aval, followed by C.A. Parsons and
Nikola Tesla, broke away from this spell, and we have the steam
turbine engine. These individuals are endowed with master-minds,
but the task of producing the turbines was probably no greater
than the task of others in improving the reciprocating type.

In one case a great step has been taken. In the other, we have an
example of men of undoubted ability laboring hard for entire
lifetimes with relatively small gain.

This example applies to more than the inventors' world. It has
many parallels in the cold business management of a manufactory
and in any one of its departments. Business management requires
the same kind of reasoning and getting away from the spell of
environment. But this phase we shall consider later under another
head.

The point to be brought out here is the effect of the spell of
environment in magnifying the importance of existing views and
methods, and the deceptive part this trusty brain plays in binding
us to unnecessarily hard work.

Cure for Mind Wandering.

The mind should not be allowed to wander, for wander it will if it
is not rationally directed. It should be furnished with some
interest, either in the form of study that is taken up out of
working hours, and which can be permitted to occupy the mind while
work of the habit kind is being done, or, if it is not a study,
there should be some wholesome interest or pleasure.

Music to some furnishes this need. Music heard in the home or
elsewhere will sometimes occupy the mind during working hours when
the work is of a monotonous character. In some instances music has
been provided during a certain part of the day, just for this need
of workers who are employed in an occupation that in itself
furnishes no mental nourishment.

But these extreme cases do not represent the vast majority. They
apply only to the needs of the mind of those engaged in a work in
which they can awaken no interest. Nearly all kinds of work offer
a chance for the average man to get interested directly in the
work itself. Such an interest soon bears fruit in the results as
well as in the comfort of the worker, and it is this phase on
which we must depend for making specialization comfortable and
profitable to the worker. It is this phase that is wholly
overlooked by those mentioned above who have seen or felt the joy
of work that comes to one who rambles into a new field. We fail to
see that the same kind of mental pleasure m