Part 3 (2/2)
I. Economy.--We all know what economy is. In regard to money, in connection with which the word is chiefly used, it is keeping strict watch over our expenditure, and not spending a penny without good reason. According to the oft-quoted proverb, ”Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.” Economy, in regard to time, is to watch over the minutes, hours and days, and the years will take care of themselves. It is, to let every moment of time be well employed; to let every hour of the day as it pa.s.ses be turned to use; to let none be spent in idleness or folly. It is a good advice that of the poet--
Think nought a trifle though it small appears, Sands make the mountain, moments make the years, And trifles life.
In the mint, where money is coined, when the visitor reaches the room where the gold coins are cast, it is said that the floor is a network of wooden bars to catch all the particles of the falling metal. When the day's work is done, the floor is removed and the golden dust is swept up to be melted again. In the same way we should economize time: gather up its golden dust, let none of its moments be lost. Be careful of its spare minutes, and a wealth of culture will be the result. It is said of a European cathedral that when the architect came to insert the stained-gla.s.s windows he was one window short. An apprentice in the factory where the windows were made came forward and said that he thought he could make a window from the bits of gla.s.s cast aside. He went to work, collected the fragments, put them together, and produced a window said to be the finest of all. In the same way men have made much out of the bits of time that have been, so to speak, broken from the edges of a busy life.
Many ill.u.s.trations might be given from history of what men have been able to do by a wise economy of time. Sir Humphry Davy established a laboratory in the attic of his house, and when his ordinary day's work was done began a course of scientific studies that continued throughout his memorable life. Cobbett learned grammar when a soldier, sitting on the edge of his bed. Lincoln, the famous president of America, acquired arithmetic during the winter evenings, mastered grammar by catching up his book at odd moments when he was keeping a shop, and studied law when following the business of a surveyor. Douglas Jerrold, during his apprentices.h.i.+p, arose with the dawn of day to study his Latin grammar, and read Shakespeare and other works before his daily labor began at the printing office. At night, when his day's work was done, he added over two hours more to his studies. At seventeen years of age he had so mastered Shakespeare that when anyone quoted a line from the poet he could give from memory that which came next. While walking to and from his office Henry Kirke White acquired a knowledge of Greek. A German physician, while visiting his patients, contrived to commit to memory the _Iliad_ of Homer. Hugh Miller, while working as a stonemason, studied geology in his off hours. Elihu Burritt, ”the learned blacksmith,” gained a mastery of eighteen languages and twenty-two dialects by using the odds and ends of time at his disposal. Franklin's hours of study were stolen from the time his companions devoted to their meals and to sleep.[1] Many similar instances might be added to show what may be done by economising time and strictly looking after those spare minutes which many throw away.
The great rule is, never to be unemployed, and to find relief in turning from one occupation to another, due allowance of course being made for recreation and for rest. The wise man economises time as he economises money.
II. System.--It is wonderful how much work can be got through in a day if we go by rule--if we map out our time, divide it off and take up one thing regularly after another. To drift through our work, or to rush through it in _helter skelter_ fas.h.i.+on, ends in comparatively little being done. ”One thing at a time” will always perform a better day's work than doing two or three things at a time. By following this rule one person will do more in a day than another does in a week. ”Marshal thy notions,” said old Thomas Fuller, ”into a handsome method. One will carry twice as much weight trussed and packed as when it lies untoward, flapping and hanging about his shoulders.” Fixed rules are the greatest possible help to the worker. They give steadiness to his labor, and they enable him to go through it with comparative ease.
Many a man would have been saved from ruin if he had appreciated the value of method in his affairs. In the peasant's cottage or the artisan's workshop, in the chemist's laboratory or the s.h.i.+pbuilder's yard, the two primary rules must be, ”For every one his duty,” and, ”For everything its place.”
It is a wise thing to begin the day by taking a survey in thought of the work we have to get through, and thus to divide it, giving to each hour its own share. The shortest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time. Albert Barnes was a distinguished American theologian who wrote a valuable commentary on the Bible amid the work of a large parish. He accomplished this by systematic arrangement of his time.
He divided his day into parts. He devoted each part to some duty. He rigidly adhered to this arrangement, and in this way was able to overtake an amount of work that was truly wonderful. In the life of Anthony Trollope, the great novelist, we are told that he kept resolutely close to a rule he laid down for himself. He wrote so many pages a day of so many lines each. He overtook an immense amount of work in the year. He published many books, and he made a great deal of money. The great English lawyer Sir Edward c.o.ke divided his time according to the well-known couplet--
Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six, Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature fix.
Sir William Jones, the famous Oriental scholar, altered this rule to suit himself.
Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven, Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven.
Benjamin Franklin's system of working is given in his ”Life.” Each day was carefully portioned off. His daily programme was the following:
Morning. ) Rise, wash, and address the 5 ) Almighty Father; contrive [Question, What good 6 ) the day's business and take shall I do this day?] 7 ) the resolution of the day; ) prosecute the present study, ) breakfast.
8 ) to ) Work 11 )
12 ) Read or look over accounts and Noon. to ) dine.
1 )
2 ) Afternoon, to ) Work 5 )
6 ) Put things in their place; Evening to ) supper; music or diversion or [Question, What good 9 ) conversation; examination of have I done to-day?] ) the day.
10 ) Night to ) Sleep.
4 )
It is evident that a scheme of life like this could not suit everyone.
It is given as an ill.u.s.tration of the value of adhering to method in our work. ”Order,” the poet Pope says, ”is Heaven's first law,” and time well ordered means generally work well and thoroughly done.
III. Punctuality.--This means keeping strictly as to time by any engagement we make either with ourselves or with others. If we resolve to do anything at a certain time, we should do it neither before nor after that time. It is better to be before than after. But it is best to be at the very minute. If we enter into an engagement with others for a certain time, we should be precise in keeping it. In a letter from a celebrated merchant, Buxton, to his son, he says, ”Be punctual; I do not mean merely being in time for lectures, but mean that spirit out of which punctuality grows, that love of accuracy and precision which mark the efficient man. The habit of being punctual extends to everything--meeting friends, paying debts, going to church, reaching and leaving place of business, keeping promises, retiring at night and rising in the morning.” We may lay down a system or method of work for ourselves, but it will be of little service unless we keep carefully to it, beginning and leaving off at the appointed moment. If the work of one hour is postponed to another, it will encroach on the time allotted to some other duty, if it do not remain altogether undone, and thus the whole business of the day is thrown into disorder. If a man loses half an hour by rising late in the morning, he is apt to spend the rest of the day seeking after it. Sir Walter Scott was not only methodical in his work, he was exceedingly punctual, always beginning his allotted task at the appointed moment. ”When a regiment,” he wrote, ”is under march, the rear is often thrown into confusion because the front does not move steadily and without interruption. It is the same thing in business. If that which is first in hand be not instantly despatched, other things acc.u.mulate betimes, till affairs begin to press all at once, and no brain can stand the confusion.” We should steadily cultivate the habit of punctuality. We can cultivate it until it becomes with us a second nature, and we do everything, as the saying is, ”by clockwork.” In rising in the morning and going to bed, in taking up different kinds of work, in keeping appointments with others, we should strive to be ”to the minute.” The unpunctual man is a nuisance to society. He wastes his own time, and he wastes the time of others; as Princ.i.p.al Tulloch well says, ”Men who have real work of their own would rather do anything than do business with him.” [2]
IV. Prompt.i.tude.--By this we mean acting at the present moment--all that is opposed to procrastination, putting off to another time, to a ”convenient season” which probably never comes--all that is opposed also to what is called ”loitering” or ”dawdling.” There is an old Latin proverb, ”_Bis dat qui cito dat,_”--he gives twice who gives quickly. The same thing may be said of work, ”He works twice who works quickly.” In work, of course, the first requirement is that it should be well done; but this does not hinder quickness and despatch. There are those who, when they have anything to do, seem to go round it and round it, instead of attacking it at once and getting it out of the way; and when they do begin it they do so in a listless and half-hearted fas.h.i.+on. There are those who look at their work, according to the simile of Sidney Smith, like men who stand s.h.i.+vering on the bank instead of at once taking the plunge. ”In order,” he says, ”to do anything that is worth doing in this world, we must not stand s.h.i.+vering on the bank thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. It will not do to be perpetually calculating and adjusting nice chances; it did all very well before the Flood, when a man could consult his friends upon an intended publication for a hundred and fifty years, and then live to see its success for six or seven centuries afterwards, but at present a man doubts, and waits, and hesitates, and consults his brother, and his uncle, and his first cousin, and his particular friends, till one day he finds that he is sixty-five years of age, that he has lost so much time in consulting first cousins and particular friends that he has no time to follow their advice.” This is good sense, though humorously put. Prompt.i.tude is a quality that should be a.s.siduously cultivated.
Like punctuality, it becomes a most valuable habit. ”Procrastination,”
it is said, ”is the thief of time,” and ”h.e.l.l is paved with good intentions.” These proverbs are full of wisdom. When we hear people saying, ”They are going to be this thing or that thing; they _intend_ to look to this or to that; they will by and by do this or that,” we may be sure there is a weakness in their character. Such people never come to much. The best way is not to _speak_ about doing a thing, but _to do it_, and to do it _at once_.
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