356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and, when the future good is gained, he neglects that while striving 

 for some still remoter good. 



What I have seen and heard during my stay among you has forced 

 on me the belief that this slow change from habitual inertness to per- 

 sistent activity has reached an extreme from which there must begin 

 a counter-change a reaction. Everywhere I have been struck with 

 the number of faces which told in strong lines of the burdens that had 

 to be borne. I have been struck, too, with the large proportion of 

 gray-haired men ; and inquiries have brought out the fact that with 

 you the hair commonly begins to turn some ten years earlier than 

 with us. Moreover, in every circle I have met men who had them- 

 selves suffered from nervous collapse due to stress of business, or 

 named friends who had either killed themselves by overwork, or had 

 been permanently incapacitated, or had wasted long periods in en- 

 deavors to recover health. I do but echo the opinion of all the ob- 

 servant persons I have spoken to, that immense injury is being done 

 by this high-pressure life the physique is being undermined. That 

 subtle thinker and poet whom you have lately had to mourn, Emerson, 

 says, in his essay on the gentleman, that the first requisite is that he 

 shall be a good animal. The requisite is a general one it extends to 

 the man, to the father, to the citizen. "We hear a great deal about 

 "the vile body" ; and many are encouraged by the phrase to trans- 

 gress the laws of health. But Nature quietly suppresses those who 

 treat thus disrespectfully one of her highest products, and leaves the 

 world to be peopled by the descendants of those who are not so 

 foolish. 



Beyond these immediate mischiefs there are remoter mischiefs. 

 Exclusive devotion to work has the result that amusements cease to 

 please ; and, when relaxation becomes imperative, life becomes dreary 

 from lack of its sole interest the interest in business. The remark 

 current in England, that, when the American travels, his aim is to do 

 the greatest amount of sight-seeing in the shortest time, I find current 

 here also : it is recognized that the satisfaction of getting on devours 

 nearly all other satisfactions. When recently at Niagara, which gave 

 us a whole week's pleasure, I learned from the landlord of the hotel 

 that most Americans come one day and go away the next. Old Frois- 

 sart, who said of the English of his day that " they take their pleas- 

 ures sadly after their fashion," would doubtless, if he lived now, say 

 of the Americans that they take their pleasures hurriedly after their 

 fashion. In large measure with us, and still more with you, there is 

 not that abandonment to the moment which is requisite for full en- 

 joyment ; and this abandonment is prevented by the ever-present sense 

 of multitudinous responsibilities. So that, beyond the serious physical 

 mischief caused by overwork, there is the further mischief that it de- 

 stroys what value there would otherwise be in the leisure part of life. 



Nor do the evils end here. There is the injury to posterity. Dam- 



