Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-05-06
PROFITS OF IDLENESS.

A Dangerous Doctrine to Inculcate InA0
 tho Thriftless and Ne'er-do-Wen ,
 It is often said that 'stime IS money" and we know that money Is power." Time, therefore, is also power, and power of which we ought to make the best poss ible use while we may, for, like money, this is apt to take wings and fly. There is an art of economizing time that is just as impor- tant as the art of economizing wealth, says London Queen. Economy is to attain a given result at the least possible cost (Of time, money or any other power) or to at tain the greatest possible result at given cost. We have got a certain. cnount of work to do-how can we most quickly do it? Or we have got certain amount of time at our disp0sal-how make the most of ita Such are the problems of the time economist Time economy is by no means an easy art, we are all, whether consciously or unconsciously, either practicing or neg lecting its principles. We are all either time economists, time-misers or time-spend- thrifts. The hme-economist IS the man CT woman who discovers as soon as possible the work for which he Or she is best suited how much he or she can do in given time, adopting the best and speedieSt methods, and practicing the difficult art of leaving undone or minding hls or her own business.
 Again, there is the time-miser, whose ok- ject is to hoard time, to spend no minute without tangible return. To him time is what gold is to the money-miser, 8 tyrant, no less memorable because invisible whose iron will flinders, cramps and finally crush es every noble and kindly impulse. To him a leisure minute is a lost minute. His life is regulated by minutely detailed timetables, which, leaving no margin for unforeseen events, is only adhered to at the cost of many a precious opportu- nity of getting or receiving good. Such are unaware or forget that what they call wasted time is often fertile of the greatest results to the observant and intelligent If all that we have learned in so-called idle moments were suddenly expunged from our minds by some chemical process, how bar ren those minds would often be. Who knows how much such men as Shakespeare, Scott, Goldsmith, Thackeray, Dickens and other students of human nature have learned in those idle moments when the people who write upid little tracts on the sin of wasting time would have sent them back to their desks and their dictionaries. We all know how fertile in results is hoii- day to the weary brain worker Or intelligent handicraftsman. What poor economy it would be to dispense with such times of idle ness. Topfer, the Swiss artistauthor, him. self no idler, spoke truly when he said that J Ss@A oA uoWul IS ut lu1SASSS WtiS d utSIIa ble element in a liberal education.
 A comforting doctrine truly, but highly dangerous to our third class of men and Homen-the time spendthrift We all know the type, the inveterate idler, who yawns through purposeless days, talks of killing time and yet has pressing business if suddenly asked for a helping hand. But there is another less obvious kind of spend thrift, the man or woman ever feverish about trifles; or the other, who undertakes long and varied programme of work, and accompishes none for want of method; or a third, who expends vast amount of energy in trying to do something for which he or she is quite unf1tted. All three are like those of whom the poet speaks. They spend Q lifetime in the tol
 Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
 And growing old in drawing nothing up