What do men do when their work for the day is over?
We are arranging things so that a man will have eight hours’ work, eight
hours’ play and eight hours’ sleep. The sleep you must have or you can
neither work nor play. This division of time consumes the whole day.
When we speak of eight hours’ work, we mean “work,” not dawdling.
By attending to the business you have on hand you work, and the
clergymen say: “A man who labors prays.”
But what to do during the eight hours set apart for play; that is the
rub. Of course everybody should understand that by “Play” is not meant
dissipation, far from it. It means “recreation” of some sort that will
help do the work and induce sleep.
A change of occupation is often play to some, because it gives the mind
and the unused muscles a variety which is equal to rest.
A few hours of the play time devoted to improvement either of the mind
or in the business we are in, will be of great benefit and result in a
“raise.”
Few people want to die young, but the sure way to reach the end is to
work when we should play. Labor constantly undergone, for sixteen hours
every day, shortens life by about one-half. The human machine is built
for so much service, and if that service is crowded into a short space
of time, why then the machine gives out. Like any other machine it gives
out and goes to the scrap pile.
If we play all the time, why then, the machine rusts, and gives out just
the same. So if we sleep all the time, we rust and the brain gives out
by inaction.
It is wise to divide the day equally as is suggested, and do something
during sixteen hours, and sleep the other eight hours. This is
scientific, and leads to good health, long life, and, if you do not
speculate, leads to wealth, at least to a good living.