Morning journal and courier., 1892-09-07
HOW TO GET rnK BEST OF LIFE.
The Rev. Edward Everett Hale Lays
Down Some Rules of Guidance.
TEro,,, ,ha r,hrs.,f.r

HOW To GET THE BEST OF LIFE.
The Rev. Edward Everett Hale Lays
Down Some Rules OF Guidance.
From the Christian UnionJ
I. For the body, first-sleep, and enough
of 1t, is the prime necessity. Enough ex.
ercise, and good food and enough, are 9TH
or necessities But sleep-good sleep and
enough of it-this is a necessity without
which you cannot have the exercise of use
| nor the food. The old proverbs about
sleep are all misleading, except, indeed,
that which says that ga woman who has a
young child should get sill the sleep that
she can" 1 am told that different people
need different amounts of sleep. Perhaps
they do. On the other hand, know that
the average night of the world is about
eleven twenty-fourths of the average day.
For myself, long since settled down on
ten hours sleep in the twenty four as good
for me; and in this, as in all things, / get
the beet. An hour after lunch or dinner
and nine hours between half past nine In
the evening and hslf-psst six in the morn
ing make good division.
am told that Napoleon 1. "got along"
with four hours sleep out Of twenty-four
Perhaps he did; what is certain is that he
died at the age of fifty-two, and that his
constitution was broken at least five years
before that time.
If you lose sleep In any twenty-four
hours make it up as soon as you can.
III. About food you will find out soon
what you digest and what you do not.
The less you think of it the better. Take
time enough for your meals and eat them
in company whenever you can. There is
no need for hurry in life--least of all when
we are eating.
/ think the modern fad of the doctors,
of meals often and light, is o good one. 1
like cup of coffee (mostly milky an hour
before breakfast. / like to breakfast
about half-past seven. l like cup OF cof-
fee (mostly milky at eleven; lunch or din
ner at one or two; supper or dinner, (the
name is of little consequence, say at sew
en-. If the supper has been light, or what
people call tea, bowl of soup before GO
ing to bed is a good thing.
IF you mean to sleep You should not
drink tea or coffee after two in the after
noon nor go into auy hard brainwork af-
ter three or four. Nest people say they
want to sleep, but also want to do every
thing else conceivable-up to the moment
of taking of their clothes. But this is
absurd.
III. The open air, and enough of it,
every day-rain or shine. This is another
necessity, for sleep and for digestion, and
for any brsinwork which shall be good for
anything / have never made any rules
Tor exercise, however, excepting this gene
Tal demand for the open air. A man in
health ought to be able TO walk six miles a
day without feeiipg tired. Bat fancy it
is rather matter of time in the air than
of nh ysical eXaF,iga Thus ynSiac in
an open horse car or wagon seems to an
swer as well as six miles on foot
For body or miud, I do not believe in
getting tired for the sake of resting, az the
negro boy stubbed his toe because 1t felt
so good when the pain ceased. OF course
a man has to get tired sometimes in the
line of his duty. But work of tired
brain is useless, aud it is pity to over
strain tired body if you can help it.
You should never sit down to the table
to eat when you come in from work dead
tired. Lie down for ten minutes first, or
take a cup of tes, or even of wiue-that is
what wine is for, and the only thing 1t is
for. Bat, before yon eat, wait till the ma.
chine is a littla res.ed or refreshed.
". So much for the physical machine.
Of mental operations We know less of the
methods. But we do know some results
For literary men the same rule lie laid
down by Walter Scott and by Bulwer Lyt-
ton both as to daily maximum of real
work. They were very different men, yet
each of them says that three hours' work
is all that ia good for anything An Eng
lish commission of high authority says
that child's capacity for learning is at an
end after three hours. l believe this Is
quite true. That is one reason for saying
that you need not hurry about anything.
While you work stick stssdily to what
you have in hand If you can. Nothing is
more fstiguiua than a change of subjects
Ii is horrible to have to write twenty let
ters, on twenty subjects, at one sitting
Yet this is what modern bsrbsrism, with
its invention of the post, demands of Us.
As above, never work the brain when 1t
is tired If You mean to do good work.
As above again, never work the brain on
intricate work after three in the afternoon
IL you mean to sleep.
Reduced to practice, these rules would
come out, in a vigorous life, somewhat
thus: You rise and bsthe and dress so as
to be at your work, with your cup of cof-
fee, about half past six, or a little later.
When 1 say coffee l mean milk warmed
with good coffee. The rule Is, "color of
the cheek of brunette in Seville" IL you
ever happened to see one.
Thus you will have one happy hour, or
nearly that, undisturbed by bores.
For breakfast take full hour. II is no
great matter what that breakfast Is, SO 1t
is only different from what 1t generally IL.
After breakfast an hours losfng. You
must not work the brain till the digestion
has week begun. Read the newspaper or
go out in the garden, or hang the picture
which Mark gave you yesterday. Most
men have to go to their business at this
time, so they get an hour of air and e1er-
else without much brainwork
Thus you come to half past nine or
thsresbout. Now you may go to work
with q will. If, as 1 say, you are q man
of literary occupation, shut yourself in
with your amsnuensis and begin to dio-
tate. The best work of the day is done
before breakfast or now. Fortunate for
you IL you have q sympathetic amanuen-
sis, who knows more than you do, and can
follow your diotstion without asking how
to spell "Seringapatam." At the end of
three hours you have done all you can do
to any purpose in that day. Now you
may unlock the door and let the wild cats,
or the tame, rush in. Now you may see
the Psrsee gentleman with the note of in
PRODUCTION from the English consul; you
may see the Armenian professor; You may
see the Koordish pilgrim, the queens in
spector of education, the returned mis-
slonsry from Micronesia, your wife's
aunt's cousin from Valparaiso, and the
rest of them. You may do anything
which is entertaining. But you will not
work that brave old brain of yours any
more to-day.
Lunch AT one, or, IL you prefer, dinner
at two. If you wait till two, some warm
drink between breakfast and two Then,
as above, a nap for an hour. You must
be refused to all these people named
above or their cousins. You will train
yourself, in q little while, to kick off
the rug and jump up just when the hour