An
hour with strict attention is worth more than three hours with
carelessness; and if a girl who wants to get on has only one hour to spare
each day, she must be to herself a very exacting music master.
It is wise to spend an hour a day in exercise. In an hour one can, without
making too great haste, walk three miles. At this rate, a year's walking
represents over a thousand miles. Relaxation is essential to keep up the
spirit and prevent life from becoming monotonous, as if one were sentenced
to perpetual treadmill. Recreation is necessary, and the pursuit of
pleasure is sometimes a duty.
If we had but an hour a day to spare, what would be the best conceivable
use to put it to?--The best use, perhaps, would be to sit down and think.
Suppose we came every day to a full stop for an hour, and thought: "What am
I doing? What is to be the end of all this busy life for me? How may I so
act that when I go out of the world, it will be the better for my having
been in it?" This thinking and planning would make us better characters
altogether, would prepare us to face the future, ready for anything that
might happen, and would fit us for coming duties.
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