The necessity of holidays is expressed in the
homely proverb. All work and no play makes jack a dull boy, we must not only
have hour of relaxation in our working days, but also longer intervals of
cessation from work. Some are foolish enough to suppose that there is a direct
proportion between the hours of labor and the result of labor, that the longer
we work the greater will be our achievement. This idea is not true of any kind
of work and is especially false when applied to intellectual labor. Even if we
confine our attention to a single year, the student who allows himself a few
holidays will probably learn more than another who plods at his work. Without a
day’s intermission, from the begging to end of the year. Although he works for
a less time, yet, owing to increased entail vigor produced by occasional rest,
his work will more effective, and the
improvement inequality will be more the an compensation for the dissemination
in the quantity of the work done’?
the value of holidays is still more apparent it we consider’
the matter with regard to longer periods of time. A man, by working without
respite for a whole year, is likely’ to incapacitate his brain for effectual
work during the following year. Thus students may, by intense labor for longer stretches
of time, succeed in passing with credit one or two examinations and seem to
make a good start in life. But if they have neglected the duty of refreshing
their minds by periodical holidays, they commerce the real business of life
with exhausted brains and impaired health. This is how if so often happens that
men. After a brilliant university career, are eclipsed in afterlife by others
who stood below them formerly in examinations, but by wisely economizing their of
brain power, left their colleges strong in mind and body. And well prepared for
the arduous struggle of life.
Another important consideration about holidays is
that they are likely to add to the length of our life. There is an Arabian
proverb which says that the hours spent in hunting do not count in our life,
the meaning of which is that, if we spend three or four years beyond the time we
should have lived without that relaxation. The same may be said of all healthy
ways of spending our holiday leisure. The man who allows himself a fair amount
of rest from labor thereby prolongs his life. Thus he not only improves the
quality, hut also, by living for a greater number of years, increases the
quantity of his work.
We have so far been considering the effect of
holiday’s upon a man’s work and success in life, because it if from this point
of view that the necessity of continual labor is most frequently insisted upon.
But, after all, even if holidays did not positively improve the quantity and
quality of our work, they would still be desirable for their own sake. It is a
gloomy idea to regard work as the only end of life. Good work is indeed only a
means. Its great