MAKING THE MOST OF LEISURE.
By Hamilton Wright Mabie
[Hamilton Wright Mabie, in November Success.] TOO MUCH can not be said of the value of the hours which most men waste. One of the prime qualities of a man of force and ability is his clear understanding of what can be done with the time and tools at his command. Such a man wastes no time in idle dreaming of the things he would do if he could go to college, or travel, or have command of long periods of uninterrupted time. He is not guilty of a feeble evasion of “no possibility” for his career by getting behind adverse conditions. If the conditions are adverse, he gets in front of them and so gets away from them. Conditions look very solid and formidable, but a plucky man often discovers that their portentous show of strength is a sham, and that the great guns which frown upon him are merely wooden imitations. Everything yields to a strong hand. The question for each man to settle is not what he would do if he had means, time, influence, and educational opportunities; the question is what he will do with the things he has. The moment a young man ceases to dream or to bemoan his lack of opportunities, and resolutely looks his conditions in the face, and resolves to change them, he lays the corner-stone of a solid and honorable success. A young man who ceases to dream about the things he would do if he had plenty of time, and plans the things he will do with the time he has, may go slow, but he will go far. Such a young man, thirty years ago, suddenly discovered that, by using in a continuous way the time he spent on ferry-boats and railway trains, he might have a good deal of leisure. This leisure was made up of half and quarter hours at the beginning and end of the day,—the odds and ends of time which most people regard as of no account. Taking them separately, they are of little account; putting them together, by treating them as a whole, they furnished a fine opportunity for the liberal education of a young man of business. This young man saw the uses of these odds and ends of time if he could treat them as a whole. That was really a very simple matter, tho multitudes of people have never found it out. To utilize these hours and make them as valuable as if they formed a continuous period of time, it was only necessary to make a little plan of work, and to have the material in hand so as to turn every quarter of an hour to account. This young man wanted to know German. He bought an elementary grammar and phrase book and some simple German stories. He kept a book in his pocket, and, when a spare quarter or half hour came, he studied the book. It was not difficult, and in a little while it became very interesting. He was soon reading simple German, and from that point his progress was rapid, and the pleasure of the occupation steadily increased. In less than a year he had German so well in hand that he began to study Spanish. He became engrossed in the study of languages as an occupation for his leisure hours; he found it very enjoyable, and every language learned was an open door to more enjoyment. In a few years he was reading German, Spanish, French, and Italian easily and with keen enjoyment. In the meantime his business advancement had been rapid, and he had secured a very important and lucrative position in a great organization. His studies had not only given him an education, but they had also conduced to his success in practical affairs by the quickening and training of his mind. This is but one among thousands of similar achievements.