NOTE XOV. 



{]. In general. 



|&quot; 1 . Excess in sleep. 



2. In particular. -| 2. Misapplication of times of vacation. 



l_3. Useless inquiry. 



Wasting time, in general. 



Alfred usually divided his time into three equal portions : one was employed 

 in sleep and the refection of his body by diet and exercise ; another in the dis 

 patch of business ; a third in study and devotion : and that he might more 

 exactly measure the hours, he made use of burning tapers of equal length, 

 which he fixed in lanthorns, an expedient suited to that rude age when the 

 geometry of dialling, and the mechanism of clocks and watches was entirely 

 unknown. 



Sleep. 



Of wasting time by excessive sleep, Milton, speaking of his own morning 

 occupations, says, &quot; My morning haunts are, where they should be, at home ; 

 not sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast, but up, and 

 stirring ; in winter, often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labour, or to 

 devotion ; in summer, as oft with the bird that first rises, or not much tardier, 

 to read good authors, or cause them to be read, till the attention be weary, or 

 memory have its full freight.&quot; 



Wasting time, by misapplication of times of vacation. 



Cicero says, &quot; Quare quis tandem me reprehend at : si quantum caeteris ad 

 festos dies ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates et ad ipsam 

 requiem animi et corporis conceditur temporis, quantum alii tempestivis con- 

 viviis, tantum mihi egomet ad haec studia recolenda sumpsero.&quot; 



&quot; But,&quot; says Bacon, &quot; if any man notwithstanding resolvedly maintaineth, 

 that learning takes up too much time which might otherwise be better employed, 

 I answer, that no man can be so straitened and oppressed with business and an 

 active course of life, but may have many vacant times of leisure, whilst he 

 expects the returns and tides of business, except he be either of a very dull 

 temper or of no dispatch, or ambitious (little to his credit and reputation) to 

 meddle and engage himself in employment of all natures and matters above his 

 reach. It remaineth therefore to be inquired in what matter, and how those 

 spaces and times of leisure should be filled up and spent ; whether in pleasures 

 or study, sensuality, or contemplation, as was well answered by Demosthenes 

 to ^schines, a man given to pleasure, who, when he told him by way of 

 reproach that his orations did smell of the lamp, Indeed, said Demosthenes, 

 there is great difference between the things that you and I do by lamplight: 

 wherefore let no man fear lest learning should expulse business ; nay, rather it 

 will keep and defend the possessions of the mind against idleness and pleasure, 

 which otherwise, at unawares, may enter, to the prejudice both of business and 

 learning.&quot; 



Mr. Charles Butler, in his Reminiscences, says, * Very early rising, a sys 

 tematic division of my time, abstinence from all company, and from all diver 

 sions not likely to amuse me highly, and, above all, never permitting a bit or 

 scrap of time to be unemployed, have supplied me with an abundance of 

 literary hours.&quot; 



Instances of this misapplication of times of vacation may be observed in the 

 conduct of members of different professions. 



Evelyn, in his Memoirs, says, 5th December, 1678 : &quot; I was this day invited 

 to a wedding of one Mrs. Castle, io whom I had some obligation, and it was to 

 her fifth husband, a lieutenant colonel of the city. She was the daughter of 

 one Burton, a broom-man, by his wife who sold kitchen-stuff, whom God so 

 blessed, that the father became very rich and was a very honest man: he was 

 Sheriff of Surrey when I sat on the bench with him. Another of his daughters 

 was married to Sir John Bowles, and this daughter was a jolly, friendly woman. 

 There was at the wedding the Lord Mayor, the Sheriff, several Aldermen, and 



