Tombstone epitaph., 1890-07-05
AN UNPROFITABLE HABIT.
Persons Addicted to Day-Dreaming Can
 Not Make Life Successful.

i Persons Addicted to Day-Dreaming Can ! Not Make Life Successful.
 The reason why so many people find their work distasteful is because they have allowed themselves to become vic tims to the habit of day-dreaming, says the Minneapolis Household. It is a wonderful thing to be imaginative. The one who is so gifted finds the jolting along life's highway much easier to bear than he who stolidly endures it without the aid of any sort of an air cushion. It is wise to cultivate the i'm aginative faculty; but he makes mis- take who allows that faculty to expend itselfin the narrow channel of day dreaming where it must do harm to himself and benefit no one. There are few who are not more or less addicted to the habit of day-dreaming. It is sort of brain disorder for which the patient mnst be his own physician. Or it may be compared to the habit of opium eat ing, for though it's effects are not so ter rible, it is quite as hard to get rid of. It is particularly deplorable when it be- comes fixed upon the housekeeper, for it not only tends to make her discon- tented with her lot, but impresses upon her the hopelessness of all endeavor to shake off the burden which she finds so wearisOme. One may always know such a aday-dreamer by the expression of her countenance as she goes about her work, and by the manner of her performance of it. She fretS over every demand made upon her efforts, and counts as lost every effort which fails to bring as great rewards as she has convinced herself i5 should. Like all habits it's advances are made so stealthily that the victim does not heed them; it's warn ings are given with a silver tongue that is pleasant to listen to, and later, though it's encroaches may cause displ easure, they are so made that no complaint can be urged against them. The victim be- gins by wishing her work was done; there is no harm in that; she might do so even if she were in no danger of be- coming day dreamer. She then wishes she were not obliged to work at all; but what exception can be taken to that? It is surely very natural expression of one who has so much to do. She thinks what her life might be, if she were not obliged to drudge; how much more full and beautiful it would have been had she not put herself in her present posi- tion. No doubt enters her mind that she is fitted by nature for the ideal life-the life which is somehow to be very bright and useful ard full of inspir- ation for others, but which is also to be untrammeled by work. Such thought is not very consistent with reason. ''But if it gives her pleasure, where lies the harm?' is the very natural question. It is hard to see the danger in day dream ing even when it reaches this stage. The patient becomes intoxicated with the picture of that ideal life and of her self as the center of it. Day by day it fastens itself more securely upon her. Every annoyance causes her to lose her self in it, as the opium eater forgets his troubles while under the influence of the benumbing drug.
 'Where is the harm so long as it gives hor pleasure, and causes her to forget her present unhappiness?" The ques- tion is continually presenting itself.
 There is no more reason and just as much nonsense in such questions when applied to the day-dreamer as when ap- piled to the opium-eater. There is no progress, no growth, no earnest reach ing out after better things, no attempt to turn the present unhappiness into present joy-nothing but an idle gazing at an illusion.
 The victim, living in her imaginary state of ease and grandeur, is suddenly called to earth by some duty more inn portunant than the rest. How does she bear it?
 The change from this fairyland of fancy to the land of reality does not tend to make the latter more endurable. The time spent in dreaming does not qualify the dreamer to catch up with the work which she thereby neglected, or make her less impatient over the an- noyances which always keep company with neglected duties.
 Day-dreamers do not always have pleasant dreams. Often they pause in their work to magnify little discom- fort or trouble, until they have imag- ined themselves beggars or martyrs, un- loved or unappreclaJed, as Inelr dlIIer- ent dispositions dictate.
 An abitualday-dreamerc can not make life successful, can not contribute much to the happiness of others. can not be happy. He is forever drawing compari- sons between the actual and the ideal which make him dissatisfied, and dis satisfaction is contagious. Be very sure, Anf lot hot 1Ony living in air castles has not rendered you incapable of seeing your life as it really is.
 A Vigorous Schoolmaster.
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