The work accomplished by such men as
Gladstone and Roosevelt is incomprehensible
to most of us who have never undertaken
more than puny tasks. These men retain their
strength and in no way seem to be undermining
their health by the accomplishment of their
<p 14>
Herculean labors. Body and mind seem to
respond to the demands made upon them.
Their periods of sleep and their vacations
seem to be no more than the hours and days
of rest required by those of us who accomplish
infinitely less.
No need, however, to go beyond the field
of business or industry to find men whose
super-energy has carried them to epochial
discoveries or feats of organization. The
invention of the incandescent lamp by Edison
is said to have been accomplished, for instance,
only after forty-eight hours' continuous
concentration on the final problem of finding the
right carbon filament and determining the
proper degree of vacuum in the inclosing
bulb. Months of experiment and research
had gone before; eighteen hours a day in the
laboratory had been no uncommon thing for
the inventor and his assistants, but in the last
strenuous grapple with success his own physical
and mental powers were alone equal to the
strain. Not once during the two days and
nights did he rest or sleep or take his attention
<p 15>
from the successive tests which led up to the
assembling of the lamp which lights the world's
work and play.
The steel blade that is used seems to last as
long as the one which is allowed to lie idle.
The wearing out in the one case does not seem
to be more destructive than the rusting out
in the other.
We have a choice between wearing out and
rusting out. Most of us unwittingly have
chosen the rusting process.
This, indeed, may be said to be Edison's
regular method of work, as it is the method of
many other men who have accomplished great
things in science and industry. Both mind
and body have been trained and accustomed to
exertions which seem quite impossible to ordinary
individuals.
Many persons find that increased intellectual
activity results in less fatigue and
greater achievements. As a student I did
my best work and enjoyed it most the year
I carried the greatest number of courses and
assumed the most outside duties. In my
<p 16>
capacity as adviser to college students I find
many who are able to accomplish thirty per
cent more work than is expected of college
students but fail to do equally well the regular
amount. There are others who can carry the
regular amount but not more without injury
to their health.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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