired. During the journey home you have been +gradually working up the tired feeling. The tired feeling hangs heavy +over the mighty suburbs of London like a virtuous and melancholy cloud, +particularly in winter. You don't eat immediately on your arrival +home. But in about an hour or so you feel as if you could sit up and +take a little nourishment. And you do. Then you smoke, seriously; you +see friends; you potter; you play cards; you flirt with a book; you +note that old age is creeping on; you take a stroll; you caress the +piano.... By Jove! a quarter past eleven. You then devote quite forty +minutes to thinking about going to bed; and it is conceivable that you +are acquainted with a genuinely good whisky. At last you go to bed, +exhausted by the day's work. Six hours, probably more, have gone since +you left the office--gone like a dream, gone like magic, unaccountably +gone! + +That is a fair sample case. But you say: "It's all very well for you +to talk. A man _is_ tired. A man must see his friends. He can't +always be on the stretch." Just so. But when you arrange to go to the +theatre (especially with a pretty woman) what happens? You rush to the +suburbs; you spare no toil to make yourself glorious in fine raiment; +you rush back to town in another train; you keep yourself on the +stretch for four hours, if not five; you take her home; you take +yourself home. You don't spend three-quarters of an hour in "thinking +about" going to bed. You go. Friends and fatigue have equally been +forgotten, and the evening has seemed so exquisitely long (or perhaps +too short)! And do you remember that time when you were persuaded to +sing in the chorus of the amateur operatic society, and slaved two +hours every other night for three months? Can you deny that when you +have something definite to look forward to at eventide, something that +is to employ all your energy--the thought of that something gives a +glow and a more intense vitality to the whole day? + +What I suggest is that at six o'clock you look facts in the face and +admit that you are not tired (because you are not, you know), and that +you arrange your evening so that it is not cut in the middle by a meal. +By so doing you will have a clear expanse of at least three hours. I +do not suggest that you should employ three hours every night of your +life in using up your mental energy. But I do suggest that you might, +for a commencement, employ an hour and a half every other evening in +some important and consecutive cultivation of the mind. You will still +be left with three evenings for friends, bridge, tennis, domestic +scenes, odd reading, pipes, gardening, pottering, and prize +competitions. You will still have the terrific wealth of forty-five +hours between 2 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Monday. If you persevere you +will soon want to pass four evenings, and perhaps five, in some +sustained endeavour to be genuinely alive. And you will fall out of +that habit of muttering to yourself at 11.15 p.m., "Time to be thinking +about going to bed." The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes +before he opens his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not +living. + +But remember, at the start, those ninety nocturnal minutes thrice a +week must be the most important minutes in the ten thousand and eighty. +They must be sacred, quite as sacred as a dramatic rehearsal or a +tennis match. Instead of saying, "Sorry I can't see you, old chap, but +I have to run off to the tennis club," you must say, "...but I have to +work." This, I admit, is intensely difficult to say. Tennis is so +much more urgent than the immortal soul. + + + +VI + +REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE + +I have incidentally mentioned the vast expanse of forty-four hours +between leaving business at 2 p.m. on Saturday and returning to +business at 10 a.m. on Monday. And here I must touch on the point +whether the week should consist of six days or of seven. For many +years--in fact, until I was approaching forty--my own week consisted of +seven days. I was constantly being informed by older and wiser people +that more work, more genuine living, could be got out of six days than +out of seven. + +And it is certainly true that now, with one day in seven in which I +follow no programme and make no effort save what the caprice of the +moment dictates, I appreciate intensely the moral value of a weekly +rest. Nevertheless, had I my life to arrange over again, I would do +again as I have done. Only those who have lived at the full stretch +seven days a week for a long time can appreciate the full beauty of a +regular recurring idleness. Moreover, I am ageing. And it is a +question of age. In cases of abounding youth and exceptional energy +and desire for effort I should say unhesitatingly: Keep going, day in, +day out. + +But in the average case I should say: Confine your formal programme +(super-programme, I mean) to six days a week. If you find yourself +wishing to extend it, extend it, but only in proportion to your wish; +and count the time extra as a windfall, not as regular income, so that +you can return to a six-day programme without the sensation of being +poorer, of being a backslider. + +Let us now see where we stand. So far we have marked for saving out of +the waste of days, half an hour at least on six mornings a week, and +one hour and a half on three evenings a week. Total, seven hours and a +half a week. + +I propose to be content with that seven hours and a half for the +present. "What?" you cry. "You pretend to show us how to live, and +you only deal with seven hours and a half out of a hundred and +sixty-eight! Are you going to perform a miracle with your seven hours +and a half?" Well, not to mince the matter, I am--if you will kindly +let me! That is to say, I am going to ask you to attempt an experience +which, while perfectly natural and explicable, has all the air of a +miracle. My contention is that the full use of those seven-and-a-half +hours will quicken the whole life of the week, add zest to it, and +increase the interest which you feel in even the most banal +occupations. You practise physical exercises for a mere ten minutes +morning and evening, and yet you are not astonished when your physical +health and strength are beneficially affected every hour of the day, +and your whole physical outlook changed. Why should you be astonished +that an average of over an hour a day given to the mind should +permanently and completely enliven the whole activity of the mind? + +More time might assuredly be given to the cultivation of one's self. +And in proportion as the time was longer the results would be greater. +But I prefer to begin with what looks like a trifling effort. + +It is not really a trifling effort, as those will discover who have yet +to essay it. To "clear" even seven hours and a half from the jungle is +passably difficult. For some sacrifice has to be made. One may have +spent one's time badly, but one did spend it; one did do something with +it, however ill-advised that something may have been. To do something +else means a change of habits. + +And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change, even a +change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and +discomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven +hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still live +your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and an +immense deal of volition, will be necessary. And it is because I know +the difficulty, it is because I know the almost disastrous effect of +failure in such an enterprise, that I earnestly advise a very humble +beginning. You must safeguard your self-respect. Self-respect is at the +root of all purposefulness, and a failure in an enterprise deliberately +planned deals a desperate wound at one's self-respect. Hence I iterate +and reiterate: Start quietly, unostentatiously. + +When you have conscientiously given seven hours and a half a week to +the cultivation of your vitality for three months--then you may begin +to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you are capable +of doing. + +Before coming to the method of using the indicated hours, I have one +final suggestion to make. That is, as regards the evenings, to allow +much more than an hour and a half in which to do the work of an hour +and a half. Remember the chance of accidents. Remember human nature. +And give yourself, say, from 9 to 11.30 for your task of ninety minutes. + + + +VII + +CONTROLLING THE MIND + +People say: "One can't help one's thoughts." But one can. The +control of the thinking machine is perfectly possible. And since +nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing +hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme +importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious +brain is patent. This idea is one of the oldest platitudes, but it is +a platitude whose profound truth and urgency most people live and die +without realising. People complain of the lack of power to +concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the power, if they +choose. + +And without the power to concentrate--that is to say, without the power +to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience--true life is +impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full existence. + +Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put +the mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside and out; +you run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you employ a whole +army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you +to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour. Why not devote a little +attention to the far more delicate machinery of the mind, especially as +you will require no extraneous aid? It is for this portion of the art +and craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of +quitting your door to the moment of arriving at your office. + +"What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in +the train, and in the crowded street again?" Precisely. Nothing +simpler! No tools required! Not even a book. Nevertheless, the affair +is not easy. + +When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no +matter what, to begin with). You will not have gone ten yards before +your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is larking round +the corner with another subject. + +Bring it back by the scruff of the neck. Ere you have reached the +station you will have brought it back about forty times. Do not +despair. Continue. Keep it up. You will succeed. You cannot by any +chance fail if you persevere. It is idle to pretend that your mind is +incapable of concentration. Do you not remember that morning when you +received a disquieting letter which demanded a very carefully-worded +answer? How you kept your mind steadily on the subject of the answer, +without a second's intermission, until you reached your office; +whereupon you instantly sat down and wrote the answer? That was a case +in which _you_ were roused by circumstances to such a degree of +vitality that you were able to dominate your mind like a tyrant. You +would have no trifling. You insisted that its work should be done, and +its work was done. + +By the regular practice of concentration (as to which there is no +secret--save the secret of perseverance) you can tyrannise over your +mind (which is not the highest part of _you_) every hour of the day, +and in no matter what place. The exercise is a very convenient one. +If you got into your morning train with a pair of dumb-bells for your +muscles or an encyclopaedia in ten volumes for your learning, you would +probably excite remark. But as you walk in the street, or sit in the +corner of the compartment behind a pipe, or "strap-hang" on the +Subterranean, who is to know that you are engaged in the most important +of daily acts? What asinine boor can laugh at you? + +I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. It +is the mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. But +still, you may as well kill two birds with one stone, and concentrate +on something useful. I suggest--it is only a suggestion--a little +chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. + +Do not, I beg, shy at their names. For myself, I know nothing more +"actual," more bursting with plain common-sense, applicable to the +daily life of plain persons like you and me (who hate airs, pose, and +nonsense) than Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. Read a chapter--and so +short they are, the chapters!--in the evening and concentrate on it the +next morning. You will see. + +Yes, my friend, it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact. I +can hear your brain like a telephone at my ear. You are saying to +yourself: "This fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh +chapter. He had begun to interest me faintly. But what he says about +thinking in trains, and concentration, and so on, is not for me. It +may be well enough for some folks, but it isn't in my line." + +It is for you, I passionately repeat; it is for you. Indeed, you are +the very man I am aiming at. + +Throw away the suggestion, and you throw away the most precious +suggestion that was ever offered to you. It is not my suggestion. It +is the suggestion of the most sensible, practical, hard-headed men who +have walked the earth. I only give it you at second-hand. Try it. Get +your mind in hand. And see how the process cures half the evils of +life--especially worry, that miserable, avoidable, shameful +disease--worry! + + + +VIII + +THE REFLECTIVE MOOD + +The exercise of concentrating the mind (to which at least half an hour +a day should be given) is a mere preliminary, like scales on the piano. +Having acquired power over that most unruly member of one's complex +organism, one has naturally to put it to the yoke. Useless to possess +an obedient mind unless one profits to the furthest possible degree by +its obedience. A prolonged primary course of study is indicated. + +Now as to what this course of study should be there cannot be any +question; there never has been any question. All the sensible people +of all ages are agreed upon it. And it is not literature, nor is it +any other art, nor is it history, nor is it any science. It is the +study of one's self. Man, know thyself. These words are so hackneyed +that verily I blush to write them. Yet they must be written, for they +need to be written. (I take back my blush, being ashamed of it.) Man, +know thyself. I say it out loud. The phrase is one of those phrases +with which everyone is familiar, of which everyone acknowledges the +value, and which only the most sagacious put into practice. I don't +know why. I am entirely convinced that what is more than anything else +lacking in the life of the average well-intentioned man of to-day is +the reflective mood. + +We do not reflect. I mean that we do not reflect upon genuinely +important things; upon the problem of our happiness, upon the main +direction in which we are going, upon what life is giving to us, upon +the share which reason has (or has not) in determining our actions, and +upon the relation between our principles and our conduct. + +And yet you are in search of happiness, are you not? Have you +discovered it? + +The chances are that you have not. The chances are that you have +already come to believe that happiness is unattainable. But men have +attained it. And they have attained it by realising that happiness does +not spring from the procuring of physical or mental pleasure, but from +the development of reason and the adjustment of conduct to principles. + +I suppose that you will not have the audacity to deny this. And if you +admit it, and still devote no part of your day to the deliberate +consideration of your reason, principles, and conduct, you admit also +that while striving for a certain thing you are regularly leaving +undone the one act which is necessary to the attainment of that thing. + +Now, shall I blush, or will you? + +Do not fear that I mean to thrust certain principles upon your +attention. I care not (in this place) what your principles are. Your +principles may induce you to believe in the righteousness of burglary. +I don't mind. All I urge is that a life in which conduct does not +fairly well accord with principles is a silly life; and that conduct +can only be made to accord with principles by means of daily +examination, reflection, and resolution. What leads to the permanent +sorrowfulness of burglars is that their principles are contrary to +burglary. If they genuinely believed in the moral excellence of +burglary, penal servitude would simply mean so many happy years for +them; all martyrs are happy, because their conduct and their principles +agree. + +As for reason (which makes conduct, and is not unconnected with the +making of principles), it plays a far smaller part in our lives than we +fancy. We are supposed to be reasonable but we are much more +instinctive than reasonable. And the less we reflect, the less +reasonable we shall be. The next time you get cross with the waiter +because your steak is over-cooked, ask reason to step into the +cabinet-room of your mind, and consult her. She will probably tell you +that the waiter did not cook the steak, and had no control over the +cooking of the steak; and that even if he alone was to blame, you +accomplished nothing good by getting cross; you merely lost your +dignity, looked a fool in the eyes of sensible men, and soured the +waiter, while producing no effect whatever on the steak. + +The result of this consultation with reason (for which she makes no +charge) will be that when once more your steak is over-cooked you will +treat the waiter as a fellow-creature, remain quite calm in a kindly +spirit, and politely insist on having a fresh steak. The gain will be +obvious and solid. + +In the formation or modification of principles, and the practice of +conduct, much help can be derived from printed books (issued at +sixpence each and upwards). I mentioned in my last chapter Marcus +Aurelius and Epictetus. Certain even more widely known works will occur +at once to the memory. I may also mention Pascal, La Bruyere, and +Emerson. For myself, you do not catch me travelling without my Marcus +Aurelius. Yes, books are valuable. But not reading of books will take +the place of a daily, candid, honest examination of what one has +recently done, and what one is about to do--of a steady looking at +one's self in the face (disconcerting though the sight may be). + +When shall this important business be accomplished? The solitude of +the evening journey home appears to me to be suitable for it. A +reflective mood naturally follows the exertion of having earned the +day's living. Of course if, instead of attending to an elementary and +profoundly important duty, you prefer to read the paper (which you +might just as well read while waiting for your dinner) I have nothing +to say. But attend to it at some time of the day you must. I now come +to the evening hours. + + + +IX + +INTEREST IN THE ARTS + +Many people pursue a regular and uninterrupted course of idleness in +the evenings because they think that there is no alternative to +idleness but the study of literature; and they do not happen to have a +taste for literature. This is a great mistake. + +Of course it is impossible, or at any rate very difficult, properly to +study anything whatever without the aid of printed books. But if you +desire to understand the deeper depths of bridge or of boat-sailing you +would not be deterred by your lack of interest in literature from +reading the best books on bridge or boat-sailing. We must, therefore, +distinguish between literature, and books treating of subjects not +literary. I shall come to literature in due course. + +Let me now remark to those who have never read Meredith, and who are +capable of being unmoved by a discussion as to whether Mr. Stephen +Phillips is or is not a true poet, that they are perfectly within their +rights. It is not a crime not to love literature. It is not a sign of +imbecility. The mandarins of literature will order out to instant +execution the unfortunate individual who does not comprehend, say, the +influence of Wordsworth on Tennyson. But that is only their impudence. +Where would they be, I wonder, if requested to explain the influences +that went to make Tschaikowsky's "Pathetic Symphony"? + +There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature which +will yield magnificent results to cultivators. For example (since I +have just mentioned the most popular piece of high-class music in +England to-day), I am reminded that the Promenade Concerts begin in +August. You go to them. You smoke your cigar or cigarette (and I +regret to say that you strike your matches during the soft bars of the +"Lohengrin" overture), and you enjoy the music. But you say you cannot +play the piano or the fiddle, or even the banjo; that you know nothing +of music. + +What does that matter? That you have a genuine taste for music is +proved by the fact that, in order to fill his hall with you and your +peers, the conductor is obliged to provide programmes from which bad +music is almost entirely excluded (a change from the old Covent Garden +days!). + +Now surely your inability to perform "The Maiden's Prayer" on a piano +need not prevent you from making yourself familiar with the +construction of the orchestra to which you listen a couple of nights a +week during a couple of months! As things are, you probably think of +the orchestra as a heterogeneous mass of instruments producing a +confused agreeable mass of sound. You do not listen for details +because you have never trained your ears to listen to details. + +If you were asked to name the instruments which play the great theme at +the beginning of the C minor symphony you could not name them for your +life's sake. Yet you admire the C minor symphony. It has thrilled +you. It will thrill you again. You have even talked about it, in an +expansive mood, to that lady--you know whom I mean. And all you can +positively state about the C minor symphony is that Beethoven composed +it and that it is a "jolly fine thing." + +Now, if you have read, say, Mr. Krehbiel's "How to Listen to Music" +(which can be got at any bookseller's for less than the price of a +stall at the Alhambra, and which contains photographs of all the +orchestral instruments and plans of the arrangement of orchestras) you +would next go to a promenade concert with an astonishing +intensification of interest in it. Instead of a confused mass, the +orchestra would appear to you as what it is--a marvellously balanced +organism whose various groups of members each have a different and an +indispensable function. You would spy out the instruments, and listen +for their respective sounds. You would know the gulf that separates a +French horn from an English horn, and you would perceive why a player +of the hautboy gets higher wages than a fiddler, though the fiddle is +the more difficult instrument. You would _live_ at a promenade +concert, whereas previously you had merely existed there in a state of +beatific coma, like a baby gazing at a bright object. + +The foundations of a genuine, systematic knowledge of music might be +laid. You might specialise your inquiries either on a particular form +of music (such as the symphony), or on the works of a particular +composer. At the end of a year of forty-eight weeks of three brief +evenings each, combined with a study of programmes and attendances at +concerts chosen out of your increasing knowledge, you would really know +something about music, even though you were as far off as ever from +jangling "The Maiden's Prayer" on the piano. + +"But I hate music!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you. + +What applies to music applies to the other arts. I might mention Mr. +Clermont Witt's "How to Look at Pictures," or Mr. Russell Sturgis's +"How to Judge Architecture," as beginnings (merely beginnings) of +systematic vitalising knowledge in other arts, the materials for whose +study abound in London. + +"I hate all the arts!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you more and +more. + +I will deal with your case next, before coming to literature. + + + +X + +NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM + +Art is a great thing. But it is not the greatest. The most important +of all perceptions is the continual perception of cause and effect--in +other words, the perception of the continuous development of the +universe--in still other words, the perception of the course of +evolution. When one has thoroughly got imbued into one's head the +leading truth that nothing happens without a cause, one grows not only +large-minded, but large-hearted. + +It is hard to have one's watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief +of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment +which are as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and +one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy +that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and +effect, that absurd air which so many people have of being always +shocked and pained by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid +human nature as if human nature were a foreign country full of awful +foreign customs. But, having reached maturity, one ought surely to be +ashamed of being a stranger in a strange land! + +The study of cause and effect, while it lessens the painfulness of +life, adds to life's picturesqueness. The man to whom evolution is but +a name looks at the sea as a grandiose, monotonous spectacle, which he +can witness in August for three shillings third-class return. The man +who is imbued with the idea of development, of continuous cause and +effect, perceives in the sea an element which in the +day-before-yesterday of geology was vapour, which yesterday was +boiling, and which to-morrow will inevitably be ice. + +He perceives that a liquid is merely something on its way to be solid, +and he is penetrated by a sense of the tremendous, changeful +picturesqueness of life. Nothing will afford a more durable +satisfaction than the constantly cultivated appreciation of this. It is +the end of all science. + +Cause and effect are to be found everywhere. Rents went up in +Shepherd's Bush. It was painful and shocking that rents should go up +in Shepherd's Bush. But to a certain point we are all scientific +students of cause and effect, and there was not a clerk lunching at a +Lyons Restaurant who did not scientifically put two and two together +and see in the (once) Two-penny Tube the cause of an excessive demand +for wigwams in Shepherd's Bush, and in the excessive demand for wigwams +the cause of the increase in the price of wigwams. + +"Simple!" you say, disdainfully. Everything--the whole complex +movement of the universe--is as simple as that--when you can +sufficiently put two and two together. And, my dear sir, perhaps you +happen to be an estate agent's clerk, and you hate the arts, and you +want to foster your immortal soul, and you can't be interested in your +business because it's so humdrum. + +Nothing is humdrum. + +The tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life is marvellously shown +in an estate agent's office. What! There was a block of traffic in +Oxford Street; to avoid the block people actually began to travel under +the cellars and drains, and the result was a rise of rents in +Shepherd's Bush! And you say that isn't picturesque! Suppose you were +to study, in this spirit, the property question in London for an hour +and a half every other evening. Would it not give zest to your +business, and transform your whole life? + +You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able to +tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the longest +straight street in London is about a yard and a half in length, while +the longest absolutely straight street in Paris extends for miles. I +think you will admit that in an estate agent's clerk I have not chosen +an example that specially favours my theories. + +You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance +(disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's "Lombard Street"? +Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed it up for +ninety minutes every other evening, how enthralling your business would +be to you, and how much more clearly you would understand human nature. + +You are "penned in town," but you love excursions to the country and +the observation of wild life--certainly a heart-enlarging diversion. +Why don't you walk out of your house door, in your slippers, to the +nearest gas lamp of a night with a butterfly net, and observe the wild +life of common and rare moths that is beating about it, and co-ordinate +the knowledge thus obtained and build a superstructure on it, and at +last get to know something about something? + +You need not be devoted to the arts, not to literature, in order to +live fully. + +The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that +curiosity which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an +understanding heart. + +I promised to deal with your case, O man who hates art and literature, +and I have dealt with it. I now come to the case of the person, +happily very common, who does "like reading." + + + +XI + +SERIOUS READING + +Novels are excluded from "serious reading," so that the man who, bent +on self-improvement, has been deciding to devote ninety minutes three +times a week to a complete study of the works of Charles Dickens will +be well advised to alter his plans. The reason is not that novels are +not serious--some of the great literature of the world is in the form +of prose fiction--the reason is that bad novels ought not to be read, +and that good novels never demand any appreciable mental application on +the part of the reader. It is only the bad parts of Meredith's novels +that are difficult. A good novel rushes you forward like a skiff down +a stream, and you arrive at the end, perhaps breathless, but +unexhausted. The best novels involve the least strain. Now in the +cultivation of the mind one of the most important factors is precisely +the feeling of strain, of difficulty, of a task which one part of you +is anxious to achieve and another part of you is anxious to shirk; and +that feeling cannot be got in facing a novel. You do not set your +teeth in order to read "Anna Karenina." Therefore, though you should +read novels, you should not read them in those ninety minutes. + +Imaginative poetry produces a far greater mental strain than novels. It +produces probably the severest strain of any form of literature. It is +the highest form of literature. It yields the highest form of +pleasure, and teaches the highest form of wisdom. In a word, there is +nothing to compare with it. I say this with sad consciousness of the +fact that the majority of people do not read poetry. + +I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted +with the alternatives of reading "Paradise Lost" and going round +Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would choose +the ordeal of public ridicule. Still, I will never cease advising my +friends and enemies to read poetry before anything. + +If poetry is what is called "a sealed book" to you, begin by reading +Hazlitt's famous essay on the nature of "poetry in general." It is the +best thing of its kind in English, and no one who has read it can +possibly be under the misapprehension that poetry is a mediaeval +torture, or a mad elephant, or a gun that will go off by itself and +kill at forty paces. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the mental +state of the man who, after reading Hazlitt's essay, is not urgently +desirous of reading some poetry before his next meal. If the essay so +inspires you I would suggest that you make a commencement with purely +narrative poetry. + +There is an infinitely finer English novel, written by a woman, than +anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which +perhaps you have not read. Its title is "Aurora Leigh," and its author +E.B. Browning. It happens to be written in verse, and to contain a +considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to read that book +through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is fine poetry. Read +it simply for the story and the social ideas. And when you have done, +ask yourself honestly whether you still dislike poetry. I have known +more than one person to whom "Aurora Leigh" has been the means of +proving that in assuming they hated poetry they were entirely mistaken. + +Of course, if, after Hazlitt, and such an experiment made in the light +of Hazlitt, you are finally assured that there is something in you +which is antagonistic to poetry, you must be content with history or +philosophy. I shall regret it, yet not inconsolably. "The Decline and +Fall" is not to be named in the same day with "Paradise Lost," but it +is a vastly pretty thing; and Herbert Spencer's "First Principles" +simply laughs at the claims of poetry and refuses to be accepted as +aught but the most majestic product of any human mind. I do not +suggest that either of these works is suitable for a tyro in mental +strains. But I see no reason why any man of average intelligence +should not, after a year of continuous reading, be fit to assault the +supreme masterpieces of history or philosophy. The great convenience +of masterpieces is that they are so astonishingly lucid. + +I suggest no particular work as a start. The attempt would be futile +in the space of my command. But I have two general suggestions of a +certain importance. The first is to define the direction and scope of +your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a +single author. Say to yourself: "I will know something about the +French Revolution, or the rise of railways, or the works of John +Keats." And during a given period, to be settled beforehand, confine +yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure to be derived from +being a specialist. + +The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people +who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as +well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to +drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their +sole object being motion. They will tell you how many books they have +read in a year. + +Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing +reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, +your ninety minutes of a night are chiefly wasted. This means that +your pace will be slow. + +Never mind. + +Forget the goal; think only of the surrounding country; and after a +period, perhaps when you least expect it, you will suddenly find +yourself in a lovely town on a hill. + + + +XII + +DANGERS TO AVOID + +I cannot terminate these hints, often, I fear, too didactic and abrupt, +upon the full use of one's time to the great end of living (as +distinguished from vegetating) without briefly referring to certain +dangers which lie in wait for the sincere aspirant towards life. The +first is the terrible danger of becoming that most odious and least +supportable of persons--a prig. Now a prig is a pert fellow who gives +himself airs of superior wisdom. A prig is a pompous fool who has gone +out for a ceremonial walk, and without knowing it has lost an important +part of his attire, namely, his sense of humour. A prig is a tedious +individual who, having made a discovery, is so impressed by his +discovery that he is capable of being gravely displeased because the +entire world is not also impressed by it. Unconsciously to become a +prig is an easy and a fatal thing. + +Hence, when one sets forth on the enterprise of using all one's time, +it is just as well to remember that one's own time, and not other +people's time, is the material with which one has to deal; that the +earth rolled on pretty comfortably before one began to balance a budget +of the hours, and that it will continue to roll on pretty comfortably +whether or not one succeeds in one's new role of chancellor of the +exchequer of time. It is as well not to chatter too much about what +one is doing, and not to betray a too-pained sadness at the spectacle +of a whole world deliberately wasting so many hours out of every day, +and therefore never really living. It will be found, ultimately, that +in taking care of one's self one has quite all one can do. + +Another danger is the danger of being tied to a programme like a slave +to a chariot. One's programme must not be allowed to run away with +one. It must be respected, but it must not be worshipped as a fetish. +A programme of daily employ is not a religion. + +This seems obvious. Yet I know men whose lives are a burden to +themselves and a distressing burden to their relatives and friends +simply because they have failed to appreciate the obvious. "Oh, no," I +have heard the martyred wife exclaim, "Arthur always takes the dog out +for exercise at eight o'clock and he always begins to read at a quarter +to nine. So it's quite out of the question that we should..." etc., +etc. And the note of absolute finality in that plaintive voice reveals +the unsuspected and ridiculous tragedy of a career. + +On the other hand, a programme is a programme. And unless it is +treated with deference it ceases to be anything but a poor joke. To +treat one's programme with exactly the right amount of deference, to +live with not too much and not too little elasticity, is scarcely the +simple affair it may appear to the inexperienced. + +And still another danger is the danger of developing a policy of rush, +of being gradually more and more obsessed by what one has to do next. +In this way one may come to exist as in a prison, and one's life may +cease to be one's own. One may take the dog out for a walk at eight +o'clock, and meditate the whole time on the fact that one must begin to +read at a quarter to nine, and that one must not be late. + +And the occasional deliberate breaking of one's programme will not help +to mend matters. The evil springs not from persisting without +elasticity in what one has attempted, but from originally attempting +too much, from filling one's programme till it runs over. The only +cure is to reconstitute the programme, and to attempt less. + +But the appetite for knowledge grows by what it feeds on, and there are +men who come to like a constant breathless hurry of endeavour. Of them +it may be said that a constant breathless hurry is better than an +eternal doze. + +In any case, if the programme exhibits a tendency to be oppressive, and +yet one wishes not to modify it, an excellent palliative is to pass +with exaggerated deliberation from one portion of it to another; for +example, to spend five minutes in perfect mental quiescence between +chaining up the St. Bernard and opening the book; in other words, to +waste five minutes with the entire consciousness of wasting them. + +The last, and chiefest danger which I would indicate, is one to which I +have already referred--the risk of a failure at the commencement of the +enterprise. + +I must insist on it. + +A failure at the commencement may easily kill outright the newborn +impulse towards a complete vitality, and therefore every precaution +should be observed to avoid it. The impulse must not be over-taxed. +Let the pace of the first lap be even absurdly slow, but let it be as +regular as possible. + +And, having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all +costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having +accomplished a tiresome labour is immense. + +Finally, in choosing the first occupations of those evening hours, be +guided by nothing whatever but your taste and natural inclination. + +It is a fine thing to be a walking encyclopaedia of philosophy, but if +you happen to have no liking for philosophy, and to have a like for the +natural history of street-cries, much better leave philosophy alone, +and take to street-cries. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY *** + +***** This file should be named 2274.txt or 2274.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/2274/ + +Produced by Tony Adam. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/2274.zip b/2274.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a4b0d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/2274.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b1af2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2274 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2274) diff --git a/old/24hrs10.txt b/old/24hrs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c436de9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/24hrs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1607 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Bennett + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day + +by Arnold Bennett + +August, 2000 [Etext #2274] + + +Project Gutenberg Etext How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Bennett +******This file should be named 24hrs10.txt or 24hrs10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 24hrs11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 24hrs10a.txt + + +This Etext prepared by Tony Adam +anthony-adam@tamu.edu + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text +files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly +from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an +assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few +more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we +don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person. + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails. . .try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + +****** + +To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser +to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by +author and by title, and includes information about how +to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also +download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This +is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, +for a more complete list of our various sites. + +To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any +Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror +sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed +at http://promo.net/pg). + +Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better. + +Example FTP session: + +ftp sunsite.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + +*** + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** + +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This Etext prepared by Tony Adam +anthony-adam@tamu.edu + + + + + +How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day + +by Arnold Bennett + + + + +PREFACE TO THIS EDITION + +This preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be, +should be read at the end of the book. + +I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this +small work, and many reviews of it--some of them nearly as long +as the book itself--have been printed. But scarcely any of the +comment has been adverse. Some people have objected to a +frivolity of tone; but as the tone is not, in my opinion, at all +frivolous, this objection did not impress me; and had no weightier +reproach been put forward I might almost have been persuaded that +the volume was flawless! A more serious stricture has, however, +been offered--not in the press, but by sundry obviously sincere +correspondents--and I must deal with it. A reference to page 43 +will show that I anticipated and feared this disapprobation. The +sentence against which protests have been made is as follows:-- +"In the majority of instances he [the typical man] does not +precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not dislike +it. He begins his business functions with some reluctance, as late +as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his +engines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at their +full 'h.p.'" + +I am assured, in accents of unmistakable sincerity, that there are +many business men--not merely those in high positions or with fine +prospects, but modest subordinates with no hope of ever being +much better off--who do enjoy their business functions, who do not +shirk them, who do not arrive at the office as late as possible and + +depart as early as possible, who, in a word, put the whole of their +force into their day's work and are genuinely fatigued at the end +thereof. + +I am ready to believe it. I do believe it. I know it. I always knew +it. Both in London and in the provinces it has been my lot to spend +long years in subordinate situations of business; and the fact did +not escape me that a certain proportion of my peers showed what +amounted to an honest passion for their duties, and that while +engaged in those duties they were really *living* to the fullest +extent of which they were capable. But I remain convinced that +these fortunate and happy individuals (happier perhaps than they +guessed) did not and do not constitute a majority, or anything like +a majority. I remain convinced that the majority of decent average +conscientious men of business (men with aspirations and ideals) do +not as a rule go home of a night genuinely tired. I remain +convinced that they put not as much but as little of themselves as +they conscientiously can into the earning of a livelihood, and that +their vocation bores rather than interests them. + +Nevertheless, I admit that the minority is of sufficient importance +to merit attention, and that I ought not to have ignored it so +completely as I did do. The whole difficulty of the hard-working +minority was put in a single colloquial sentence by one of my +correspondents. He wrote: "I am just as keen as anyone on doing +something to 'exceed my programme,' but allow me to tell you that +when I get home at six thirty p.m. I am not anything like so fresh +as you seem to imagine." + +Now I must point out that the case of the minority, who throw +themselves with passion and gusto into their daily business task, is +infinitely less deplorable than the case of the majority, who go +half-heartedly and feebly through their official day. The former are +less in need of advice "how to live." At any rate during their +official day of, say, eight hours they are really alive; their engines +are giving the full indicated "h.p." The other eight working hours +of their day may be badly organised, or even frittered away; but it +is less disastrous to waste eight hours a day than sixteen hours a +day; it is better to have lived a bit than never to have lived at all. +The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who is braced to effort +neither in the office nor out of it, and to this man this book is +primarily addressed. "But," says the other and more fortunate man, +"although my ordinary programme is bigger than his, I want to +exceed my programme too! I am living a bit; I want to live more. +But I really can't do another day's work on the top of my official +day." + + +The fact is, I, the author, ought to have foreseen that I should +appeal most strongly to those who already had an interest in +existence. It is always the man who has tasted life who demands +more of it. And it is always the man who never gets out of bed +who is the most difficult to rouse. + +Well, you of the minority, let us assume that the intensity of your +daily money-getting will not allow you to carry out quite all the +suggestions in the following pages. Some of the suggestions may +yet stand. I admit that you may not be able to use the time spent +on the journey home at night; but the suggestion for the journey to +the office in the morning is as practicable for you as for anybody. +And that weekly interval of forty hours, from Saturday to Monday, +is yours just as much as the other man's, though a slight +accumulation of fatigue may prevent you from employing the +whole of your "h.p." upon it. There remains, then, the important +portion of the three or more evenings a week. You tell me flatly +that you are too tired to do anything outside your programme at +night. In reply to which I tell you flatly that if your ordinary day's +work is thus exhausting, then the balance of your life is wrong and +must be adjusted. A man's powers ought not to be monopolised by +his ordinary day's work. What, then, is to be done? + +The obvious thing to do is to circumvent your ardour for your +ordinary day's work by a ruse. Employ your engines in something +beyond the programme before, and not after, you employ them on +the programme itself. Briefly, get up earlier in the morning. You +say you cannot. You say it is impossible for you to go earlier to +bed of a night--to do so would upset the entire household. I do not +think it is quite impossible to go to bed earlier at night. I think that +if you persist in rising earlier, and the consequence is insufficiency +of sleep, you will soon find a way of going to bed earlier. But my +impression is that the consequences of rising earlier will not be an +insufficiency of sleep. My impression, growing stronger every +year, is that sleep is partly a matter of habit--and of slackness. I am +convinced that most people sleep as long as they do because they +are at a loss for any other diversion. How much sleep do you think +is daily obtained by the powerful healthy man who daily rattles up +your street in charge of Carter Patterson's van? I have consulted a +doctor on this point. He is a doctor who for twenty-four years has +had a large general practice in a large flourishing suburb of +London, inhabited by exactly such people as you and me. He is a +curt man, and his answer was curt: + +"Most people sleep themselves stupid." + + +He went on to give his opinion that nine men out of ten would have +better health and more fun out of life if they spent less time in bed. + +Other doctors have confirmed this judgment, which, of course, does +not apply to growing youths. + +Rise an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours earlier; and--if +you must--retire earlier when you can. In the matter of exceeding +programmes, you will accomplish as much in one morning hour as +in two evening hours. "But," you say, "I couldn't begin without +some food, and servants." Surely, my dear sir, in an age when an +excellent spirit-lamp (including a saucepan) can be bought for less +than a shilling, you are not going to allow your highest welfare to +depend upon the precarious immediate co-operation of a fellow +creature! Instruct the fellow creature, whoever she may be, at +night. Tell her to put a tray in a suitable position over night. On +that tray two biscuits, a cup and saucer, a box of matches and a +spirit-lamp; on the lamp, the saucepan; on the saucepan, the lid-- +but turned the wrong way up; on the reversed lid, the small teapot, +containing a minute quantity of tea leaves. You will then have to +strike a match--that is all. In three minutes the water boils, and you +pour it into the teapot (which is already warm). In three more minutes +the tea is infused. You can begin your day while drinking it. These +details may seem trivial to the foolish, but to the thoughtful they will +not seem trivial. The proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may +depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour. + +A. B. + + + CONTENTS + +PREFACE, V + + I THE DAILY MIRACLE, 21 + II THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME, 28 + III PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING, 35 + IV THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE, 42 + V TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL, 49 + VI REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE, 56 + VII CONTROLLING THE MIND, 62 + VIII THE REFLECTIVE MOOD, 69 + IX INTEREST IN THE ARTS, 76 + X NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM, 83 + + XI SERIOUS READING, 90 + XII DANGERS TO AVOID, 97 + + + + HOW TO LIVE ON + TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY + + + + I + THE DAILY MIRACLE + + +"Yes, he's one of those men that don't know how to manage. +Good situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries +as well as needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellow's +always in difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his +money. Excellent flat--half empty! Always looks as if he'd had +the brokers in. New suit--old hat! Magnificent necktie--baggy +trousers! Asks you to dinner: cut glass--bad mutton, or Turkish +coffee--cracked cup! He can't understand it. Explanation simply +is that he fritters his income away. Wish I had the half of it! I'd +show him--" + +So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our +superior way. + +We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer: it is the pride of +the moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live +on such-and-such a sum, and these articles provoke a correspondence +whose violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a daily +organ, a battle raged round the question whether a woman can exist +nicely in the country on L85 a year. I have seen an essay, "How to +live on eight shillings a week." But I have never seen an essay, "How +to live on twenty-four hours a day." Yet it has been said that time is +money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more +than money. If you have time you can obtain money--usually. But +though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton +Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the +cat by the fire has. + + +Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It +is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; +without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an +affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in +the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four +hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is +yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular +commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the +commodity itself! + +For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no +one receives either more or less than you receive. + +Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy +of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even +an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely +precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be +withheld from you. Mo mysterious power will say:--"This man is a fool, +if not a knave. He does not deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." +It is more certain than consols, and payment of income is not affected by +Sundays. Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into +debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to- +morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you. + +I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not? + +You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have +to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your + immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest +urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your +happiness--the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends!-- +depends on that. Strange that the newspapers, so enterprising and up-to- +date as they are, are not full of "How to live on a given income of time," +instead of "How to live on a given income of money"! Money is far +commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is just +about the commonest thing there is. It encumbers the earth in gross heaps. + +If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a +little more--or steals it, or advertises for it. One doesn't necessarily +muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a thousand pounds +a year; one braces the muscles and makes it guineas, and balances the +budget. But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours +a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does +muddle one's life definitely. The supply of time, though gloriously +regular, is cruelly restricted. + + +Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say "lives," +I do not mean exists, nor "muddles through." Which of us is free from +that uneasy feeling that the "great spending departments" of his daily +life are not managed as they ought to be? Which of us is quite sure +that his fine suit is not surmounted by a shameful hat, or that in attending +to the crockery he has forgotten the quality of the food? Which of us is +not saying to himself--which of us has not been saying to himself all his +life: "I shall alter that when I have a little more time"? + +We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, +all the time there is. It is the realisation of this profound and neglected +truth (which, by the way, I have not discovered) that has led me to the +minute practical examination of daily time-expenditure. + + + + II + + THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME + + +"But," someone may remark, with the English disregard of everything +except the point, "what is he driving at with his twenty-four hours a day? +I have no difficulty in living on twenty-four hours a day. I do all that I +want to do, and still find time to go in for newspaper competitions. Surely +it is a simple affair, knowing that one has only twenty-four hours a day, to +content one's self with twenty-four hours a day!" + +To you, my dear sir, I present my excuses and apologies. You are precisely +the man that I have been wishing to meet for about forty years. Will you +kindly send me your name and address, and state your charge for telling me +how you do it? Instead of me talking to you, you ought to be talking to me. +Please come forward. That you exist, I am convinced, and that I have not +yet encountered you is my loss. Meanwhile, until you appear, I will continue +to chat with my companions in distress--that innumerable band of souls who +are haunted, more or less painfully, by the feeling that the years slip by, and +slip by, and slip by, and that they have not yet been able to get their lives into +proper working order. + +If we analyse that feeling, we shall perceive it to be, primarily, one of +uneasiness, of expectation, of looking forward, of aspiration. It is a source +of constant discomfort, for it behaves like a skeleton at the feast of all our +enjoyments. We go to the theatre and laugh; but between the acts it raises +a skinny finger at us. We rush violently for the last train, and while we are +cooling a long age on the platform waiting for the last train, it promenades +its bones up and down by our side and inquires: "O man, what hast thou +done with thy youth? What art thou doing with thine age?" You may urge +that this feeling of continuous looking forward, of aspiration, is part of life +itself, and inseparable from life itself. True! + +But there are degrees. A man may desire to go to Mecca. His conscience +tells him that he ought to go to Mecca. He fares forth, either by the aid of +Cook's, or unassisted; he may probably never reach Mecca; he may drown +before he gets to Port Said; he may perish ingloriously on the coast of the +Red Sea; his desire may remain eternally frustrate. Unfulfilled aspiration +may always trouble him. But he will not be tormented in the same way as +the man who, desiring to reach Mecca, and harried by the desire to reach +Mecca, never leaves Brixton. + +It is something to have left Brixton. Most of us have not left Brixton. We +have not even taken a cab to Ludgate Circus and inquired from Cook's the +price of a conducted tour. And our excuse to ourselves is that there are only +twenty-four hours in the day. + +If we further analyse our vague, uneasy aspiration, we shall, I think, see +that it springs from a fixed idea that we ought to do something in addition +to those things which we are loyally and morally obliged to do. We are +obliged, by various codes written and unwritten, to maintain ourselves +and our families (if any) in health and comfort, to pay our debts, to save, +to increase our prosperity by increasing our efficiency. A task sufficiently +difficult! A task which very few of us achieve! A task often beyond our +skill! yet, if we succeed in it, as we sometimes do, we are not satisfied; the +skeleton is still with us. + +And even when we realise tat the task is beyond our skill, that our powers +cannot cope with it, we feel that we should be less discontented if we gave +to our powers, already overtaxed, something still further to do. + +And such is, indeed, the fact. The wish to accomplish something outside +their formal programme is common to all men who in the course of evolution +have risen past a certain level. + +Until an effort is made to satisfy that wish, the sense of uneasy waiting for +something to start which has not started will remain to disturb the peace of +the soul. That wish has been called by many names. It is one form of the +universal desire for knowledge. And it is so strong that men whose whole +lives have been given to the systematic acquirement of knowledge have +been driven by it to overstep the limits of their programme in search of +still more knowledge. Even Herbert Spencer, in my opinion the greatest +mind that ever lived, was often forced by it into agreeable little backwaters +of inquiry. + +I imagine that in the majority of people who are conscious of the wish to +live--that is to say, people who have intellectual curiosity--the aspiration +to exceed formal programmes takes a literary shape. They would like to +embark on a course of reading. Decidedly the British people are becoming +more and more literary. But I would point out that literature by no means +comprises the whole field of knowledge, and that the disturbing thirst to +improve one's self--to increase one's knowledge--may well be slaked quite +apart from literature. With the various ways of slaking I shall deal later. +Here I merely point out to those who have no natural sympathy with +literature that literature is not the only well. + + + III + + PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING + +Now that I have succeeded (if succeeded I have) in persuading you to admit +to yourself that you are constantly haunted by a suppressed dissatisfaction +with your own arrangement of your daily life; and that the primal cause of +that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling that you are every day leaving +undone something which you would like to do, and which, indeed, you are +always hoping to do when you have "more time"; and now that I have drawn +your attention to the glaring, dazzling truth that you never will have "more +time," since you already have all the time there is--you expect me to let you +into some wonderful secret by which you may at any rate approach the ideal +of a perfect arrangement of the day, and by which, therefore, that haunting, +unpleasant, daily disappointment of things left undone will be got rid of! + +I have found no such wonderful secret. Nor do I expect to find it, nor do I +expect that anyone else will ever find it. It is undiscovered. When you first +began to gather my drift, perhaps there was a resurrection of hope in your +breast. Perhaps you said to yourself, "This man will show me an easy, +unfatiguing way of doing what I have so long in vain wished to do." Alas, +no! The fact is that there is no easy way, no royal road. The path to Mecca +is extremely hard and stony, and the worst of it is that you never quite get +there after all. + +The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one's life so that +one may live fully and comfortably within one's daily budget of twenty- +four hours is the calm realisation of the extreme difficulty of the task, of +the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands. I cannot too strongly +insist on this. + +If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously +planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better +give up hope at once. If you are not prepared for discouragements and +disillusions; if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, +then do not begin. Lie down again and resume the uneasy doze which +you call your existence. + +It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and sombre? And yet I think it +is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing of the will before +anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. I feel it to be +the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by the fire. + +"Well," you say, "assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume that +I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous remarks; +how do I begin?" Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no magic method +of beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a swimming-bath and +wanting to jump into the cold water should ask you, "How do I begin to +jump?" you would merely reply, "Just jump. Take hold of your nerves, +and jump." + +As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant supply of +time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, +the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you +had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career. Which +fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You can turn over a new leaf every +hour if you choose. Therefore no object is served in waiting till next week, +or even until to-morrow. You may fancy that the water will be warmer next +week. It won't. It will be colder. + +But before you begin, let me murmur a few words of warning in your private +ear. + + +Let me principally warn you against your own ardour. Ardour in well-doing +is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out loudly for employment; +you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more and more; it is eager to move +mountains and divert the course of rivers. It isn't content till it perspires. +And then, too often, when it feels the perspiration on its brow, it wearies +all of a sudden and dies, without even putting itself to the trouble of saying, +"I've +had enough of this." + +Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite a little. +Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your own. + +A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a loss of self- +esteem and of self-confidence. But just as nothing succeeds like success, +so nothing fails like failure. Most people who are ruined are ruined by +attempting too much. Therefore, in setting out on the immense enterprise +of living fully and comfortably within the narrow limits of twenty-four +hours a day, let us avoid at any cost the risk of an early failure. I will not +agree that, in this business at any rate, a glorious failure is better than a +petty success. I am all for the petty success. A glorious failure leads to +nothing; a petty success may lead to a success that is not petty. + +So let us begin to examine the budget of the day's time. You say your +day is already full to overflowing. How? You actually spend in earning +your livelihood--how much? Seven hours, on the average? And in actual +sleep, seven? I will add two hours, and be generous. And I will defy you +to account to me on the spur of the moment for the other eight hours. + + + + IV + + THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLES + +In order to come to grips at once with the question of time-expenditure in +all its actuality, I must choose an individual case for examination. I can +only deal with one case, and that case cannot be the average case, because +there is no such case as the average case, just as there is no such man as the +average man. Every man and every man's case is special. + + +But if I take the case of a Londoner who works in an office, whose office +hours are from ten to six, and who spends fifty minutes morning and night +in travelling between his house door and his office door, I shall have got as +near to the average as facts permit. There are men who have to work longer +for a living, but there are others who do not have to work so long. + +Fortunately the financial side of existence does not interest us here; for our +present purpose the clerk at a pound a week is exactly as well off as the +millionaire in Carlton House-terrace. + +Now the great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in regard +to his day is a mistake of general attitude, a mistake which vitiates and +weakens two-thirds of his energies and interests. In the majority of instances +he does not precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not dislike +it. He begins his business functions with reluctance, as late as he can, and he +ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his engines while he is engaged +in his business are seldom at their full "h.p." (I know that I shall be accused +by angry readers of traducing the city worker; but I am pretty thoroughly +acquainted with the City, and I stick to what I say.) + +Yet in spite of all this he persists in looking upon those hours from ten to +six as "the day," to which the ten hours preceding them and the six hours +following them are nothing but a prologue and epilogue. Such an attitude, + +unconscious though it be, of course kills his interest in the odd sixteen +hours, with the result that, even if he does not waste them, he does not +count them; he regards them simply as margin. + +This general attitude is utterly illogical and unhealthy, since it formally +gives the central prominence to a patch of time and a bunch of activities +which the man's one idea is to "get through" and have "done with." If a +man makes two-thirds of his existence subservient to one-third, for which +admittedly he has no absolutely feverish zest, how can he hope to live fully +and completely? He cannot. + +If my typical man wishes to live fully and completely he must, in his mind, +arrange a day within a day. And this inner day, a Chinese box in a larger +Chinese box, must begin at 6 p.m. and end at 10 a.m. It is a day of sixteen +hours; and during all these sixteen hours he has nothing whatever to do but +cultivate his body and his soul and his fellow men. During those sixteen +hours he is free; he is not a wage-earner; he is not preoccupied with monetary +cares; he is just as good as a man with a private income. This must be his +attitude. And his attitude is all important. His success in life (much more +important than the amount of estate upon what his executors will have to +pay estate duty) depends on it. + +What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours will lessen the +value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, it will assuredly +increase the value of the business eight. One of the chief things which +my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of a +continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they +want is change--not rest, except in sleep. + +I shall now examine the typical man's current method of employing the +sixteen hours that are entirely his, beginning with his uprising. I will +merely indicate things which he does and which I think he ought not to +do, postponing my suggestions for "planting" the times which I shall +have cleared--as a settler clears spaces in a forest. + +In justice to him I must say that he wastes very little time before he +leaves the house in the morning at 9.10. In too many houses he gets +up at nine, breakfasts between 9.7 and 9.9 1/2, and then bolts. But +immediately he bangs the front door his mental faculties, which are +tireless, become idle. He walks to the station in a condition of mental +coma. Arrived there, he usually has to wait for the train. On hundreds +of suburban stations every morning you see men calmly strolling up +and down platforms while railway companies unblushingly rob them +of time, which is more than money. Hundreds of thousands of hours +are thus lost every day simply because my typical man thinks so little +of time that it has never occurred to him to take quite easy precautions +against the risk of its loss. + +He has a solid coin of time to spend every day--call it a sovereign. He +must get change for it, and in getting change he is content to lose heavily. + +Supposing that in selling him a ticket the company said, "We will change +you a sovereign, but we shall charge you three halfpence for doing so," +what would my typical man exclaim? Yet that is the equivalent of what +the company does when it robs him of five minutes twice a day. + +You say I am dealing with minutiae. I am. And later on I will justify myself. + +Now will you kindly buy your paper and step into the train? + + + + + V + + TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL + +You get into the morning train with your newspaper, and you calmly and +majestically give yourself up to your newspaper. You do not hurry. You +know you have at least half an hour of security in front of you. As your +glance lingers idly at the advertisements of shipping and of songs on the +outer pages, your air is the air of a leisured man, wealthy in time, of a +man from some planet where there are a hundred and twenty-four hours +a day instead of twenty-four. I am an impassioned reader of newspapers. +I read five English and two French dailies, and the news-agents alone +know how many weeklies, regularly. I am obliged to mention this personal +fact lest I should be accused of a prejudice against newspapers when I say +that I object to the reading of newspapers in the morning train. Newspapers +are produced with rapidity, to be read with rapidity. There is no place in my +daily programme for newspapers. I read them as I may in odd moments. +But I do read them. The idea of devoting to them thirty or forty consecutive +minutes of wonderful solitude (for nowhere can one more perfectly immerse +one's self in one's self than in a compartment full of silent, withdrawn, smoking +males) is to me repugnant. I cannot possibly allow you to scatter priceless +pearls of time with such Oriental lavishness. You are not the Shah of time. +Let me respectfully remind you that you have no more time than I have. No +newspaper reading in trains! I have already "put by" about three-quarters of +an hour for use. + +Now you reach your office. And I abandon you there till six o'clock. I am +aware that you have nominally an hour (often in reality an hour and a half) +in the midst of the day, less than half of which time is given to eating. But +I will leave you all that to spend as you choose. You may read your +newspapers then. + +I meet you again as you emerge from your office. You are pale and tired. +At any rate, your wife says you are pale, and you give her to understand +that you are tired. During the journey home you have been gradually +working up the tired feeling. The tired feeling hangs heavy over the +mighty suburbs of London like a virtuous and melancholy cloud, +particularly in winter. You don't eat immediately on your arrival home. +But in about an hour or so you feel as if you could sit up and take a little +nourishment. And you do. Then you smoke, seriously; you see friends; +you potter; you play cards; you flirt with a book; you note that old age is +creeping on; you take a stroll; you caress the piano.... By Jove! a quarter +past eleven. You then devote quite forty minutes to thinking about going +to bed; and it is conceivable that you are acquainted with a genuinely good +whisky. At last you go to bed, exhausted by the day's work. Six hours, +probably more, have gone since you left the office--gone like a dream, +gone like magic, unaccountably gone! + +That is a fair sample case. But you say: "It's all very well for you to talk. +A man *is* tired. A man must see his friends. He can't always be on the +stretch." Just so. But when you arrange to go to the theatre (especially +with a pretty woman) what happens? You rush to the suburbs; you spare +no toil to make yourself glorious in fine raiment; you rush back to town in +another train; you keep yourself on the stretch for four hours, if not five; +you take her home; you take yourself home. You don't spend three-quarters +of an hour in "thinking about" going to bed. You go. Friends and fatigue +have equally been forgotten, and the evening has seemed so exquisitely +long (or perhaps too short)! And do you remember that time when you +were persuaded to sing in the chorus of the amateur operatic society, and +slaved two hours every other night for three months? Can you deny that +when you have something definite to look forward to at eventide, something +that is to employ all your energy--the thought of that something gives a glow +and a more intense vitality to the whole day? + +What I suggest is that at six o'clock you look facts in the face and admit that +you are not tired (because you are not, you know), and that you arrange your +evening so that it is not cut in the middle by a meal. By so doing you will +have a clear expanse of at least three hours. I do not suggest that you should +employ three hours every night of your life in using up your mental energy. +But I do suggest that you might, for a commencement, employ an hour and a +half every other evening in some important and consecutive cultivation of the +mind. You will still be left with three evenings for friends, bridge, tennis, +domestic scenes, odd reading, pipes, gardening, pottering, and prize +competitions. You will still have the terrific wealth of forty-five hours +between 2 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Monday. If you persevere you will +soon want to pass four evenings, and perhaps five, in some sustained +endeavour to be genuinely alive. And you will fall out of that habit of +muttering to yourself at 11.15 p.m., "Time to be thinking about going to +bed." The man who begins to go to bed forty minutes before he opens +his bedroom door is bored; that is to say, he is not living. + + +But remember, at the start, those ninety nocturnal minutes thrice a week +must be the most important minutes in the ten thousand and eighty. They +must be sacred, quite as sacred as a dramatic rehearsal or a tennis match. +Instead of saying, "Sorry I can't see you, old chap, but I have to run off to +the tennis club," you must say, "...but I have to work." This, I admit, is +intensely difficult to say. Tennis is so much more urgent than the immortal +soul. + + + + VI + + REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE + +I have incidentally mentioned the vast expanse of forty-four hours between +leaving business at 2 p.m. on Saturday and returning to business at 10 a.m. +on Monday. And here I must touch on the point whether the week should +consist of six days or of seven. For many years--in fact, until I was approaching +forty--my own week consisted of seven days. I was constantly being informed +by older and wiser people that more work, more genuine living, could be got +out of six days than out of seven. + +And it is certainly true that now, with one day in seven in which I follow no +programme and make no effort save what the caprice of the moment dictates, +I appreciate intensely the moral value of a weekly rest. Nevertheless, had I +my life to arrange over again, I would do again as I have done. Only those +who have lived at the full stretch seven days a week for a long time can +appreciate the full beauty of a regular recurring idleness. Moreover, I am +ageing. And it is a question of age. In cases of abounding youth and +exceptional energy and desire for effort I should say unhesitatingly: Keep +going, day in, day out. + +But in the average case I should say: Confine your formal programme +(super-programme, I mean) to six days a week. If you find yourself +wishing to extend it, extend it, but only in proportion to your wish; and +count the time extra as a windfall, not as regular income, so that you can +return to a six-day programme without the sensation of being poorer, of +being a backslider. + +Let us now see where we stand. So far we have marked for saving +out of the waste of days, half an hour at least on six mornings a +week, and one hour and a half on three evenings a week. Total, +seven hours and a half a week. + + +I propose to be content with that seven hours and a half for the +present. "What?" you cry. "You pretend to show us how to live, +and you only deal with seven hours and a half out of a hundred +and sixty-eight! Are you going to perform a miracle with your +seven hours and a half?" Well, not to mince the matter, I am--if +you will kindly let me! That is to say, I am going to ask you to +attempt an experience which, while perfectly natural and explicable, +has all the air of a miracle. My contention is that the full use of those +seven-and-a-half hours will quicken the whole life of the week, add +zest to it, and increase the interest which you feel in even the most +banal occupations. You practise physical exercises for a mere ten +minutes morning and evening, and yet you are not astonished when +your physical health and strength are beneficially affected every hour +of the day, and your whole physical outlook changed. Why should +you be astonished that an average of over an hour a day given to the +mind should permanently and completely enliven the whole activity +of the mind? + +More time might assuredly be given to the cultivation of one's self. +And in proportion as the time was longer the results would be greater. +But I prefer to begin with what looks like a trifling effort. + +It is not really a trifling effort, as those will discover who have yet +to essay it. To "clear" even seven hours and a half from the jungle is +passably difficult. For some sacrifice has to be made. One may have +spent one's time badly, but one did spend it; one did do something +with it, however ill-advised that something may have been. To do +something else means a change of habits. + +And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change, even +a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and +discomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven +hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still live +your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, and an +immense deal of volition, will be necessary. And it is because I know +the difficulty, it is because I know the almost disastrous effect of failure +in such an enterprise, that I earnestly advise a very humble beginning. +You must safeguard your self-respect. Self-respect is at the root of all +purposefulness, and a failure in an enterprise deliberately planned deals +a desperate wound at one's self-respect. Hence I iterate and reiterate: +Start quietly, unostentatiously. + + +When you have conscientiously given seven hours and a half a week +to the cultivation of your vitality for three months--then you may +begin to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you are +capable of doing. + +Before coming to the method of using the indicated hours, I have one +final suggestion to make. That is, as regards the evenings, to allow +much more than an hour and a half in which to do the work of an hour +and a half. Remember the chance of accidents. Remember human nature. +And give yourself, say, from 9 to 11.30 for your task of ninety minutes. + + + + VII + + CONTROLLING THE MIND + + +People say: "One can't help one's thoughts." But one can. The control +of the thinking machine is perfectly possible. And since nothing whatever +happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing hurts us or gives us +pleasure except within the brain, the supreme importance of being able +to control what goes on in that mysterious brain is patent. This idea is +one of the oldest platitudes, but it is a platitude who's profound truth and +urgency most people live and die without realising. People complain of +the lack of power to concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the +power, if they choose. + +And without the power to concentrate--that is to say, without the power to +dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience--true life is impossible. +Mind control is the first element of a full existence. + +Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to put the +mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside and out; you +run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you employ a whole +army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig-killer, to enable you +to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour. Why not devote a little +attention to the far more delicate machinery of the mind, especially as +you will require no extraneous aid? It is for this portion of the art and +craft of living that I have reserved the time from the moment of quitting +your door to the moment of arriving at your office. + +"What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in the +train, and in the crowded street again?" Precisely. Nothing simpler! +No tools required! Not even a book. Nevertheless, the affair is not easy. + +When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no +matter what, to begin with). You will not have gone ten yards before +your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is larking round +the corner with another subject. + +Bring it back by the scruff of the neck. Ere you have reached the station +you will have brought it back about forty times. Do not despair. Continue. +Keep it up. You will succeed. You cannot by any chance fail if you +persevere. It is idle to pretend that your mind is incapable of concentration. +Do you not remember that morning when you received a disquieting letter +which demanded a very carefully-worded answer? How you kept your mind +steadily on the subject of the answer, without a second's intermission, until +you reached your office; whereupon you instantly sat down and wrote the +answer? That was a case in which *you* were roused by circumstances to +such a degree of vitality that you were able to dominate your mind like a tyrant. +You would have no trifling. You insisted that its work should be done, and its +work was done. + +By the regular practice of concentration (as to which there is no secret-- +save the secret of perseverance) you can tyrannise over your mind (which +is not the highest part of *you*) every hour of the day, and in no matter +what place. The exercise is a very convenient one. If you got into your +morning train with a pair of dumb-bells for your muscles or an encyclopaedia +in ten volumes for your learning, you would probably excite remark. But as +you walk in the street, or sit in the corner of the compartment behind a pipe, +or "strap-hang" on the Subterranean, who is to know that you are engaged in +the most important of daily acts? What asinine boor can laugh at you? + +I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. It is the +mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. But still, you may as +well kill two birds with one stone, and concentrate on something useful. I +suggest--it is only a suggestion--a little chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. + +Do not, I beg, shy at their names. For myself, I know nothing more "actual," +more bursting with plain common-sense, applicable to the daily life of plain +persons like you and me (who hate airs, pose, and nonsense) than Marcus +Aurelius or Epictetus. Read a chapter--and so short they are, the chapters! +--in the evening and concentrate on it the next morning. You will see. + +Yes, my friend, it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact. I can hear +your brain like a telephone at my ear. You are saying to yourself: "This +fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh chapter. He had begun to +interest me faintly. But what he says about thinking in trains, and concen- +tration, and so on, is not for me. It may be well enough for some folks, +but it isn't in my line." + +It is for you, I passionately repeat; it is for you. Indeed, you are the very +man I am aiming at. + +Throw away the suggestion, and you throw away the most precious +suggestion that was ever offered to you. It is not my suggestion. It is +the suggestion of the most sensible, practical, hard-headed men who +have walked the earth. I only give it you at second-hand. Try it. Get +your mind in hand. And see how the process cures half the evils of life +--especially worry, that miserable, avoidable, shameful disease--worry! + + + + VIII + + THE REFLECTIVE MOOD + + +The exercise of concentrating the mind (to which at least half an hour a +day should be given) is a mere preliminary, like scales on the piano. +Having acquired power over that most unruly member of one's complex +organism, one has naturally to put it to the yoke. Useless to possess an +obedient mind unless one profits to the furthest possible degree by its +obedience. A prolonged primary course of study is indicated. + +Now as to what this course of study should be there cannot be any question; +there never has been any question. All the sensible people of all ages are +agreed upon it. And it is not literature, nor is it any other art, nor is it +history, nor is it any science. It is the study of one's self. Man, know + thyself. These words are so hackneyed that verily I blush to write them. +Yet they must be written, for they need to be written. (I take back my +blush, being ashamed of it.) Man, know thyself. I say it out loud. The +phrase is one of those phrases with which everyone is familiar, of which +everyone acknowledges the value, and which only the most sagacious put +into practice. I don't know why. I am entirely convinced that what is more +than anything else lacking in the life of the average well-intentioned man +of to-day is the reflective mood. + +We do not reflect. I mean that we do not reflect upon genuinely important +things; upon the problem of our happiness, upon the main direction in which +we are going, upon what life is giving to us, upon the share which reason has +(or has not) in determining our actions, and upon the relation between our +principles and our conduct. + +And yet you are in search of happiness, are you not? Have you discovered it? + +The chances are that you have not. The chances are that you have already +come to believe that happiness is unattainable. But men have attained it. +And they have attained it by realising that happiness does not spring from +the procuring of physical or mental pleasure, but from the development of +reason and the adjustment of conduct to principles. + +I suppose that you will not have the audacity to deny this. And if you admit +it, and still devote no part of your day to the deliberate consideration of your +reason, principles, and conduct, you admit also that while striving for a +certain thing you are regularly leaving undone the one act which is necessary +to the attainment of that thing. + +Now, shall I blush, or will you? + +Do not fear that I mean to thrust certain principles upon your attention. I care +not (in this place) what your principles are. Your principles may induce you to +believe in the righteousness of burglary. I don't mind. All I urge is that a life +in which conduct does not fairly well accord with principles is a silly life; and +that conduct can only be made to accord with principles by means of daily +examination, reflection, and resolution. What leads to the permanent sorrow- +fulness of burglars is that their principles are contrary to burglary. If they +genuinely believed in the moral excellence of burglary, penal servitude would +simply mean so many happy years for them; all martyrs are happy years for +them; all martyrs are happy, because their conduct and their principles agree. + + +As for reason (which makes conduct, and is not unconnected with the making +of principles), it plays a far smaller part in our lives than we fancy. We are +supposed to be reasonable but we are much more instinctive than reasonable. +And the less we reflect, the less reasonable we shall be. The next time you +get cross with the waiter because your steak is over-cooked, ask reason to +step into the cabinet-room of your mind, and consult her. She will probably +tell you that the waiter did not cook the steak, and had no control over the +cooking of the steak; and that even if he alone was to blame, you accomplished +nothing good by getting cross; you merely lost your dignity, looked a fool in +the eyes of sensible men, and soured the waiter, while producing no effect +whatever on the steak. + +The result of this consultation with reason (for which she makes no charge) +will be that when once more your steak is over-cooked you will treat the +waiter as a fellow-creature, remain quite calm in a kindly spirit, and politely +insist on having a fresh steak. The gain will be obvious and solid. + +In the formation or modification of principles, and the practice of conduct, +much help can be derived from printed books (issued at sixpence each and +upwards). I mentioned in my last chapter Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. +Certain even more widely known works will occur at once to the memory. +I may also mention Pascal, La Bruyere, and Emerson. For myself, you do +not catch me travelling without my Marcus Aurelius. Yes, books are +valuable. But not reading of books will take the place of a daily, candid, +honest examination of what one has recently done, and what one is about +to do--of a steady looking at one's self in the face (disconcerting though +the sight may be). + +When shall this important business be accomplished? The solitude of the +evening journey home appears to me to be suitable for it. A reflective +mood naturally follows the exertion of having earned the day's living. +Of course if, instead of attending to an elementary and profoundly important +duty, you prefer to read the paper (which you might just as well read while +waiting for your dinner) I have nothing to say. But attend to it at some time +of the day you must. I now come to the evening hours. + + + + IX + + INTEREST IN THE ARTS + +Many people pursue a regular and uninterrupted course of idleness in +the evenings because they think that there is no alternative to idleness +but the study of literature; and they do not happen to have a taste for +literature. This is a great mistake. + +Of course it is impossible, or at any rate very difficult, properly to study +anything whatever without the aid of printed books. But if you desire to +understand the deeper depths of bridge or of boat-sailing you would not +be deterred by your lack of interest in literature from reading the best +books on bridge or boat-sailing. We must, therefore, distinguish between +literature, and books treating of subjects not literary. I shall come to +literature in due course. + +Let me now remark to those who have never read Meredith, and who are +capable of being unmoved by a discussion as to whether Mr. Stephen +Phillips is or is not a true poet, that they are perfectly within their rights. +It is not a crime not to love literature. It is not a sign of imbecility. The +mandarins of literature will order out to instant execution the unfortunate +individual who does not comprehend, say, the influence of Wordsworth on +Tennyson. But that is only their impudence. Where would they be, I wonder, +if requested to explain the influences that went to make Tschaikowsky's +"Pathetic Symphony"? + + +There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature which +will yield magnificent results to cultivators. For example (since I have +just mentioned the most popular piece of high-class music in England +to-day), I am reminded that the Promenade Concerts begin in August. +You go to them. You smoke your cigar or cigarette (and I regret to say +that you strike your matches during the soft bars of the "Lohengrin" +overture), and you enjoy the music. But you say you cannot play the +piano or the fiddle, or even the banjo; that you know nothing of music. + +What does that matter? That you have a genuine taste for music is +proved by the fact that, in order to fill his hall with you and your peers, +the conductor is obliged to provide programmes from which bad music +is almost entirely excluded (a change from the old Covent Garden days!). + +Now surely your inability to perform "The Maiden's Prayer" on a piano +need not prevent you from making yourself familiar with the construction +of the orchestra to which you listen a couple of nights a week during a +couple of months! As things are, you probably think of the orchestra as a +heterogeneous mass of instruments producing a confused agreeable mass +of sound. You do not listen for details because you have never trained +your ears to listen to details. + +If you were asked to name the instruments which play the great theme at +the beginning of the C minor symphony you could not name them for your +life's sake. Yet you admire the C minor symphony. It has thrilled you. It +will thrill you again. You have even talked about it, in an expansive mood, +to that lady--you know whom I mean. And all you can positively state +about the C minor symphony is that Beethoven composed it and that it is +a "jolly fine thing." + +Now, if you have read, say, Mr. Krehbiel's "How to Listen to Music" (which +can be got at any bookseller's for less than the price of a stall at the Alhambra, +and which contains photographs of all the orchestral instruments and plans of +the arrangement of orchestras) you would next go to a promenade concert with +an astonishing intensification of interest in it. Instead of a confused mass, the +orchestra would appear to you as what it is--a marvellously balanced organism +whose various groups of members each have a different and an indispensable +function. You would spy out the instruments, and listen for their respective +sounds. You would know the gulf that separates a French horn from an English +horn, and you would perceive why a player of the hautboy gets higher wages +than a fiddler, though the fiddle is the more difficult instrument. You would +*live* at a promenade concert, whereas previously you had merely existed +there in a state of beatific coma, like a baby gazing at a bright object. + +The foundations of a genuine, systematic knowledge of music might be laid. +You might specialise your inquiries either on a particular form of music (such +as the symphony), or on the works of a particular composer. At the end of a +year of forty-eight weeks of three brief evenings each, combined with a study +of programmes and attendances at concerts chosen out of your increasing +knowledge, you would really know something about music, even though you +were as far off as ever from jangling "The Maiden's Prayer" on the piano. + +"But I hate music!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you. + +What applies to music applies to the other arts. I might mention Mr. Clermont +Witt's "How to Look at Pictures," or Mr. Russell Sturgis's "How to Judge +Architecture," as beginnings (merely beginnings) of systematic vitalising +knowledge in other arts, the materials for whose study abound in London. + +"I hate all the arts!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you more and more. + +I will deal with your case next, before coming to literature. + + + + X + + NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM + +Art is a great thing. But it is not the greatest. The most important of all +perceptions is the continual perception of cause and effect-in other words, +the perception of the continuous development of the universe-in still other +words, the perception of the course of evolution. When one has thoroughly +got imbued into one's head the leading truth that nothing happens without a +cause, one grows not only large-minded, but large-hearted. + +It is hard to have one's watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief of the +watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment which are +as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and one buys +another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy that makes +bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and effect, that +absurd air which so many people have of being always shocked and pained +by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid human nature as if human +nature were a foreign country full of awful foreign customs. But, having +reached maturity, one ought surely to be ashamed of being a stranger in a +strange land! + +The study of cause and effect, while it lessens the painfulness of life, adds +to life's picturesqueness. The man to whom evolution is but a name looks +at the sea as a grandiose, monotonous spectacle, which he can witness in +August for three shillings third-class return. The man who is imbued with +the idea of development, of continuous cause and effect, perceives in the +sea an element which in the day-before-yesterday of geology was vapour, +which yesterday was boiling, and which to-morrow will inevitably be ice. + +He perceives that a liquid is merely something on its way to be solid, and +he is penetrated by a sense of the tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of +life. Nothing will afford a more durable satisfaction than the constantly +cultivated appreciation of this. It is the end of all science. + +Cause and effect are to be found everywhere. Rents went up in Shepherd's +Bush. It was painful and shocking that rents should go up in Shepherd's +Bush. But to a certain point we are all scientific students of cause and effect, +and there was not a clerk lunching at a Lyons Restaurant who did not scienti- +fically put two and two together and see in the (once) Two-penny Tube the +cause of an excessive demand for wigwams in Shepherd's Bush, and in the +excessive demand for wigwams the cause of the increase in the price of +wigwams. + +"Simple!" you say, disdainfully. Everything-the whole complex movement +of the universe-is as simple as that-when you can sufficiently put two and +two together. And, my dear sir, perhaps you happen to be an estate agent's +clerk, and you hate the arts, and you want to foster your immortal soul, and +you can't be interested in your business because it's so humdrum. + +Nothing is humdrum. + +The tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life is marvellously shown +in an estate agent's office. What! There was a block of traffic in Oxford +Street; to avoid the block people actually began to travel under the cellars +and drains, and the result was a rise of rents in Shepherd's Bush! And you +say that isn't picturesque! Suppose you were to study, in this spirit, the +property question in London for an hour and a half every other evening. +Would it not give zest to your business, and transform your whole life? + +You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able to +tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the longest straight +street in London is about a yard and a half in length, while the longest +absolutely straight street in Paris extends for miles. I think you will +admit that in an estate agent's clerk I have not chosen an example that +specially favours my theories. + +You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance +(disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's "Lombard Street"? +Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed it up for ninety +minutes every other evening, how enthralling your business would be to +you, and how much more clearly you would understand human nature. + +You are "penned in town," but you love excursions to the country and +the observation of wild life-certainly a heart-enlarging diversion. Why +don't you walk out of your house door, in your slippers, to the nearest +gas lamp of a night with a butterfly net, and observe the wild life of +common and rare moths that is beating about it, and co-ordinate the +knowledge thus obtained and build a superstructure on it, and at last +get to know something about something? + +You need not be devoted to the arts, not to literature, in order to live fully. + +The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that curiosity +which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an understanding heart. + +I promised to deal with your case, O man who hates art and literature, and +I have dealt with it. I now come to the case of the person, happily very +common, who does "like reading." + + + + XI + + SERIOUS READING + + +Novels are excluded from "serious reading," so that the man who, bent on +self-improvement, has been deciding to devote ninety minutes three times +a week to a complete study of the works of Charles Dickens will be well +advised to alter his plans. The reason is not that novels are not serious-- +some of the great literature of the world is in the form of prose fiction-- +the reason is that bad novels ought not to be read, and that good novels +never demand any appreciable mental application on the part of the reader. +It is only the bad parts of Meredith's novels that are difficult. A good novel +rushes you forward like a skiff down a stream, and you arrive at the end, +perhaps breathless, but unexhausted. The best novels involve the least +strain. Now in the cultivation of the mind one of the most important factors +is precisely the feeling of strain, of difficulty, of a task which one part of you +is anxious to achieve and another part of you is anxious to shirk; and that f +eeling cannot be got in facing a novel. You do not set your teeth in order to +read "Anna Karenina." Therefore, though you should read novels, you should +not read them in those ninety minutes. + +Imaginative poetry produces a far greater mental strain than novels. It +produces probably the severest strain of any form of literature. It is the +highest form of literature. It yields the highest form of pleasure, and +teaches the highest form of wisdom. In a word, there is nothing to +compare with it. I say this with sad consciousness of the fact that the +majority of people do not read poetry. + +I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted +with the alternatives of reading "Paradise Lost" and going round +Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would +choose the ordeal of public ridicule. Still, I will never cease advising +my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything. + +If poetry is what is called "a sealed book" to you, begin by reading +Hazlitt's famous essay on the nature of "poetry in general." It is the +best thing of its kind in English, and no one who has read it can possibly +be under the misapprehension that poetry is a mediaeval torture, or a +mad elephant, or a gun that will go off by itself and kill at forty paces. +Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the mental state of the man who, after +reading Hazlitt's essay, is not urgently desirous of reading some poetry +before his next meal. If the essay so inspires you I would suggest that +you make a commencement with purely narrative poetry. + +There is an infinitely finer English novel, written by a woman, than +anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which +perhaps you have not read. Its title is "Aurora Leigh," and its author +E.B. Browning. It happens to be written in verse, and to contain a +considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to read that +book through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is fine poetry. +Read it simply for the story and the social ideas. And when you +have done, ask yourself honestly whether you still dislike poetry. +I have known more than one person to whom "Aurora Leigh" has +been the means of proving that in assuming they hated poetry they +were entirely mistaken. + +Of course, if, after Hazlitt, and such an experiment made in the light +of Hazlitt, you are finally assured that there is something in you which +is antagonistic to poetry, you must be content with history or philosophy. +I shall regret it, yet not inconsolably. "The Decline and Fall" is not to be +named in the same day with "Paradise Lost," but it is a vastly pretty thing; +and Herbert Spencer's "First Principles" simply laughs at the claims of +poetry and refuses to be accepted as aught but the most majestic product +of any human mind. I do not suggest that either of these works is suitable +for a tyro in mental strains. But I see no reason why any man of average +intelligence should not, after a year of continuous reading, be fit to assault +the supreme masterpieces of history or philosophy. The great convenience +of masterpieces is that they are so astonishingly lucid. + +I suggest no particular work as a start. The attempt would be futile in the +space of my command. But I have two general suggestions of a certain +importance. The first is to define the direction and scope of your efforts. +Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a single author. Say to +yourself: "I will know something about the French Revolution, or the +rise of railways, or the works of John Keats." And during a given period, +to be settled beforehand, confine yourself to your choice. There is much +pleasure to be derived from being a specialist. + +The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people who +read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as well +cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to drink. +They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their sole object +being motion. They will tell you how many books they have read in a year. + +Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing reflection +(it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, your ninety minutes +of a night are chiefly wasted. This means that your pace will be slow. + +Never mind. + +Forget the goal; think only of the surrounding country; and after a period, +perhaps when you least expect it, you will suddenly find yourself in a lovely +town on a hill. + + + + XII + + DANGERS TO AVOID + + +I cannot terminate these hints, often, I fear, too didactic and abrupt, upon +the full use of one's time to the great end of living (as distinguished from +vegetating) without briefly referring to certain dangers which lie in wait +for the sincere aspirant towards life. The first is the terrible danger of +becoming that most odious and least supportable of persons--a prig. +Now a prig is a pert fellow who gives himself airs of superior wisdom. +A prig is a pompous fool who has gone out for a ceremonial walk, and +without knowing it has lost an important part of his attire, namely, his +sense of humour. A prig is a tedious individual who, having made a +discovery, is so impressed by his discovery that he is capable of being +gravely displeased because the entire world is not also impressed by it. +Unconsciously to become a prig is an easy and a fatal thing. + +Hence, when one sets forth on the enterprise of using all one's time, it is +just as well to remember that one's own time, and not other people's time, +is the material with which one has to deal; that the earth rolled on pretty +comfortably before one began to balance a budget of the hours, and that it +will continue to roll on pretty comfortably whether or not one succeeds in +one's new role of chancellor of the exchequer of time. It is as well not to +chatter too much about what one is doing, and not to betray a too-pained +sadness at the spectacle of a whole world deliberately wasting so many +hours out of every day, and therefore never really living. It will be found, +ultimately, that in taking care of one's self one has quite all one can do. + +Another danger is the danger of being tied to a programme like a slave to +a chariot. One's programme must not be allowed to run away with one. +It must be respected, but it must not be worshipped as a fetish. A programme +of daily employ is not a religion. + +This seems obvious. Yet I know men whose lives are a burden to themselves + and a distressing burden to their relatives and friends simply because they +have failed to appreciate the obvious. "Oh, no," I have heard the martyred +wife exclaim, "Arthur always takes the dog out for exercise at eight o'clock +and he always begins to read at a quarter to nine. So it's quite out of the +question that we should. . ." etc., etc. And the note of absolute finality in +that plaintive voice reveals the unsuspected and ridiculous tragedy of a career. + +On the other hand, a programme is a programme. And unless it is treated +with deference it ceases to be anything but a poor joke. To treat one's +programme with exactly the right amount of deference, to live with not +too much and not too little elasticity, is scarcely the simple affair it may +appear to the inexperienced. + +And still another danger is the danger of developing a policy of rush, of +being gradually more and more obsessed by what one has to do next. In +this way one may come to exist as in a prison, and ones life may cease to +be one's own. One may take the dog out for a walk at eight o'clock, and +meditate the whole time on the fact that one must begin to read at a quarter +to nine, and that one must not be late. + +And the occasional deliberate breaking of one's programme will not help +to mend matters. The evil springs not from persisting without elasticity +in what one has attempted, but from originally attempting too much, from +filling one's programme till it runs over. The only cure is to reconstitute +the programme, and to attempt less. + +But the appetite for knowledge grows by what it feeds on, and there are +men who come to like a constant breathless hurry of endeavour. Of them +it may be said that a constant breathless hurry is better than an eternal doze. + +In any case, if the programme exhibits a tendency to be oppressive, and +yet one wishes not to modify it, an excellent palliative is to pass with +exaggerated deliberation from one portion of it to another; for example, +to spend five minutes in perfect mental quiescence between chaining up +the St. Bernard and opening the book; in other words, to waste five +minutes with the entire consciousness of wasting them. + +The last, and chiefest danger which I would indicate, is one to which I +have already referred--the risk of a failure at the commencement of the +enterprise. + +I must insist on it. + +A failure at the commencement may easily kill outright the newborn +impulse towards a complete vitality, and therefore every precaution +should be observed to avoid it. The impulse must not be over-taxed. +Let the pace of the first lap be even absurdly slow, but let it be as +regular as possible. + +And, having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs +of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished +a tiresome labour is immense. + +Finally, in choosing the first occupations of those evening hours, be guided +by nothing whatever but your taste and natural inclination. + +It is a fine thing to be a walking encyclopaedia of philosophy, but if you +happen to have no liking for philosophy, and to have a like for the natural +history of street-cries, much better leave philosophy alone, and take to +street-cries. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Bennett + diff --git a/old/24hrs10.zip b/old/24hrs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f55cfe6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/24hrs10.zip diff --git a/old/24hrs11.txt b/old/24hrs11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..695acf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/24hrs11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1771 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day + +Author: Arnold Bennett + +Release Date: August, 2000 [EBook #2274] +[Most recently updated: April 22, 2005] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Tony Adam (anthony-adam@tamu.edu) + + + + + +How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day + +by Arnold Bennett + + + + +PREFACE TO THIS EDITION + +This preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be, +should be read at the end of the book. + +I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this +small work, and many reviews of it--some of them nearly as long +as the book itself--have been printed. But scarcely any of the +comment has been adverse. Some people have objected to a +frivolity of tone; but as the tone is not, in my opinion, at all +frivolous, this objection did not impress me; and had no weightier +reproach been put forward I might almost have been persuaded that +the volume was flawless! A more serious stricture has, however, +been offered--not in the press, but by sundry obviously sincere +correspondents--and I must deal with it. A reference to page 43 +will show that I anticipated and feared this disapprobation. The +sentence against which protests have been made is as follows:-- +"In the majority of instances he [the typical man] does not +precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not +dislike it. He begins his business functions with some reluctance, +as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. +And his engines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at +their full 'h.p.'" + +I am assured, in accents of unmistakable sincerity, that there are +many business men--not merely those in high positions or with fine +prospects, but modest subordinates with no hope of ever being +much better off--who do enjoy their business functions, who do not +shirk them, who do not arrive at the office as late as possible and +depart as early as possible, who, in a word, put the whole of their +force into their day's work and are genuinely fatigued at the end +thereof. + +I am ready to believe it. I do believe it. I know it. I always +knew it. Both in London and in the provinces it has been my lot to +spend long years in subordinate situations of business; and the fact +did not escape me that a certain proportion of my peers showed what +amounted to an honest passion for their duties, and that while +engaged in those duties they were really *living* to the fullest +extent of which they were capable. But I remain convinced that +these fortunate and happy individuals (happier perhaps than they +guessed) did not and do not constitute a majority, or anything like +a majority. I remain convinced that the majority of decent average +conscientious men of business (men with aspirations and ideals) do +not as a rule go home of a night genuinely tired. I remain +convinced that they put not as much but as little of themselves as +they conscientiously can into the earning of a livelihood, and that +their vocation bores rather than interests them. + +Nevertheless, I admit that the minority is of sufficient importance +to merit attention, and that I ought not to have ignored it so +completely as I did do. The whole difficulty of the hard-working +minority was put in a single colloquial sentence by one of my +correspondents. He wrote: "I am just as keen as anyone on doing +something to 'exceed my programme,' but allow me to tell you that +when I get home at six thirty p.m. I am not anything like so fresh +as you seem to imagine." + +Now I must point out that the case of the minority, who throw +themselves with passion and gusto into their daily business task, is +infinitely less deplorable than the case of the majority, who go +half-heartedly and feebly through their official day. The former +are less in need of advice "how to live." At any rate during their +official day of, say, eight hours they are really alive; their +engines are giving the full indicated "h.p." The other eight +working hours of their day may be badly organised, or even frittered +away; but it is less disastrous to waste eight hours a day than +sixteen hours a day; it is better to have lived a bit than never to +have lived at all. The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who is +braced to effort neither in the office nor out of it, and to this +man this book is primarily addressed. "But," says the other and +more fortunate man, "although my ordinary programme is bigger than +his, I want to exceed my programme too! I am living a bit; I want +to live more. But I really can't do another day's work on the top of +my official day." + +The fact is, I, the author, ought to have foreseen that I should +appeal most strongly to those who already had an interest in +existence. It is always the man who has tasted life who demands +more of it. And it is always the man who never gets out of bed +who is the most difficult to rouse. + +Well, you of the minority, let us assume that the intensity of your +daily money-getting will not allow you to carry out quite all the +suggestions in the following pages. Some of the suggestions may +yet stand. I admit that you may not be able to use the time spent +on the journey home at night; but the suggestion for the journey to +the office in the morning is as practicable for you as for anybody. +And that weekly interval of forty hours, from Saturday to Monday, is +yours just as much as the other man's, though a slight accumulation +of fatigue may prevent you from employing the whole of your "h.p." +upon it. There remains, then, the important portion of the three or +more evenings a week. You tell me flatly that you are too tired to +do anything outside your programme at night. In reply to which I +tell you flatly that if your ordinary day's work is thus exhausting, +then the balance of your life is wrong and must be adjusted. A +man's powers ought not to be monopolised by his ordinary day's work. +What, then, is to be done? + +The obvious thing to do is to circumvent your ardour for your +ordinary day's work by a ruse. Employ your engines in something +beyond the programme before, and not after, you employ them on the +programme itself. Briefly, get up earlier in the morning. You say +you cannot. You say it is impossible for you to go earlier to bed +of a night--to do so would upset the entire household. I do not +think it is quite impossible to go to bed earlier at night. I think +that if you persist in rising earlier, and the consequence is +insufficiency of sleep, you will soon find a way of going to bed +earlier. But my impression is that the consequences of rising +earlier will not be an insufficiency of sleep. My impression, +growing stronger every year, is that sleep is partly a matter of +habit--and of slackness. I am convinced that most people sleep as +long as they do because they are at a loss for any other diversion. +How much sleep do you think is daily obtained by the powerful +healthy man who daily rattles up your street in charge of Carter +Patterson's van? I have consulted a doctor on this point. He is a +doctor who for twenty-four years has had a large general practice in +a large flourishing suburb of London, inhabited by exactly such +people as you and me. He is a curt man, and his answer was curt: + +"Most people sleep themselves stupid." + +He went on to give his opinion that nine men out of ten would have +better health and more fun out of life if they spent less time in +bed. + +Other doctors have confirmed this judgment, which, of course, does +not apply to growing youths. + +Rise an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours earlier; and--if +you must--retire earlier when you can. In the matter of exceeding +programmes, you will accomplish as much in one morning hour as +in two evening hours. "But," you say, "I couldn't begin without +some food, and servants." Surely, my dear sir, in an age when an +excellent spirit-lamp (including a saucepan) can be bought for less +than a shilling, you are not going to allow your highest welfare to +depend upon the precarious immediate co-operation of a fellow +creature! Instruct the fellow creature, whoever she may be, at +night. Tell her to put a tray in a suitable position over night. +On that tray two biscuits, a cup and saucer, a box of matches and a +spirit-lamp; on the lamp, the saucepan; on the saucepan, the lid-- +but turned the wrong way up; on the reversed lid, the small teapot, +containing a minute quantity of tea leaves. You will then have to +strike a match--that is all. In three minutes the water boils, and +you pour it into the teapot (which is already warm). In three more +minutes the tea is infused. You can begin your day while drinking +it. These details may seem trivial to the foolish, but to the +thoughtful they will not seem trivial. The proper, wise balancing +of one's whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea +at an unusual hour. + +A. B. + + + CONTENTS + +PREFACE, V + + I THE DAILY MIRACLE, 21 + II THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME, 28 + III PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING, 35 + IV THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE, 42 + V TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL, 49 + VI REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE, 56 + VII CONTROLLING THE MIND, 62 + VIII THE REFLECTIVE MOOD, 69 + IX INTEREST IN THE ARTS, 76 + X NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM, 83 + XI SERIOUS READING, 90 + XII DANGERS TO AVOID, 97 + + + + + +I + +THE DAILY MIRACLE + +"Yes, he's one of those men that don't know how to manage. +Good situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries +as well as needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellow's +always in difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his +money. Excellent flat--half empty! Always looks as if he'd had +the brokers in. New suit--old hat! Magnificent necktie--baggy +trousers! Asks you to dinner: cut glass--bad mutton, or Turkish +coffee--cracked cup! He can't understand it. Explanation simply +is that he fritters his income away. Wish I had the half of it! +I'd show him--" + +So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our +superior way. + +We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer: it is the pride of +the moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live +on such-and-such a sum, and these articles provoke a correspondence +whose violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a +daily organ, a battle raged round the question whether a woman can +exist nicely in the country on L85 a year. I have seen an essay, +"How to live on eight shillings a week." But I have never seen an +essay, "How to live on twenty-four hours a day." Yet it has been +said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time +is a great deal more than money. If you have time you can obtain +money--usually. But though you have the wealth of a cloak-room +attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute +more time than I have, or the cat by the fire has. + + +Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. +It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is +possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily +miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You +wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with +twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of +your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A +highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular +as the commodity itself! + +For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And +no one receives either more or less than you receive. + +Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no +aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is +never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no +punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you +will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious +power will say:--"This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not +deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain +than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. +Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into +debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste +to-morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it +is kept for you. + +I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not? + +You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it +you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the +evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective +use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling +actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness--the elusive prize +that you are all clutching for, my friends!--depends on that. +Strange that the newspapers, so enterprising and up-to-date as they +are, are not full of "How to live on a given income of time," +instead of "How to live on a given income of money"! Money is far +commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is +just about the commonest thing there is. It encumbers the earth in +gross heaps. + +If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one +earns a little more--or steals it, or advertises for it. One +doesn't necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage +on a thousand pounds a year; one braces the muscles and makes it +guineas, and balances the budget. But if one cannot arrange that an +income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper +items of expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely. The +supply of time, though gloriously regular, is cruelly restricted. + + +Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say +"lives," I do not mean exists, nor "muddles through." Which of us +is free from that uneasy feeling that the "great spending +departments" of his daily life are not managed as they ought to be? +Which of us is quite sure that his fine suit is not surmounted by a +shameful hat, or that in attending to the crockery he has forgotten +the quality of the food? Which of us is not saying to himself-- +which of us has not been saying to himself all his life: "I shall +alter that when I have a little more time"? + +We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, +all the time there is. It is the realisation of this profound and +neglected truth (which, by the way, I have not discovered) that has +led me to the minute practical examination of daily time- +expenditure. + + + +II + +THE DESIRE TO EXCEED ONE'S PROGRAMME + + +"But," someone may remark, with the English disregard of everything +except the point, "what is he driving at with his twenty-four hours +a day? I have no difficulty in living on twenty-four hours a day. I +do all that I want to do, and still find time to go in for newspaper +competitions. Surely it is a simple affair, knowing that one has +only twenty-four hours a day, to content one's self with twenty-four +hours a day!" + +To you, my dear sir, I present my excuses and apologies. You are +precisely the man that I have been wishing to meet for about forty +years. Will you kindly send me your name and address, and state +your charge for telling me how you do it? Instead of me talking to +you, you ought to be talking to me. Please come forward. That you +exist, I am convinced, and that I have not yet encountered you is my +loss. Meanwhile, until you appear, I will continue to chat with my +companions in distress--that innumerable band of souls who are +haunted, more or less painfully, by the feeling that the years slip +by, and slip by, and slip by, and that they have not yet been able +to get their lives into proper working order. + +If we analyse that feeling, we shall perceive it to be, primarily, +one of uneasiness, of expectation, of looking forward, of +aspiration. It is a source of constant discomfort, for it behaves +like a skeleton at the feast of all our enjoyments. We go to the +theatre and laugh; but between the acts it raises a skinny finger at +us. We rush violently for the last train, and while we are cooling +a long age on the platform waiting for the last train, it promenades +its bones up and down by our side and inquires: "O man, what hast +thou done with thy youth? What art thou doing with thine age?" You +may urge that this feeling of continuous looking forward, of +aspiration, is part of life itself, and inseparable from life +itself. True! + +But there are degrees. A man may desire to go to Mecca. His +conscience tells him that he ought to go to Mecca. He fares forth, +either by the aid of Cook's, or unassisted; he may probably never +reach Mecca; he may drown before he gets to Port Said; he may perish +ingloriously on the coast of the Red Sea; his desire may remain +eternally frustrate. Unfulfilled aspiration may always trouble him. +But he will not be tormented in the same way as the man who, +desiring to reach Mecca, and harried by the desire to reach Mecca, +never leaves Brixton. + +It is something to have left Brixton. Most of us have not left +Brixton. We have not even taken a cab to Ludgate Circus and +inquired from Cook's the price of a conducted tour. And our excuse +to ourselves is that there are only twenty-four hours in the day. + +If we further analyse our vague, uneasy aspiration, we shall, I +think, see that it springs from a fixed idea that we ought to do +something in addition to those things which we are loyally and +morally obliged to do. We are obliged, by various codes written and +unwritten, to maintain ourselves and our families (if any) in health +and comfort, to pay our debts, to save, to increase our prosperity +by increasing our efficiency. A task sufficiently difficult! A +task which very few of us achieve! A task often beyond our skill! +Yet, if we succeed in it, as we sometimes do, we are not satisfied; +the skeleton is still with us. + +And even when we realise that the task is beyond our skill, that +our powers cannot cope with it, we feel that we should be less +discontented if we gave to our powers, already overtaxed, something +still further to do. + +And such is, indeed, the fact. The wish to accomplish something +outside their formal programme is common to all men who in the +course of evolution have risen past a certain level. + +Until an effort is made to satisfy that wish, the sense of uneasy +waiting for something to start which has not started will remain to +disturb the peace of the soul. That wish has been called by many +names. It is one form of the universal desire for knowledge. And +it is so strong that men whose whole lives have been given to the +systematic acquirement of knowledge have been driven by it to +overstep the limits of their programme in search of still more +knowledge. Even Herbert Spencer, in my opinion the greatest mind +that ever lived, was often forced by it into agreeable little +backwaters of inquiry. + +I imagine that in the majority of people who are conscious of the +wish to live--that is to say, people who have intellectual +curiosity--the aspiration to exceed formal programmes takes a +literary shape. They would like to embark on a course of reading. +Decidedly the British people are becoming more and more literary. +But I would point out that literature by no means comprises the +whole field of knowledge, and that the disturbing thirst to improve +one's self--to increase one's knowledge--may well be slaked quite +apart from literature. With the various ways of slaking I shall +deal later. Here I merely point out to those who have no natural +sympathy with literature that literature is not the only well. + + + +III + +PRECAUTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING + +Now that I have succeeded (if succeeded I have) in persuading you to +admit to yourself that you are constantly haunted by a suppressed +dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life; and +that the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the +feeling that you are every day leaving undone something which you +would like to do, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do +when you have "more time"; and now that I have drawn your attention +to the glaring, dazzling truth that you never will have "more time," +since you already have all the time there is--you expect me to let +you into some wonderful secret by which you may at any rate approach +the ideal of a perfect arrangement of the day, and by which, +therefore, that haunting, unpleasant, daily disappointment of things +left undone will be got rid of! + +I have found no such wonderful secret. Nor do I expect to find it, +nor do I expect that anyone else will ever find it. It is +undiscovered. When you first began to gather my drift, perhaps +there was a resurrection of hope in your breast. Perhaps you said +to yourself, "This man will show me an easy, unfatiguing way of +doing what I have so long in vain wished to do." Alas, no! The +fact is that there is no easy way, no royal road. The path to Mecca +is extremely hard and stony, and the worst of it is that you never +quite get there after all. + +The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one's life +so that one may live fully and comfortably within one's daily budget +of twenty-four hours is the calm realisation of the extreme +difficulty of the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort +which it demands. I cannot too strongly insist on this. + +If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by +ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of +paper, you had better give up hope at once. If you are not prepared +for discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content +with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down +again and resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence. + +It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and sombre? And yet I +think it is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing +of the will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like +it myself. I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me +from the cat by the fire. + +"Well," you say, "assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume +that I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous +remarks; how do I begin?" Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no +magic method of beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a +swimming-bath and wanting to jump into the cold water should ask +you, "How do I begin to jump?" you would merely reply, "Just jump. +Take hold of your nerves, and jump." + +As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant +supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next +year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as +perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a +single moment in all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and +reassuring. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. +Therefore no object is served in waiting till next week, or even +until to-morrow. You may fancy that the water will be warmer next +week. It won't. It will be colder. + +But before you begin, let me murmur a few words of warning in your +private ear. + +Let me principally warn you against your own ardour. Ardour in +well-doing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out +loudly for employment; you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more +and more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the course of +rivers. It isn't content till it perspires. And then, too often, +when it feels the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all of a +sudden and dies, without even putting itself to the trouble of +saying, "I've had enough of this." + +Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite +a little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially +your own. + +A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a +loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence. But just as nothing +succeeds like success, so nothing fails like failure. Most people +who are ruined are ruined by attempting too much. Therefore, in +setting out on the immense enterprise of living fully and +comfortably within the narrow limits of twenty-four hours a day, let +us avoid at any cost the risk of an early failure. I will not agree +that, in this business at any rate, a glorious failure is better +than a petty success. I am all for the petty success. A glorious +failure leads to nothing; a petty success may lead to a success that +is not petty. + +So let us begin to examine the budget of the day's time. You say +your day is already full to overflowing. How? You actually spend +in earning your livelihood--how much? Seven hours, on the average? +And in actual sleep, seven? I will add two hours, and be generous. +And I will defy you to account to me on the spur of the moment for +the other eight hours. + + + +IV + +THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLES + +In order to come to grips at once with the question of time- +expenditure in all its actuality, I must choose an individual case +for examination. I can only deal with one case, and that case +cannot be the average case, because there is no such case as the +average case, just as there is no such man as the average man. +Every man and every man's case is special. + +But if I take the case of a Londoner who works in an office, whose +office hours are from ten to six, and who spends fifty minutes +morning and night in travelling between his house door and his +office door, I shall have got as near to the average as facts +permit. There are men who have to work longer for a living, but +there are others who do not have to work so long. + +Fortunately the financial side of existence does not interest us +here; for our present purpose the clerk at a pound a week is exactly +as well off as the millionaire in Carlton House-terrace. + +Now the great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in +regard to his day is a mistake of general attitude, a mistake which +vitiates and weakens two-thirds of his energies and interests. In +the majority of instances he does not precisely feel a passion for +his business; at best he does not dislike it. He begins his +business functions with reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends +them with joy, as early as he can. And his engines while he is +engaged in his business are seldom at their full "h.p." (I know +that I shall be accused by angry readers of traducing the city +worker; but I am pretty thoroughly acquainted with the City, and I +stick to what I say.) + +Yet in spite of all this he persists in looking upon those hours +from ten to six as "the day," to which the ten hours preceding them +and the six hours following them are nothing but a prologue and +epilogue. Such an attitude, unconscious though it be, of course +kills his interest in the odd sixteen hours, with the result that, +even if he does not waste them, he does not count them; he regards +them simply as margin. + +This general attitude is utterly illogical and unhealthy, since it +formally gives the central prominence to a patch of time and a bunch +of activities which the man's one idea is to "get through" and have +"done with." If a man makes two-thirds of his existence subservient +to one-third, for which admittedly he has no absolutely feverish +zest, how can he hope to live fully and completely? He cannot. + +If my typical man wishes to live fully and completely he must, in +his mind, arrange a day within a day. And this inner day, a Chinese +box in a larger Chinese box, must begin at 6 p.m. and end at 10 a.m. +It is a day of sixteen hours; and during all these sixteen hours he +has nothing whatever to do but cultivate his body and his soul and +his fellow men. During those sixteen hours he is free; he is not a +wage-earner; he is not preoccupied with monetary cares; he is just +as good as a man with a private income. This must be his attitude. +And his attitude is all important. His success in life (much more +important than the amount of estate upon what his executors will +have to pay estate duty) depends on it. + +What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours will +lessen the value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, +it will assuredly increase the value of the business eight. One of +the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the +mental faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do +not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change--not rest, +except in sleep. + +I shall now examine the typical man's current method of employing +the sixteen hours that are entirely his, beginning with his +uprising. I will merely indicate things which he does and which I +think he ought not to do, postponing my suggestions for "planting" +the times which I shall have cleared--as a settler clears spaces in +a forest. + +In justice to him I must say that he wastes very little time before +he leaves the house in the morning at 9.10. In too many houses he +gets up at nine, breakfasts between 9.7 and 9.9 1/2, and then bolts. +But immediately he bangs the front door his mental faculties, which +are tireless, become idle. He walks to the station in a condition +of mental coma. Arrived there, he usually has to wait for the +train. On hundreds of suburban stations every morning you see men +calmly strolling up and down platforms while railway companies +unblushingly rob them of time, which is more than money. Hundreds +of thousands of hours are thus lost every day simply because my +typical man thinks so little of time that it has never occurred to +him to take quite easy precautions against the risk of its loss. + +He has a solid coin of time to spend every day--call it a sovereign. +He must get change for it, and in getting change he is content to +lose heavily. + +Supposing that in selling him a ticket the company said, "We will +change you a sovereign, but we shall charge you three halfpence for +doing so," what would my typical man exclaim? Yet that is the +equivalent of what the company does when it robs him of five minutes +twice a day. + +You say I am dealing with minutiae. I am. And later on I will +justify myself. + +Now will you kindly buy your paper and step into the train? + + + +V + +TENNIS AND THE IMMORTAL SOUL + +You get into the morning train with your newspaper, and you calmly +and majestically give yourself up to your newspaper. You do not +hurry. You know you have at least half an hour of security in front +of you. As your glance lingers idly at the advertisements of +shipping and of songs on the outer pages, your air is the air of a +leisured man, wealthy in time, of a man from some planet where there +are a hundred and twenty-four hours a day instead of twenty-four. I +am an impassioned reader of newspapers. I read five English and two +French dailies, and the news-agents alone know how many weeklies, +regularly. I am obliged to mention this personal fact lest I should +be accused of a prejudice against newspapers when I say that I +object to the reading of newspapers in the morning train. Newspapers +are produced with rapidity, to be read with rapidity. There is no +place in my daily programme for newspapers. I read them as I may in +odd moments. But I do read them. The idea of devoting to them +thirty or forty consecutive minutes of wonderful solitude (for +nowhere can one more perfectly immerse one's self in one's self than +in a compartment full of silent, withdrawn, smoking males) is to me +repugnant. I cannot possibly allow you to scatter priceless pearls +of time with such Oriental lavishness. You are not the Shah of +time. Let me respectfully remind you that you have no more time than +I have. No newspaper reading in trains! I have already "put by" +about three-quarters of an hour for use. + +Now you reach your office. And I abandon you there till six +o'clock. I am aware that you have nominally an hour (often in +reality an hour and a half) in the midst of the day, less than half +of which time is given to eating. But I will leave you all that to +spend as you choose. You may read your newspapers then. + +I meet you again as you emerge from your office. You are pale and +tired. At any rate, your wife says you are pale, and you give her to +understand that you are tired. During the journey home you have +been gradually working up the tired feeling. The tired feeling +hangs heavy over the mighty suburbs of London like a virtuous and +melancholy cloud, particularly in winter. You don't eat immediately +on your arrival home. But in about an hour or so you feel as if you +could sit up and take a little nourishment. And you do. Then you +smoke, seriously; you see friends; you potter; you play cards; you +flirt with a book; you note that old age is creeping on; you take a +stroll; you caress the piano.... By Jove! a quarter past eleven. +You then devote quite forty minutes to thinking about going to bed; +and it is conceivable that you are acquainted with a genuinely good +whisky. At last you go to bed, exhausted by the day's work. Six +hours, probably more, have gone since you left the office--gone like +a dream, gone like magic, unaccountably gone! + +That is a fair sample case. But you say: "It's all very well for +you to talk. A man *is* tired. A man must see his friends. He +can't always be on the stretch." Just so. But when you arrange to +go to the theatre (especially with a pretty woman) what happens? +You rush to the suburbs; you spare no toil to make yourself glorious +in fine raiment; you rush back to town in another train; you keep +yourself on the stretch for four hours, if not five; you take her +home; you take yourself home. You don't spend three-quarters of an +hour in "thinking about" going to bed. You go. Friends and fatigue +have equally been forgotten, and the evening has seemed so +exquisitely long (or perhaps too short)! And do you remember that +time when you were persuaded to sing in the chorus of the amateur +operatic society, and slaved two hours every other night for three +months? Can you deny that when you have something definite to look +forward to at eventide, something that is to employ all your +energy--the thought of that something gives a glow and a more +intense vitality to the whole day? + +What I suggest is that at six o'clock you look facts in the face and +admit that you are not tired (because you are not, you know), and +that you arrange your evening so that it is not cut in the middle by +a meal. By so doing you will have a clear expanse of at least three +hours. I do not suggest that you should employ three hours every +night of your life in using up your mental energy. But I do suggest +that you might, for a commencement, employ an hour and a half every +other evening in some important and consecutive cultivation of the +mind. You will still be left with three evenings for friends, +bridge, tennis, domestic scenes, odd reading, pipes, gardening, +pottering, and prize competitions. You will still have the terrific +wealth of forty-five hours between 2 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. +Monday. If you persevere you will soon want to pass four evenings, +and perhaps five, in some sustained endeavour to be genuinely alive. +And you will fall out of that habit of muttering to yourself at +11.15 p.m., "Time to be thinking about going to bed." The man who +begins to go to bed forty minutes before he opens his bedroom door +is bored; that is to say, he is not living. + +But remember, at the start, those ninety nocturnal minutes thrice a +week must be the most important minutes in the ten thousand and +eighty. They must be sacred, quite as sacred as a dramatic +rehearsal or a tennis match. Instead of saying, "Sorry I can't see +you, old chap, but I have to run off to the tennis club," you must +say, "...but I have to work." This, I admit, is intensely difficult +to say. Tennis is so much more urgent than the immortal soul. + + + +VI + +REMEMBER HUMAN NATURE + +I have incidentally mentioned the vast expanse of forty-four hours +between leaving business at 2 p.m. on Saturday and returning to +business at 10 a.m. on Monday. And here I must touch on the point +whether the week should consist of six days or of seven. For many +years--in fact, until I was approaching forty--my own week consisted +of seven days. I was constantly being informed by older and wiser +people that more work, more genuine living, could be got out of six +days than out of seven. + +And it is certainly true that now, with one day in seven in which I +follow no programme and make no effort save what the caprice of the +moment dictates, I appreciate intensely the moral value of a weekly +rest. Nevertheless, had I my life to arrange over again, I would do +again as I have done. Only those who have lived at the full stretch +seven days a week for a long time can appreciate the full beauty of +a regular recurring idleness. Moreover, I am ageing. And it is a +question of age. In cases of abounding youth and exceptional energy +and desire for effort I should say unhesitatingly: Keep going, day +in, day out. + +But in the average case I should say: Confine your formal programme +(super-programme, I mean) to six days a week. If you find yourself +wishing to extend it, extend it, but only in proportion to your +wish; and count the time extra as a windfall, not as regular income, +so that you can return to a six-day programme without the sensation +of being poorer, of being a backslider. + +Let us now see where we stand. So far we have marked for saving out +of the waste of days, half an hour at least on six mornings a week, +and one hour and a half on three evenings a week. Total, seven +hours and a half a week. + +I propose to be content with that seven hours and a half for the +present. "What?" you cry. "You pretend to show us how to live, and +you only deal with seven hours and a half out of a hundred and +sixty-eight! Are you going to perform a miracle with your seven +hours and a half?" Well, not to mince the matter, I am--if you will +kindly let me! That is to say, I am going to ask you to attempt an +experience which, while perfectly natural and explicable, has all +the air of a miracle. My contention is that the full use of those +seven-and-a-half hours will quicken the whole life of the week, add +zest to it, and increase the interest which you feel in even the +most banal occupations. You practise physical exercises for a mere +ten minutes morning and evening, and yet you are not astonished when +your physical health and strength are beneficially affected every +hour of the day, and your whole physical outlook changed. Why +should you be astonished that an average of over an hour a day given +to the mind should permanently and completely enliven the whole +activity of the mind? + +More time might assuredly be given to the cultivation of one's self. +And in proportion as the time was longer the results would be +greater. But I prefer to begin with what looks like a trifling +effort. + +It is not really a trifling effort, as those will discover who have +yet to essay it. To "clear" even seven hours and a half from the +jungle is passably difficult. For some sacrifice has to be made. +One may have spent one's time badly, but one did spend it; one did +do something with it, however ill-advised that something may have +been. To do something else means a change of habits. + +And habits are the very dickens to change! Further, any change, +even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and +discomforts. If you imagine that you will be able to devote seven +hours and a half a week to serious, continuous effort, and still +live your old life, you are mistaken. I repeat that some sacrifice, +and an immense deal of volition, will be necessary. And it is +because I know the difficulty, it is because I know the almost +disastrous effect of failure in such an enterprise, that I earnestly +advise a very humble beginning. You must safeguard your self- +respect. Self-respect is at the root of all purposefulness, and a +failure in an enterprise deliberately planned deals a desperate +wound at one's self-respect. Hence I iterate and reiterate: Start +quietly, unostentatiously. + +When you have conscientiously given seven hours and a half a week to +the cultivation of your vitality for three months--then you may +begin to sing louder and tell yourself what wondrous things you are +capable of doing. + +Before coming to the method of using the indicated hours, I have one +final suggestion to make. That is, as regards the evenings, to +allow much more than an hour and a half in which to do the work of +an hour and a half. Remember the chance of accidents. Remember +human nature. And give yourself, say, from 9 to 11.30 for your task +of ninety minutes. + + + +VII + +CONTROLLING THE MIND + +People say: "One can't help one's thoughts." But one can. The +control of the thinking machine is perfectly possible. And since +nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing +hurts us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme +importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious +brain is patent. This idea is one of the oldest platitudes, but it +is a platitude whose profound truth and urgency most people live and +die without realising. People complain of the lack of power to +concentrate, not witting that they may acquire the power, if they +choose. + +And without the power to concentrate--that is to say, without the +power to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience--true +life is impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full +existence. + +Hence, it seems to me, the first business of the day should be to +put the mind through its paces. You look after your body, inside +and out; you run grave danger in hacking hairs off your skin; you +employ a whole army of individuals, from the milkman to the pig- +killer, to enable you to bribe your stomach into decent behaviour. +Why not devote a little attention to the far more delicate machinery +of the mind, especially as you will require no extraneous aid? It +is for this portion of the art and craft of living that I have +reserved the time from the moment of quitting your door to the +moment of arriving at your office. + +"What? I am to cultivate my mind in the street, on the platform, in +the train, and in the crowded street again?" Precisely. Nothing +simpler! No tools required! Not even a book. Nevertheless, the +affair is not easy. + +When you leave your house, concentrate your mind on a subject (no +matter what, to begin with). You will not have gone ten yards +before your mind has skipped away under your very eyes and is +larking round the corner with another subject. + +Bring it back by the scruff of the neck. Ere you have reached the +station you will have brought it back about forty times. Do not +despair. Continue. Keep it up. You will succeed. You cannot by +any chance fail if you persevere. It is idle to pretend that your +mind is incapable of concentration. Do you not remember that morning +when you received a disquieting letter which demanded a very +carefully-worded answer? How you kept your mind steadily on the +subject of the answer, without a second's intermission, until you +reached your office; whereupon you instantly sat down and wrote the +answer? That was a case in which *you* were roused by circumstances +to such a degree of vitality that you were able to dominate your +mind like a tyrant. You would have no trifling. You insisted that +its work should be done, and its work was done. + +By the regular practice of concentration (as to which there is no +secret--save the secret of perseverance) you can tyrannise over +your mind (which is not the highest part of *you*) every hour of the +day, and in no matter what place. The exercise is a very convenient +one. If you got into your morning train with a pair of dumb-bells +for your muscles or an encyclopaedia in ten volumes for your +learning, you would probably excite remark. But as you walk in the +street, or sit in the corner of the compartment behind a pipe, or +"strap-hang" on the Subterranean, who is to know that you are +engaged in the most important of daily acts? What asinine boor can +laugh at you? + +I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. +It is the mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. +But still, you may as well kill two birds with one stone, and +concentrate on something useful. I suggest--it is only a +suggestion--a little chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. + +Do not, I beg, shy at their names. For myself, I know nothing more +"actual," more bursting with plain common-sense, applicable to the +daily life of plain persons like you and me (who hate airs, pose, +and nonsense) than Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. Read a chapter-- +and so short they are, the chapters!--in the evening and +concentrate on it the next morning. You will see. + +Yes, my friend, it is useless for you to try to disguise the fact. +I can hear your brain like a telephone at my ear. You are saying to +yourself: "This fellow was doing pretty well up to his seventh +chapter. He had begun to interest me faintly. But what he says +about thinking in trains, and concentration, and so on, is not for +me. It may be well enough for some folks, but it isn't in my line." + +It is for you, I passionately repeat; it is for you. Indeed, you +are the very man I am aiming at. + +Throw away the suggestion, and you throw away the most precious +suggestion that was ever offered to you. It is not my suggestion. +It is the suggestion of the most sensible, practical, hard-headed +men who have walked the earth. I only give it you at second-hand. +Try it. Get your mind in hand. And see how the process cures half +the evils of life--especially worry, that miserable, avoidable, +shameful disease--worry! + + + +VIII + +THE REFLECTIVE MOOD + +The exercise of concentrating the mind (to which at least half an +hour a day should be given) is a mere preliminary, like scales on +the piano. Having acquired power over that most unruly member of +one's complex organism, one has naturally to put it to the yoke. +Useless to possess an obedient mind unless one profits to the +furthest possible degree by its obedience. A prolonged primary +course of study is indicated. + +Now as to what this course of study should be there cannot be any +question; there never has been any question. All the sensible +people of all ages are agreed upon it. And it is not literature, +nor is it any other art, nor is it history, nor is it any science. +It is the study of one's self. Man, know thyself. These words are +so hackneyed that verily I blush to write them. Yet they must be +written, for they need to be written. (I take back my blush, being +ashamed of it.) Man, know thyself. I say it out loud. The phrase +is one of those phrases with which everyone is familiar, of which +everyone acknowledges the value, and which only the most sagacious +put into practice. I don't know why. I am entirely convinced that +what is more than anything else lacking in the life of the average +well-intentioned man of to-day is the reflective mood. + +We do not reflect. I mean that we do not reflect upon genuinely +important things; upon the problem of our happiness, upon the main +direction in which we are going, upon what life is giving to us, +upon the share which reason has (or has not) in determining our +actions, and upon the relation between our principles and our +conduct. + +And yet you are in search of happiness, are you not? Have you +discovered it? + +The chances are that you have not. The chances are that you have +already come to believe that happiness is unattainable. But men +have attained it. And they have attained it by realising that +happiness does not spring from the procuring of physical or mental +pleasure, but from the development of reason and the adjustment of +conduct to principles. + +I suppose that you will not have the audacity to deny this. And if +you admit it, and still devote no part of your day to the deliberate +consideration of your reason, principles, and conduct, you admit +also that while striving for a certain thing you are regularly +leaving undone the one act which is necessary to the attainment of +that thing. + +Now, shall I blush, or will you? + +Do not fear that I mean to thrust certain principles upon your +attention. I care not (in this place) what your principles are. +Your principles may induce you to believe in the righteousness of +burglary. I don't mind. All I urge is that a life in which conduct +does not fairly well accord with principles is a silly life; and +that conduct can only be made to accord with principles by means of +daily examination, reflection, and resolution. What leads to the +permanent sorrowfulness of burglars is that their principles are +contrary to burglary. If they genuinely believed in the moral +excellence of burglary, penal servitude would simply mean so many +happy years for them; all martyrs are happy, because their conduct +and their principles agree. + +As for reason (which makes conduct, and is not unconnected with the +making of principles), it plays a far smaller part in our lives than +we fancy. We are supposed to be reasonable but we are much more +instinctive than reasonable. And the less we reflect, the less +reasonable we shall be. The next time you get cross with the waiter +because your steak is over-cooked, ask reason to step into the +cabinet-room of your mind, and consult her. She will probably tell +you that the waiter did not cook the steak, and had no control over +the cooking of the steak; and that even if he alone was to blame, +you accomplished nothing good by getting cross; you merely lost your +dignity, looked a fool in the eyes of sensible men, and soured the +waiter, while producing no effect whatever on the steak. + +The result of this consultation with reason (for which she makes no +charge) will be that when once more your steak is over-cooked you +will treat the waiter as a fellow-creature, remain quite calm in a +kindly spirit, and politely insist on having a fresh steak. The +gain will be obvious and solid. + +In the formation or modification of principles, and the practice of +conduct, much help can be derived from printed books (issued at +sixpence each and upwards). I mentioned in my last chapter Marcus +Aurelius and Epictetus. Certain even more widely known works will +occur at once to the memory. I may also mention Pascal, La Bruyere, +and Emerson. For myself, you do not catch me travelling without my +Marcus Aurelius. Yes, books are valuable. But not reading of books +will take the place of a daily, candid, honest examination of what +one has recently done, and what one is about to do--of a steady +looking at one's self in the face (disconcerting though the sight +may be). + +When shall this important business be accomplished? The solitude of +the evening journey home appears to me to be suitable for it. A +reflective mood naturally follows the exertion of having earned the +day's living. Of course if, instead of attending to an elementary +and profoundly important duty, you prefer to read the paper (which +you might just as well read while waiting for your dinner) I have +nothing to say. But attend to it at some time of the day you must. +I now come to the evening hours. + + + +IX + +INTEREST IN THE ARTS + +Many people pursue a regular and uninterrupted course of idleness in +the evenings because they think that there is no alternative to +idleness but the study of literature; and they do not happen to have +a taste for literature. This is a great mistake. + +Of course it is impossible, or at any rate very difficult, properly +to study anything whatever without the aid of printed books. But if +you desire to understand the deeper depths of bridge or of boat- +sailing you would not be deterred by your lack of interest in +literature from reading the best books on bridge or boat-sailing. +We must, therefore, distinguish between literature, and books +treating of subjects not literary. I shall come to literature in +due course. + +Let me now remark to those who have never read Meredith, and who are +capable of being unmoved by a discussion as to whether Mr. Stephen +Phillips is or is not a true poet, that they are perfectly within +their rights. It is not a crime not to love literature. It is not a +sign of imbecility. The mandarins of literature will order out to +instant execution the unfortunate individual who does not +comprehend, say, the influence of Wordsworth on Tennyson. But that +is only their impudence. Where would they be, I wonder, if +requested to explain the influences that went to make Tschaikowsky's +"Pathetic Symphony"? + +There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature +which will yield magnificent results to cultivators. For example +(since I have just mentioned the most popular piece of high-class +music in England to-day), I am reminded that the Promenade Concerts +begin in August. You go to them. You smoke your cigar or cigarette +(and I regret to say that you strike your matches during the soft +bars of the "Lohengrin" overture), and you enjoy the music. But you +say you cannot play the piano or the fiddle, or even the banjo; that +you know nothing of music. + +What does that matter? That you have a genuine taste for music is +proved by the fact that, in order to fill his hall with you and your +peers, the conductor is obliged to provide programmes from which bad +music is almost entirely excluded (a change from the old Covent +Garden days!). + +Now surely your inability to perform "The Maiden's Prayer" on a +piano need not prevent you from making yourself familiar with the +construction of the orchestra to which you listen a couple of nights +a week during a couple of months! As things are, you probably think +of the orchestra as a heterogeneous mass of instruments producing a +confused agreeable mass of sound. You do not listen for details +because you have never trained your ears to listen to details. + +If you were asked to name the instruments which play the great theme +at the beginning of the C minor symphony you could not name them for +your life's sake. Yet you admire the C minor symphony. It has +thrilled you. It will thrill you again. You have even talked about +it, in an expansive mood, to that lady--you know whom I mean. And +all you can positively state about the C minor symphony is that +Beethoven composed it and that it is a "jolly fine thing." + +Now, if you have read, say, Mr. Krehbiel's "How to Listen to Music" +(which can be got at any bookseller's for less than the price of a +stall at the Alhambra, and which contains photographs of all the +orchestral instruments and plans of the arrangement of orchestras) +you would next go to a promenade concert with an astonishing +intensification of interest in it. Instead of a confused mass, the +orchestra would appear to you as what it is--a marvellously balanced +organism whose various groups of members each have a different and +an indispensable function. You would spy out the instruments, and +listen for their respective sounds. You would know the gulf that +separates a French horn from an English horn, and you would perceive +why a player of the hautboy gets higher wages than a fiddler, though +the fiddle is the more difficult instrument. You would *live* at a +promenade concert, whereas previously you had merely existed there +in a state of beatific coma, like a baby gazing at a bright object. + +The foundations of a genuine, systematic knowledge of music might be +laid. You might specialise your inquiries either on a particular +form of music (such as the symphony), or on the works of a +particular composer. At the end of a year of forty-eight weeks of +three brief evenings each, combined with a study of programmes and +attendances at concerts chosen out of your increasing knowledge, you +would really know something about music, even though you were as far +off as ever from jangling "The Maiden's Prayer" on the piano. + +"But I hate music!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you. + +What applies to music applies to the other arts. I might mention +Mr. Clermont Witt's "How to Look at Pictures," or Mr. Russell +Sturgis's "How to Judge Architecture," as beginnings (merely +beginnings) of systematic vitalising knowledge in other arts, the +materials for whose study abound in London. + +"I hate all the arts!" you say. My dear sir, I respect you more and +more. + +I will deal with your case next, before coming to literature. + + + +X + +NOTHING IN LIFE IS HUMDRUM + +Art is a great thing. But it is not the greatest. The most +important of all perceptions is the continual perception of cause +and effect--in other words, the perception of the continuous +development of the universe--in still other words, the perception of +the course of evolution. When one has thoroughly got imbued into +one's head the leading truth that nothing happens without a cause, +one grows not only large-minded, but large-hearted. + +It is hard to have one's watch stolen, but one reflects that the +thief of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and +environment which are as interesting as they are scientifically +comprehensible; and one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any +rate with a philosophy that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, +in the study of cause and effect, that absurd air which so many +people have of being always shocked and pained by the curiousness of +life. Such people live amid human nature as if human nature were a +foreign country full of awful foreign customs. But, having reached +maturity, one ought surely to be ashamed of being a stranger in a +strange land! + +The study of cause and effect, while it lessens the painfulness of +life, adds to life's picturesqueness. The man to whom evolution is +but a name looks at the sea as a grandiose, monotonous spectacle, +which he can witness in August for three shillings third-class +return. The man who is imbued with the idea of development, of +continuous cause and effect, perceives in the sea an element which +in the day-before-yesterday of geology was vapour, which yesterday +was boiling, and which to-morrow will inevitably be ice. + +He perceives that a liquid is merely something on its way to be +solid, and he is penetrated by a sense of the tremendous, changeful +picturesqueness of life. Nothing will afford a more durable +satisfaction than the constantly cultivated appreciation of this. +It is the end of all science. + +Cause and effect are to be found everywhere. Rents went up in +Shepherd's Bush. It was painful and shocking that rents should go +up in Shepherd's Bush. But to a certain point we are all scientific +students of cause and effect, and there was not a clerk lunching at +a Lyons Restaurant who did not scientifically put two and two +together and see in the (once) Two-penny Tube the cause of an +excessive demand for wigwams in Shepherd's Bush, and in the +excessive demand for wigwams the cause of the increase in the price +of wigwams. + +"Simple!" you say, disdainfully. Everything--the whole complex +movement of the universe--is as simple as that--when you can +sufficiently put two and two together. And, my dear sir, perhaps +you happen to be an estate agent's clerk, and you hate the arts, and +you want to foster your immortal soul, and you can't be interested +in your business because it's so humdrum. + +Nothing is humdrum. + +The tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life is marvellously +shown in an estate agent's office. What! There was a block of +traffic in Oxford Street; to avoid the block people actually began +to travel under the cellars and drains, and the result was a rise of +rents in Shepherd's Bush! And you say that isn't picturesque! +Suppose you were to study, in this spirit, the property question in +London for an hour and a half every other evening. Would it not give +zest to your business, and transform your whole life? + +You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able +to tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the +longest straight street in London is about a yard and a half in +length, while the longest absolutely straight street in Paris +extends for miles. I think you will admit that in an estate agent's +clerk I have not chosen an example that specially favours my +theories. + +You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance +(disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's "Lombard +Street"? Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed +it up for ninety minutes every other evening, how enthralling your +business would be to you, and how much more clearly you would +understand human nature. + +You are "penned in town," but you love excursions to the country and +the observation of wild life--certainly a heart-enlarging diversion. +Why don't you walk out of your house door, in your slippers, to the +nearest gas lamp of a night with a butterfly net, and observe the +wild life of common and rare moths that is beating about it, and +co-ordinate the knowledge thus obtained and build a superstructure +on it, and at last get to know something about something? + +You need not be devoted to the arts, not to literature, in order to +live fully. + +The whole field of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that +curiosity which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an +understanding heart. + +I promised to deal with your case, O man who hates art and +literature, and I have dealt with it. I now come to the case of the +person, happily very common, who does "like reading." + + + +XI + +SERIOUS READING + + +Novels are excluded from "serious reading," so that the man who, +bent on self-improvement, has been deciding to devote ninety minutes +three times a week to a complete study of the works of Charles +Dickens will be well advised to alter his plans. The reason is not +that novels are not serious--some of the great literature of the +world is in the form of prose fiction--the reason is that bad +novels ought not to be read, and that good novels never demand any +appreciable mental application on the part of the reader. It is only +the bad parts of Meredith's novels that are difficult. A good novel +rushes you forward like a skiff down a stream, and you arrive at the +end, perhaps breathless, but unexhausted. The best novels involve +the least strain. Now in the cultivation of the mind one of the +most important factors is precisely the feeling of strain, of +difficulty, of a task which one part of you is anxious to achieve +and another part of you is anxious to shirk; and that feeling +cannot be got in facing a novel. You do not set your teeth in order +to read "Anna Karenina." Therefore, though you should read novels, +you should not read them in those ninety minutes. + +Imaginative poetry produces a far greater mental strain than novels. +It produces probably the severest strain of any form of literature. +It is the highest form of literature. It yields the highest form of +pleasure, and teaches the highest form of wisdom. In a word, there +is nothing to compare with it. I say this with sad consciousness of +the fact that the majority of people do not read poetry. + +I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted +with the alternatives of reading "Paradise Lost" and going round +Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would +choose the ordeal of public ridicule. Still, I will never cease +advising my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything. + +If poetry is what is called "a sealed book" to you, begin by reading +Hazlitt's famous essay on the nature of "poetry in general." It is +the best thing of its kind in English, and no one who has read it +can possibly be under the misapprehension that poetry is a mediaeval +torture, or a mad elephant, or a gun that will go off by itself and +kill at forty paces. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the mental +state of the man who, after reading Hazlitt's essay, is not urgently +desirous of reading some poetry before his next meal. If the essay +so inspires you I would suggest that you make a commencement with +purely narrative poetry. + +There is an infinitely finer English novel, written by a woman, than +anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which +perhaps you have not read. Its title is "Aurora Leigh," and its +author E.B. Browning. It happens to be written in verse, and to +contain a considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to +read that book through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is +fine poetry. Read it simply for the story and the social ideas. And +when you have done, ask yourself honestly whether you still dislike +poetry. I have known more than one person to whom "Aurora Leigh" has +been the means of proving that in assuming they hated poetry they +were entirely mistaken. + +Of course, if, after Hazlitt, and such an experiment made in the +light of Hazlitt, you are finally assured that there is something in +you which is antagonistic to poetry, you must be content with +history or philosophy. I shall regret it, yet not inconsolably. +"The Decline and Fall" is not to be named in the same day with +"Paradise Lost," but it is a vastly pretty thing; and Herbert +Spencer's "First Principles" simply laughs at the claims of poetry +and refuses to be accepted as aught but the most majestic product of +any human mind. I do not suggest that either of these works is +suitable for a tyro in mental strains. But I see no reason why any +man of average intelligence should not, after a year of continuous +reading, be fit to assault the supreme masterpieces of history or +philosophy. The great convenience of masterpieces is that they are +so astonishingly lucid. + +I suggest no particular work as a start. The attempt would be +futile in the space of my command. But I have two general +suggestions of a certain importance. The first is to define the +direction and scope of your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a +limited subject, or a single author. Say to yourself: "I will know +something about the French Revolution, or the rise of railways, or +the works of John Keats." And during a given period, to be settled +beforehand, confine yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure +to be derived from being a specialist. + +The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people +who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just +as well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men +take to drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a +motor-car, their sole object being motion. They will tell you how +many books they have read in a year. + +Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing +reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, +your ninety minutes of a night are chiefly wasted. This means that +your pace will be slow. + +Never mind. + +Forget the goal; think only of the surrounding country; and after a +period, perhaps when you least expect it, you will suddenly find +yourself in a lovely town on a hill. + + + +XII + +DANGERS TO AVOID + +I cannot terminate these hints, often, I fear, too didactic and +abrupt, upon the full use of one's time to the great end of living +(as distinguished from vegetating) without briefly referring to +certain dangers which lie in wait for the sincere aspirant towards +life. The first is the terrible danger of becoming that most odious +and least supportable of persons--a prig. Now a prig is a pert +fellow who gives himself airs of superior wisdom. A prig is a +pompous fool who has gone out for a ceremonial walk, and without +knowing it has lost an important part of his attire, namely, his +sense of humour. A prig is a tedious individual who, having made a +discovery, is so impressed by his discovery that he is capable of +being gravely displeased because the entire world is not also +impressed by it. Unconsciously to become a prig is an easy and a +fatal thing. + +Hence, when one sets forth on the enterprise of using all one's +time, it is just as well to remember that one's own time, and not +other people's time, is the material with which one has to deal; +that the earth rolled on pretty comfortably before one began to +balance a budget of the hours, and that it will continue to roll on +pretty comfortably whether or not one succeeds in one's new role of +chancellor of the exchequer of time. It is as well not to chatter +too much about what one is doing, and not to betray a too-pained +sadness at the spectacle of a whole world deliberately wasting so +many hours out of every day, and therefore never really living. It +will be found, ultimately, that in taking care of one's self one has +quite all one can do. + +Another danger is the danger of being tied to a programme like a +slave to a chariot. One's programme must not be allowed to run away +with one. It must be respected, but it must not be worshipped as a +fetish. A programme of daily employ is not a religion. + +This seems obvious. Yet I know men whose lives are a burden to +themselves and a distressing burden to their relatives and friends +simply because they have failed to appreciate the obvious. "Oh, +no," I have heard the martyred wife exclaim, "Arthur always takes +the dog out for exercise at eight o'clock and he always begins to +read at a quarter to nine. So it's quite out of the question that +we should. . ." etc., etc. And the note of absolute finality in +that plaintive voice reveals the unsuspected and ridiculous tragedy +of a career. + +On the other hand, a programme is a programme. And unless it is +treated with deference it ceases to be anything but a poor joke. To +treat one's programme with exactly the right amount of deference, to +live with not too much and not too little elasticity, is scarcely +the simple affair it may appear to the inexperienced. + +And still another danger is the danger of developing a policy of +rush, of being gradually more and more obsessed by what one has to +do next. In this way one may come to exist as in a prison, and one's +life may cease to be one's own. One may take the dog out for a walk +at eight o'clock, and meditate the whole time on the fact that one +must begin to read at a quarter to nine, and that one must not be +late. + +And the occasional deliberate breaking of one's programme will not +help to mend matters. The evil springs not from persisting without +elasticity in what one has attempted, but from originally attempting +too much, from filling one's programme till it runs over. The only +cure is to reconstitute the programme, and to attempt less. + +But the appetite for knowledge grows by what it feeds on, and there +are men who come to like a constant breathless hurry of endeavour. +Of them it may be said that a constant breathless hurry is better +than an eternal doze. + +In any case, if the programme exhibits a tendency to be oppressive, +and yet one wishes not to modify it, an excellent palliative is to +pass with exaggerated deliberation from one portion of it to +another; for example, to spend five minutes in perfect mental +quiescence between chaining up the St. Bernard and opening the book; +in other words, to waste five minutes with the entire consciousness +of wasting them. + +The last, and chiefest danger which I would indicate, is one to +which I have already referred--the risk of a failure at the +commencement of the enterprise. + +I must insist on it. + +A failure at the commencement may easily kill outright the newborn +impulse towards a complete vitality, and therefore every precaution +should be observed to avoid it. The impulse must not be over-taxed. +Let the pace of the first lap be even absurdly slow, but let it be +as regular as possible. + +And, having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at +all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of +having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense. + +Finally, in choosing the first occupations of those evening hours, +be guided by nothing whatever but your taste and natural +inclination. + +It is a fine thing to be a walking encyclopaedia of philosophy, but +if you happen to have no liking for philosophy, and to have a like +for the natural history of street-cries, much better leave +philosophy alone, and take to street-cries. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY *** + +This file should be named 24hrs11.txt or 24hrs11.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 24hrs12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 24hrs11a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05 + +Or /etext04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, +91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + + PROJECT GUTENBERG LITERARY ARCHIVE FOUNDATION + 809 North 1500 West + Salt Lake City, UT 84116 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/24hrs11.zip b/old/24hrs11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cb7328 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/24hrs11.zip |