Let us then cast aside the shallow and ignorant preachments of those who do not understand the subject, and devote a reasonable time to the reading of good books, to thought, to the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and to pleasurable pastimes. In these particulars we are far behind Europe, and we shall never take our place as an intellectual people until we radically change our method of life. A nation must dream before becoming great. Let it not be understood from the foregoing that the writer would in the slightest degree minimize the necessity for a reasonable amount of work, for he thoroughly appreciates that without labor neither the individual nor the nation itself could remain sound--it is only urged that excessive work is quite as much to be feared as none at all.
_Health and Labor._--As to the number of hours that should be devoted to labor no rule can be laid down. It all depends on the age, physical and mental vigor of the individual, and likewise, to a considerable degree, on the character of the work. Occupations requiring intense mental or physical strain can only be kept up for short periods of continuous application, while, on the other hand, quite naturally, those of a less strenuous nature would permit longer hours. The young man, in pride of perfect bodily and mental vigor, too often assumes, because he has been able in the past to do pretty much anything that pleased him without ill-effect, that he can continue to do the same through life. No greater mistake could be made.
Anything that has a tendency to undermine the health, repeated sufficiently often, will ultimately cause a complete breakdown. How often do we see the strength and beauty of early manhood blighted and turned to premature old age and death as a consequence of disregarding the warnings that have just been given! How frequently do we observe young men rejoicing in the emancipation from home and school and spurred on by the fatal delusion that while others might suffer they will not, becoming in the end the victim of that arch enemy of early manhood, consumption! Every practicing doctor has seen this, not once, but hundreds of times, and in the vast majority of instances he can say with truth that the frightful result is a consequence of overwork--too often associated with nocturnal dissipation. The man who works during the day, and devotes his nights to alcohol and gay company when he should be sleeping, will assuredly, sooner or later--and usually sooner--suffer the inevitable consequences.