The Young Man and the World | Page 7

will be glorified with a beauty
and strength the existence of which you would have denied before you
experienced their blessings.
But, of course, you must work for the benefits you get from Nature, just
as you must work for everything worth having. You cannot quit your
office and say, "Now I shall take a ten-minutes' walk in the park and
commune with Nature." Nature is not to be courted in any such way.
She does not fling her favors at your feet--not until you have won her
utterly. Then all of the wealth and power which Nature has for those
who love her are yours in a profuse and exhaustless opulence.
There is nothing so important for a young man, especially a young
American, as to resolve not to wear himself out nervously and
physically. Take stated vacations, therefore. I should advise every
young man who expects to run a long race to resolve, after he has
established himself, that he will take one, and, if possible, two months'
period of absolute vacation every year. Let him make this a part of his
business, just as he makes sleeping a part of his business every day.
What matter if another lawyer gets the case that would have come to
you, or another real-estate dealer secures the corner lot on which you
have had your eye, or another operator makes the profitable deal which
would have given you fame and fortune?
You have obtained and preserved that which they most probably have
lost. You have made an investment in Youth. You have purchased
power. You have taken stock in length of years. You have equipped
yourself with new nerves, a rested heart, a refreshed brain, a hearty
stomach, and a sane mind in a sound body.
And you have done more than all this: You have restored your
perspective. You have corrected your vision, so that you see things in
their just proportion. One reason why men waste energy so prodigally
is that their intense pursuit of their business makes them lose all sense
of the proportion of things. That which is of little consequence appears,

to the distorted vision, of immense importance; and as much energy is
wasted in trifles as should be expended on great affairs. This process
keeps up until really first-class men are reduced to very small men.
Let a man go each year to the everlasting mountains; to the solitude of
the ancient forests; to the eternal ocean with its manifestation of power
and repose. Let him sit by its solemn shore listening to it sing that song
which for a million years before our civilization was thought of it had
been singing, and which for a million years after our civilization has
become merely a line in history it will continue to sing, and he will
realize how unimportant are the things which only a few weeks before
seemed to him of such vast moment. Perhaps the words of the old
Khayyam will come to him:
"And fear not lest Existence, closing your Account and mine, should
know the like no more; The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has pour'd
Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour."
Or,
"When You and I behind the Veil are passed, Oh! but the long, long
while the World shall last, Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
As the sea's self should heed a pebble cast."
Then you will come back to your work and see things in their proper
dimensions. You will expend your energy on things that require it, and
you will smile at the things that do not deserve your attention, and pass
them by. You will substitute duty for ambition, and you will go your
way with sanity for perhaps ten months. Then you will need again the
elemental lesson of the forest, the mountain, or the sea.
I do not mean that you shall take a vacation until you have deserved it.
What right have you to rest before you have labored--before you have
earned a thread that clothes you or a mouthful that nourishes you. There
are men whose whole lives are a vacation. These words are not for
them. From my viewpoint, such men might as well be dead. The men
upon whom I am urging the wisdom of taking periods for recuperation
are those who have been pulling with the team and keeping their traces

taut. And I assume that you who read are one of these worth-while men.
Very well! I want you to last a long time.
On this subject, many is the talk I have had with friends who are
business men. "Well," my business friend has said, "I just cannot get
away this summer. Next summer I will go away, but I cannot go away
this