The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1869-03-25
Do Laboring Men Have Time to Study j!


AN work and no play makes Jack dull
boy is a true saying if not model of liter
airy excellence. It's meaning is, that mind
and heart as well as muscle needs exercise
Man is complex being. Body, mind and
soul need to be mutually and tremendously
developed, or the human machinery becomes
out Of balance, aud speedily shakes itself to
pieces. zsa~
A distinguished cssayist, haiing from Bos-
ton, the American Athens. has taken up the
pen to urge that the laboring classes play too
much aud study SO little, that the nature Of
the case hardly admits Of much effort at men
tai Improvement. So many hours labor and
such hearty meals to get through it all are
required, that any attempt at intellectual i'm
proyement on the part OF the working classes
is, ia our Boston philosophers opinion, ne
cessarily as the gait of the OK; to that Of q
trotting horse.
We have a word to say upon this subject,
and We shall begin by agreeing with our es-
sayist, that workingmen, especially young
workingmen, study too little, but We dissent
totally from the statement that there is any
thing in the nature of their labor to prevent
them as class from successful study, if they
could be induced to undertake it systemati-
cally. aa& a
Let us see. It is asserted that they eat too
heartily, that they must eat too heartily to be
fect-minded We admit, because our expe-
rience as we'll as physiological science proves
it, that hearty meal cam t be followed
Immediately by vigorous mental application:
The attempt to do it must inevitably work i'll
to body and mind. But we also know from
theory and practice that the last meal Of the
day should be, especially to the laboring man,
light one This meal precedes the hoars OF
leisure generally possessed BY laboring men,
the hours which are too generally spent in
smoking, thcatre-going, billiard-playing,
drinking in many sad cases, or, what is scarce
ly better, season of mental and physical
inanity by the freside, SLOWLY and surely de
grading all the faculties.
Now, let it be distinctly understood that We
do not object to harmless amusements per Sc
IF workingmcn will not study, they had
better play than smoke, drink, or sit by the
fire and nope We believe in the duty Of
recreation. But We also believe that study
itself is recreation to man whose muscle:
have been in active play for ten hours of thf
day, and the best kind Of recreation, too, wher
| the last meal has been, as it should be, a ligh
one Then the body rests while the mind IL
| fresh and vigorous. and tyo or three hours O
profitable and most interesting intellectual en-
ioy,nent can be had at far less expense thar
the pipe, the billiards, or the theatre demands
Let us now look for moment at the cues
ton of time. Suppose laborer to work tel
hours, and to devote two hours per day tt
meals and going to and from work. Their
remain twelve hours out Of the twenty four
Allow niue hours of this for seep-an hou
more than is necessary for most persons-ba
say nine hours three Of leisure remain. Bu
suppose one hour of the three be spent wit
the family, there is still two hours of time 70
quiet study Now exclude Sundays from tn
calculation, and allow one secular evening TO
amusement solely, there remain ten hours pc
week for study-an amount OF time tina
would, with ordinary intelligence, answer t
master the rudiments Of tue French or Gel