A Brain-Worker's Day.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 346, 27 February 1889, Page 6

A Brain-Worker's Day.

Tin-, oxpicssion a. fair day's davg for a tah* day's vvaere was ataxourito one of Garlyle's. And the apo-ble of work was generous in what be wave, mod ei ate in the payment he asked tor it. During the 'latter years of his life he thought himself a very uch man, though his income was never at its best much more than C4flO a year, a sum at which the average man of letteis with about Lhe fifteenth pai b of his> ability would turn up his nose. But we like Carlyle all the bettor foi hid frugality . and there wn° another thing about him that comments itself to the more or less- la/y objects ot hi-t-Lining exhoitations. He held no fanatical belief in early lising. Nine o'clock wai always aoon enough foi 1 him unless the\e vveie lioi&y fowls in the neighbouring yard, or dogs barking in the street, 01 locomotives vihi?tling lound the cornei , ov any' other voice of civilisation in his neighbourhood. True, he did not u;o eaily to bed. Tiavcllci'b on the Craigenputtock wastes saw the light- in his windows late into the night, while all alone he plunged into Goethe and Schiller; and long afterwards, when he was a very old man, and all his early fiiends and relations had dropped away, and even his '('oody'was laid, to hei long refet in Haddinglon Churchyard, the one pleasure of hi^ life was derived from the two hours' reading in Shakspere in the dead of night, when his household \\ as asleep and even the noises of London were hushed. The picture is a veiy difierenl one ttom th.*t, for example, of Mr Gladstone in his pi imc tismg at three o'clock in a spiinc morning to woik at his Budget;. One of the most cm ions things about this question is that the higher we get up the scale of intelligence the less stickMntr to we find at work. It is always the drudge who gi umb'e^ at long houis and who deehes to measuie out his labour as a grocer weighs out' tea, refus ng the slightest bend of the linger more than is in the bond. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible bo do anything so well as to make a. mark in these days of competition with' out the most strenuous labour. (

Sin Rich vkd Wedstek. It would be difficult to poii)t this moial w ith a more striking example of industry than the present Attoiney-General of Englat d. Of Sir Richard's success there can bo no doubt. The most virulent of his abuscrs does not find ib possible to cast any slight upon the value of his opinion. Bub he has nob become the famous lawyer he is without sternly applying himself to his work. Sir Richai dis a very early riser. No matter what the month may be, in November, as in June, he is up and at bis desk at five o'clock or thereabouts. Mo&b of his briefs are read before bieakfast — a circumstance that will remind many of Sir Walter Scott's wellknown habit of getting through his work in the early morning hours. Visitors, and I even some membcis of bis household, thought ho had quite a buiden ot time on his hands because, before they were astir, ho had done his day's crag and was fieo. I But Sir Ttichaid Webster never does get I free. Though the busiest men are generally said to have the mo&t Icisuie, most of the inteistices in his time appear to be well filled in ; if ho gets thiough his briefs quickly he always has a bundle of papers 1 elating to parochial matteis to fall back ! upon. If one considers the amount of sub- ! stance always to be found in his political speeches, and telling of enoimous labour, and with that the soundnpts of his law. an opinion may be formed of the vast amount of work he gets through. It is exactly the same in other professions as in the law. Work begets work. The successful doctor has nob less to do than the successful lawyer — though in his eaily years he is likely to have more leisure than he cares for. If w c may credit whab novelists say about the exhaustion that follows the completion of a story, it would appear that the giddy romancer is nob the least laborious of mortals. Especially is this the case with those impulsive beings who can- j nob run their Pegasus in shafts, but are liable to wild fits of inspiration at any moment. A very successful novelist talking this over with the present writer a short j time ago, said that once the idea of a novel , book fully possession of him, ' there was no more rest bill it was done. Night and day he scribbles as if for bare life while the fit is on. Then, when the manuscript is finished, and the last batch handed over to the printer, there is a reaction, and many weeks of languor ; but then a novelist does nob need to word all the year round. He may, like William Black, take six months' re&b out of the twelve. Probably the most fortunate, however, are those who, like Mr Walter Besant, can discipline themselves to jferform an allotted task per diem. There can be no doubt of successful jonrna lists beinfc by far the hardest worked of any.

Mr Ajtkin 1 , a Victorian colonist, has bought the Windin Park estate, 2,500 aores, ab Oamaru, for £31,000 cash.