_ 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.
THE END.
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett. _