THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



the roar of a political convention, or seated on a Broad- 

 way curbstone, should occasion demand it, as readily 

 as in his office. I suspect that most people could learn 

 to be equally independent of their surroundings if only 

 they would train themselves in the right direction. In- 

 deed, I know some writers who find the roar of a city 

 more favorable to mental effort than the silence of the 

 country; the noise about them seems to wall them in 

 and protect them, if not indeed actually to stimulate 

 their mental processes. 



The obvious moral is that you should cultivate the 

 capacity to adapt yourself to your task and your time. 

 You can probably learn to work in town or in country, 

 by day or by night. Do not let yourself be put off with 

 the illusive excuse which lazy minds so often put for- 

 ward that you would do better elsewhere or under 

 more pampering conditions. Even ill health could not 

 curtail the work of a Darwin, a George Eliot, an Eliza- 

 beth Barrett Browning, a Herbert Spencer. It is only 

 half-genius, as Hamerton says, that is always waiting 

 for its inspiration. The true worker puts his shoulder 

 to the wheel wherever he finds it. He waits for no in- 

 spiration; defers not for favorable time or place; but 

 seizes on the present moment, and has finished his 

 task before the procrastinator would have begun. 



But though you should thus prove yourself master of 

 unfavorable surroundings on occasion, it by no means 

 follows that you should be utterly careless of your en- 

 vironment, if a choice is open to you. It would be 

 sheer folly to deny that environment counts for much in 



