The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1870-02-12
On Wasting Time.


Here you are Sir, wasting your valua BILE
time-as they say to me- said Charles Dickens
one morning, many years ago, as his little boy
ran up to him on the Broad-stairs sands, spade
in hand. And we have often wondered since
how many people there are who know what is
meant by wasting time.
1t is very easy to make mistakes on this
subject, for nothing is so deceitful as appear
ances. We all know that Penelope, that class
ical model of propriety and all the virtues, en-
ployed all her time in weaving garment by
day, and unraveling it at night. She did this
to keep off her lovers, who wanted to persuade
her that her husband Ulysses was dead. When
the suitors found her out, ofcourse they accused
her of wasting her time-but at that moment
Ulysses knocked at the door, after seeing many
men and cities. In fact, he had come home
and the fair Penlope had her reward alter all.
Surely it is waste of time for that old tortoise
to try and beat the nimble hare at racing, but
the silly old thing will crawl on, without once
stopping, at about the pace one gets down the
Strand in a cab ON a rainy day. Presently,
down comes the hare at furious pace-there
is no wasting time with him, at all events
but, alas when he arrives breathless at the
winning post, he feds the old tortoise there
before him, and fast asleep too. "A = says the
hare. Il wish had taken my nap at the end,
instead of the beginning IF the race, and then
| should have won it, 6 I'd the tortoise would
have crawled in vain as it is he has made
good use of his time, nd wasted mine"
What an Idle man that is yonder, fishing,
hour after hour Truly melancholy spectacle,
as stern old Doctor johnson would say, "A line
with worm at one end and fool at the
other Wrong a gain That man is an eminent
statesman, who has escaped to recruit his weary
brain in the company of the king fisher and
the heron. What eloquence, wisdom, and
wholesome legislation do we not owe to such
hours of idleness Nay, do not some ofour best
and kindliest thoughts often come to us as we
sit on the bench and toss pebbles into the
shining sea covered with its "innumerable
smiles ?" Recreation is not waste when 1t is a
rest from real work, and a preparation for
more.
We confess we never feel at home with a
man who must always be doing something.
There was a french statesman who wrote
huge book by snatches, in those occasional IN
tervals when he happened to be Kept waltihg
for his dinner. We have not the slightest wish
to see this ant-droundial performance. We
have do doubt it was very dull book, Tor men
that are never at leisure are always dull.
Fussy men and idle men are equally Insuflera-
BILE to us. The real worker is never in hurry,
and the real idler, we may add, is never
ANYTHING else. Who ever heard of Lord Pal
merston, or the Duke of Wellington, or Lord
Brougham, being in hurry? When we see
q man in great hurry, we may be pretty GER
tain that his profession consists in doing moth
ing, and that he is doing that badly. The
idlest man we ever knew was always so much
pressed for time that he never had five minutes
to spare for anything. No one need ever be in
such a terrible hurry as this. If we ever find
ourselves so, it is probably because we have
been wasting our time. We have no system,
and have, therefore, done in an hour what
ought to have been finished in twenty minutes
or, like the hare, we have loitered on the way,
and then we make push for it, and arrive
Just in time to miss the train. How many hares
there are every morning who arrive breathless
in the city, because breakfast was half an hour
late, or because they would not get up when
the clock struck seven
But our readers have right to ask what
constitutes, as general rule, waste OF time.
We answer in a single sentence-Whatever
hinders or prevents you doing your work in
life. Every one should realize that his duty
here consists in applying himself to some
worthy work, and his time may then safely
and without waste be divided into three periods
preparing for work, doing work, and resting
from work. Waste of time, then, becomes
thing purely relative. What is mere waste in
one case is real profit in another. The idle lnan
who travels simply for pleasure, is simply
wasting his time the man who travels for
safety, or the man who travels to get rest from
work, or for the sake of his health, is not vast
ing or abusing his time, he is turning it to good
account.
Let the heart be filled with some good prin-
,ipIe of action, and let the mind he dirsctsd
towards some congenial pursuit, and then our
innocent pleasures will be as little in danger OF
into criminal indulgence, as our
wholesome recreations into waste OF time
CoSseH Magasine.