y 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 ba
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