St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1867-05-17
ACTIVITY Is NOT ALWAYS ENERGY.

time extracts from London book, which trust vii
prove profitable reading for the young business men
this country.1
ACTIVITY Is NOT ALWAYS ENERGY.
There are some men, whose failure tc
succeed in life is a problem to others, as
well as themselves. They are industrl-
GUS, prudent, and economical: yet, after
a long life of striving, old age finds them
still poor They complain of ill-luck.
They say fate is always against them
But the fact is, they miscarry because
they have mistaken mere activity for
energy Confounding two things essen
TALLY different, they have supposed that,
II they were always busy, they would be
certain to be advancing their fortunes.
They have forgotten that instructed
labour is but Il waste Of activity. The
person who would succeed in life, is like
i marksman firing at target; if his
shots miss the mark, they are waste of
powder to be of any service at all, they
must tell in the bull's-eye, or near. So.
in the great game Of life, what 4 man
does must be made to count, or it had
almost as well been left undone.
The idle warrior, cut from q Single.
who fights the air on the top of a wealth
ercock, instead of being made to turn
some machine commensurate with his
strength, Is not more worthless than the
merely active man. who, though busy
from sunrise to sunset, diSsipates his
labour on triiies, when he ought skilfullv
10 concentrate it on some great end.
Everybody knows some one in his
circle OF acquaintance, who, though al
ways active, has this want of energy.
The distempcr, if We may call it such,
exhibits ITSELF various ways. In some
cases, the man has merely an executive
faculty when he should have directive
one; in other language. he makes a CAPT.
tai clerk for himself, when he ought to
10 the thinking of The business. In 9TH
cr cases, what is done is either not done
at the right time, or in the right way.
Sometimes there is no distinction made
between objects Of different magnitudeS,
but Is much labour is bestowed in a trivi-
al affair It's on matter of vast moment.
Energy, correctly understood, is active
" proportional to :thc end. Napoleon
would often, when III campaign. re-
main for days without taking off his
clothes, now galloping from point to
point, now debating dispatches. now
studying maps. But his periods of re-
pose. when the crisis was over. were gem
orally protractel as his cxertions had
been. He has been known to sleep for
eighteen hours on stretch. Second
rate men, your slaves of tape and routine,
while they would fall short of the super
human exertlons of the great Emperor.
would have thought themselves lost, be-
You'd hope, if they initiated what they
call his indolepce. They are capital il
Illustrations of activity, keeping up their
monotonouS iog-trot for ever; while
Napoleon, with his gigantic industry.
alternating with such apparent idleness,
Is as striking an example of energy.
We do not pean to imply that chronic
Incidence, if relieved occasionally by
spasmodlc fits of industry, is to be re-
commended. Men who have this charac
ter run into the opposite extreme of that
which We have been stigmatizing, and
fail as invariably Of winning success in
life. To call their occasional periods of
application energy, would be sad mis-
homer Such persons, indeed, are but
civilized savages, so to speak vagabonds
at heart in their secret hatred of work.
and only resorting to labour occasionally,
like the wild Indian, who, after lying
for weeks about his hut, is reused bv
sheer hunger, and starts off on hunting
excursion. Real energy is persevering,
steady, disciplined. 1t never either loses
sight of the object to be accomplished, or
intermitS its exertions while there is a
possibility of success Napoleon, in the
plains of Champagne, sometimes fight
ing two battles in one day, first defeating
the Russians, and then turning on the
Austrians, is an illustration of this en-
ergy. The Duke of Brunswick, david
ling away precious time when he invaded
France at the outbreak of the first revo-
luton, is an example to the contrary.
Activity beats about cover like an IN
trained dog, never lighting on the covey.
Energy goes straight to tue bird.