XII 



VOCATION VERSUS AVOCATION 



WE have just contemplated optimistically a 

 play-time that is to come after your business 

 activity has put you into possession of a 

 competent fortune. But we must not slur the fact that 

 this ideal of financial independence may never be at- 

 tained. Strive as you will, under existing economic 

 conditions, you may never acquire a competency that 

 will enable you to retire from business. Most men 

 never do more's the pity. You will do well, then, to 

 make sure of the benefits of relaxation by seizing them 

 as you go along. All work and no play makes a dull 

 boy and a tiresome man. Your brain, like any other 

 machine, needs a rest from the grinding cares of the 

 day. A change of activity a diverting line of thought 

 or a game of chance or skill has marvellous recupera- 

 tive value, even aside from its directly pleasurable effects. 

 It is medicine to a brain distraught with business 

 worn men ts. 



And if such a line of action may be curative of ills 

 that already exist, it may be no less preventive of future 

 evils. If it puts your feet on firm ground to-day, it may 

 also prevent you from crossing to-morrow's bridge be- 

 fore you come to it. You will do well, then, on many 

 accounts, to cultivate habits of pleasurable activity as 

 a part of your every-day routine. Give yourself the 

 freedom of occasional hours of mental diversion from 



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