The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1888-01-19
EXCESS OF ENERGY.
American People Stung by the GadGy
of Competition.

cases OF those who, in familiar slang
are ''born tired" the characteristic,
of the time is pushing, driving
restless, uneasy habit of mind anC
body, constant struggle to get on
to attain wealth, or fame, or position
and all this too often with utter dis.
regard of the means employed, and
with a criminal carelessness of the
wear and tear of the machine, mental
and physical. We are stung by the
gadfiy OF competition, and goaded to
renewed effort by ambition and the
we'll meant but really pernicious adj
vice OF those to whom our success in
life is near and dear. 70 be content
with our station in life is regarded as
un- American and unpatriotic, and as
every soldier in the French army is
said to carry a marshal's baton in his
knapsack, so every American youth
is presumed to have enormous wealth
or high political station within his
reach, and if he fails to strain every
nerve to grasp it he is deemed what
our Anglo-Saxon progenitors called
''niddering'- worthless, useless,
ambitionless fellow.
Some of the cheap and tawdry
Poor Richard style OF proverbial
philosophy must bear its share of the
blame for this condition of affairs.
The remark attributed to Daniel
Webster that there is always room
at the top of the ladder" has proba-
bly, been instrumental in turning out
more poor and inefficient lawyers
than all the law schools of the coun-
try. The poor, deluded disciples of
Blackstone fail to see that there is so
much room because so few reach the
top of the ladder, and that the top
rounds are more often attained by
series of happy accidents than by
plodding industry, espec ally if the
plodders have industry and nothing
else.
Another phrase about which tolios
have been written and on which the
press, the pulpit and the stage have
expended much eloquence, the "dig-
nifty of labor" is equally mischiev-
Gus. Labor in itself possesses no quail
ity of dignity. 1t is irksome, disa-
greable, sordid, mean and grinding.
1t extinguishes aspirations for higher
things it exhauts the capacity for
enjoyment; it makes an abject slave
of free man. And yet we are told,
ad nauseam, of the dignity Of labor.
Labor is only means to an END. 1t
is period of probation, to be follow
ed at some time, as we all hope, by
rest.
There may be, and often is, much
dignity, much elevation OF character,
in the man or woman who labors
but this is not because of his or her
labor, but in spite Of it. A human
soul will shine through any disguise,
and true nobility Of character will re-
veal itself under the most adverse
circumstances but to say that one
possessing those qualities has them
multiplied or intensified by labor is
to say that lovely landscape would
be made more beautiful by being
viewed through smoked glass, or that
a fair woman is more fair in rags and
tatters than in silk or satin
But since toll is the destiny of the
human race, a destiny as memorable
as fate itself, is it not the part Of wis
dom to seek to alleviate our o0ndi-
ton by every means in our power
Though we are hemmed in by the
iron walls Of necessity, nothing pre-
vents us from making our imprson-
ment as endurable as possible, and to
do this We must cultivate the capaci-
ty for repose. We must learn to rest
as well as to toll. We must become
impressed with the absolute necessi-
ty tor cessation from labor and the
urgent demand Of mind and body for
recuperation.
Activity of any kind can reach its
must successful results only when it
is alternated by sufficient periods Of
rest, and the capacity for repose must
be developed in every man if his best
possibilities are ever to be realized.
Modern science has sufficiently dem
onstrated this so far as merely physi-
cal culture is concerned Not only is
the imperative necessity for sleep
universally acknowledged, but it is
also conceded by all students of hui
man energy that at least one day in
seven should be kept as a day of rest
for the body, and this independent Of
any religious considerations. Many
and careful observations have been
made on this question, and their re
suit amounts to an actual demonstra-
ton that no man or set of men car
work effectively more than six-sev
enths Of the time, aud that any at
tempt to run the human machine be
yond this limit means its destruc
ton.
Mental vigor is equally dependen