Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1869-03-19
J atlisttua11pp,
OYER WORK.

Scstiohs lIoin paper III LPPiuCoit
Magazine for October, on Strength and
How to use it" by Mr.. Walter Wells OF
Portland. Few men have done more and
better work than Mr. Wells, and few men
are better equipped than he with physio-
logical knowledge emitting them to speak
wisely on theme OF this kind -
"Men who are tempted to overdo must
work By the clock. They must resolve be-
fnrehand, in cool blood, and when not
wrought upon by temptation to set the
bound too far, that they will work only
so long, and then, whether they have got
half so much done as they expected, they
will stop. Furthermore, they must re-
solve and determine, and make il mat
ter of most serious duty, not to work so
fast. 1t is possible for man to cut short
his hours of labor, and then make the
matter worse by working with greater
intensity than before. A horse may be
driven forty five miles day for month
together, but sixteen miles in one hour
might ruin him for season, if not for
life. Euler, the great geometer, in his
young manhood once drove through to
completion in three days mathematical
calculation for the performance OF which
his academicians demanded four months,
and brought on by it partial paralysis
of the optic nerve, which made him two
thirds blind all the rest of his life Horace
Mann attempted To carry on hs own
shoulders bankrupt college that was
started too soon. located in the wrong
place and paralyzed by opposition or in
difference of surrounding hostile popu-
lation; and so, after doing the work OF
half dozen men, lay down Just after n
college commencement and died OF sheer
exhaustion.
Ii is doubtless true that some things can
be done only by tremendous bursts of
labor. The brain-work of some men,
especially those who belong to the class
of geniuses, would seem to be done some
what after the manner of that powerful
engine Of the laboratory, the calormotor.
The various materials are slowly aggrc-
gated and put away in their respective
receptacles, the process going on halfun-
conciously on the part of the OPERATOR;
when. on n sudden. preparation being
complete. by some slightest touch, he con-
tracts are closed, the moment of oombus
ton comes. and straightway gold, silver,
iron, stone, and all refractory nnterials
are fused, mingled, recast. and put forth
for all the world TO wonder at in tn cir
new-created forms; which done, the
chemical engine sinks into rust and in
action for months Workers OF tlis style
must be suffered to do things in their own
way. But average people can regulate
the time. manner and degree of their
work, and still do their work well; and
it is for these and ourselves that our pre-
scriptions are intended.
II is hardly necessary to say that our
suggestions are not offered a OF any
value to those individuals who are not
liable to suffer from OVERRIDING. OF whom
there are many in the world. There are
some men so heavily organized, who
think so slow, that the day at lis greatest
length. anywhere below the siStieth par
allel of latitude, is hardly long enough
for them to get tired in. Others are OF
such muscular force and exhauStless fund
of vital energy that no amount of labor
exhausts them, they don't know what it
is to feel tired" they can work when
they please, and as long as they please
and poke as much fun as they please at
rules" for judicious working, and point
to their own impunity for justification in
SO doing. Mr. Webster was never done
with his praises of the two q three hours
when the stomach is empty and the head
clear. Just as if ordinary mOrtals could
stand it to write State papers and work
ND law suits on IN empty stomach!
Beecher confesses that when he has
any important labor on his hands his APP
petite all leaves him whereupon he sets
into the work and finishes it and attends
to the eating afterward. lie can do this
without sensible harm, because he carries
such prodigious fund OF reserved physi-
cal power to draw upon, but not over one
man in million could find such course
ANYTHING but speedy suicide. 1t is not
much to be regretted that these immense
men do not understand their own case
and the case of ordinary mortals better
than to make public statement and recon-
mendation of their working habits as suit
able for imitation for the million.
Still others there are, and a greater
number, who are born lazy. They are
natural shirks. Not only overriding, but
doing at all, is violence to their feel
ings, if not their very organization. These
persons are certainly not happily consti-
tinted, bu: the good associated with their
evil is that they do not out fast; they
accomplish only little in a year, but
they generally live good many years,
and repeat that little good many times,
But there are, as compared with all
these, a very great number of persons OF
limited strength, of inherited feebleness
of constitution, OF nervous irritability, OF
quick sensibilities. who get interested or