No matter what the ignorant or the envious may say, there is nothing
really unsocial in a moderate indulgence in the art of auto-comradeship.
A few weeks of it bring you back with a fresher, keener appreciation of
your other friends and of humanity in general than you had before
setting forth. In the continuous performance of the psalm of life such
contrasts as this of solos and choruses have a reciprocal advantage.
But auto-comradeship must not be overdone, as it was overdone by the
mediaeval monks. Its delights are too delicious, its particular vintage
of the wine of experience too rich, for long-continued consumption.
Consecutive thought, though it is one of man's greatest pleasures, is
at the same time perhaps the most arduous labor that he can perform.
And after a long period of it, both the Auto-Comrade and his companion
become exhausted and, perforce, less comradely.
Besides the incidental exhaustion, there is another reason why this
beatific association must have its time-limit; for, unfortunately,
one's Auto-Comrade is always of the same sex as one's self, and in
youth, at least, if the presence of the complementary part of creation
is long denied, there comes a time when this denial surges higher and
higher in subconsciousness, then breaks into consciousness, and keeps
on surging until it deluges all the tranquillities, zests, surprises,
and excitements of auto-comradeship, and makes them of no effect.
This is, probably, a wise provision for the salvation of the human
digestion. For otherwise, many a man, having tasted of the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of auto-comradeship, might thereupon be
tempted to retire to his hermit's den hard by and endeavor to sustain
himself for life on this food alone.
Most of us, however, long before such extremes have been reached, are
sure to rush back to our kind for the simple reason that we are
enjoying auto-comradeship so much that we want someone else to enjoy
it with.
VI
VIM AND VISION
Efficiency is to-day the Hallelujah Chorus of industry. I know a
manufacturer who recently read a book on business management.
Stop-watch in hand he then made an exhaustive study of his office
force and their every action. After considering the tabulated results
he arose, smashed all but one of the many office mirrors, bought
modern typewriters, and otherwise eliminated works of supererogation.
The sequel is that a dozen stenographers to-day perform the work of
the former thirty-two.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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