THE NATURAL HISTORY OF REST 331 



knows, the stage Spaniard will never run if he can walk, 

 never walk if he can sit, never sit if he can lie, and what so 

 much irritated the engineer from a more energetic climate 

 was what he called " the everlasting Mariana, Mariana 

 To-morrow, To-morrow." But the Spaniard's " Mariana " 

 has its lesson for the American " with a steam-engine in his 

 brain," and that lesson is Rest. The Nemesis of disre- 

 garding it is in the ugly word Neurasthenia, nerve-fatigue, 

 over nerve-fatigue, chronic nerve-fatigue, hereditary nerve- 

 fatigue, so the dismal story runs till the child is born so 

 tired that it dies. 



One of our strongest instincts is the work-instinct, to 

 work at what is natural to us, and it is often too strong for 

 our imperfectly developed rest-instinct, which is almost as 

 important. A narrow conscientiousness which besets too 

 many of us says " Work," and we work long after it can be 

 called day. " We have our work," we say, but we lose 

 Art, and our work becomes toil. Is there not something 

 to be said for the Spaniard's "Mariana," or for the Irishman's 

 advice, " Be aisy ; and if you can't be aisy, be as aisy as 

 you can " ? This is all the more important since it is obvious 

 that in many respects our organisms have not kept pace 

 with our social evolution. 



