The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-04-06
SHORT TALKS TO YOUNG MEN
(No. 1877


and [ fear that my answers to the young
mans questions are going to provoke en-
phatic dissent. The views that [ hold now
are not those that | entertained when boy,
myself. The midnight oil' drew me, with
its fatal fascination, as it has drawn so many
others. But now that [ am fifty four years
old, my convictions are different, having
undergone change in the unerring school Of
experience.
Temple, Ca, March 10, 1911.
Dear Editor: Knowing that you have of late
been writing on special topics of interest to young
men, am asking a favor of you. The subject I
desire you to write on, when time and oppor-
tunty affords, is 'The Habits of a Student
such as how much sleep, recreation, exercise, etc.
a student needs and must have to do the best
work. 1t has always been an unsolved question
with me how much sleep and recreation l ought
TO take fear have made the mistake of sit
ting up too late and being too studious for at
school oftimes I feel drowsy somewhat I have
often heard how Abraham Lincoln and manv
others would sit up the greater part of nights
studying. Now the question with me: Does
such business pay high school boy or college
boy?
think you will be doing a favor to not only
myself, but many other boys as we'll as girls bv
writing on these points. We know that you
know, or should know about the care of the
brain as well the body.
have certainly appreciated your talks on table
manners, and especially the one on the sex Dues
ton. Thanking you in advance for this favor, I
am, Your friends
GUY H. WELLS.
Perhaps the most accomplished scholar of
modern times was Erasmus His genius was
not so robust and versatile as that of Bacon:
he was not so deep thinker as Locke: he
was not so daring SO witty, and so creative
as VOlta1re; he was not SO profound in the
Dead Languages as Person; he was not the
equal of Sir Thomas More in conceiving and
sketching a social Utopia; nor did he possess
the quaint originality Of Browne, Montaigne
and Herrick: but in the blended culture of
ancient and modern literature; in the genius
for extracting the sweetness of myriad flow
ers and transfusing these into the honey of
the beehive, Erasmus was not excelled by any
scholar of modern times
This being so, has opinion as to qUhen to
study should carry overwhelming weight.
In fact, it was not until, in reading. I CHANGED
to come upon his rule and practice that my
faith IN night-study was shaken.
1t had always seemed to me that the quiet,
the seclusion, the freedom from interruption
which night gives us, left no room for doubt:
night must be the proper time for study
But | firmly believe that this is a mistake
"a deplorable mistake | suspect that In
sOmnla, (sleeplessness) which seems to be
disease peculiar to people who do mental
work, has its origin in night-study. Students
are encouraged to keep late hours, applying
their brains to books; consequently, when
middle-age approaches and they no longer
wish to keep awake until midnight, but yearn
for sleep at nine, or ten, 1t q0iW not come.
Nature, insulted by youth, takes her revenge
when youth has fled.
My revised opinion is, that no hard study
should be allowed to excite the brain at night.
Reading, reviewing, and other light work
may be done, until one feels sleep. When