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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. 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