College grades afford a means of recording
intellectual efficiency directed toward particular
problems. With no apparent change in
bodily conditions the same student frequently
increases his efficiency a hundred per cent.
The increase seldom has an injurious effect
on health, but is merely evidence of the fact
that he has suddenly wakened up and is
applying energies which before were undiscovered.
A slow walk for a single mile leaves
many persons ``dragged out'' and exhausted,
but a brisk walk of the same or a greater distance
results in invigoration and recuperation.
Likewise the droning over an intellectual task
results in exhaustion, while vigorous treatment
whets the appetite for additional problems.
This swift, decisive attack on problems was
<p 17>
the method of Edward H. Harriman, who
crowded into ten years the railroad achievements
of an extraordinary lifetime. Decisions
involving expenditure of many millions of
dollars were arrived at so quickly as to seem
off-hand, even reckless. In reality, they were
the products of brief periods of intense application
in which he reviewed all the conditions
and elements involved, and forged his conclusion,
as it were, at white heat. Back of each
decision was exact and thorough knowledge
of the physical and traffic conditions of each
of his railroads. In the case of the Union
Pacific, at least, he gained this mastery by
patient, intensive study of each grade and
curve and freight-producing town on its 1800
miles of track.
The inhabitant of the torrid zone upon
moving to a northern climate is severely
affected by the chill of the atmosphere. The
discomfort may last for days or months, but
he becomes acclimated and is able to withstand
the cold without serious discomfort. Likewise
the inhabitant of a cool climate feels exhausted
<p 18>
by the heat of the torrid zone. In some cases
he is unable to accustom himself to the change,
but in many instances the acclimatization
follows rapidly and leaves the individual well
fortified against the dangers of excessive heat.
Persons who have accustomed themselves
to stimulants of any sort are completely depleted
if they are unable to get the special
form to which they have been accustomed.
This holds true for tobacco, morphine, coffee,
and many other forms of stimulants actually
indulged in by many persons. If they are
able to resist the temptation and deny themselves
the stimulant, the period of exhaustion
soon disappears and the subject may even lose
all craving for that which formerly seemed
essential to his very existence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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