The Benefits of Work
佚名/Anonymous
年輕人,記住,你必須工作。
不論你是使用鋤頭還是鋼筆,不論你是推車還是統計賬簿,也不論你是挖溝渠還是編輯報紙,又或是敲響拍賣槌還是寫些有趣的東西,你必須工作。環顧四周,你會發現最有可能安度晚年無須工作的人,現在工作最努力。別害怕工作過度會謀害你的性命。不到三十歲的美好年華,承受能力遠不止此。有人喪生,隻是因為他們晚上六點結束工作後,不是徑直回家,而是流浪到淩晨兩點。年輕人,正是那段時間毀了他們。工作讓你食欲大增,使你安然入睡,讓你心滿意足地享受假日。
不工作的年輕人有很多,但世界不會以他們為榮。他們的名字無人知曉,甚至被人談及時隻會稱其為“某人的兒子”。沒有人喜歡他們,龐大、繁忙的世界根本不知道他們的存在。所以,想清楚自己想成為怎樣的人,想要去做什麽。然後,脫下外套,投身於繁忙的世界。你越忙碌,受到的傷害就越少,睡眠就越香甜,假日就越快樂、越幸福,你也會對這個世界更滿意。
Remember, my son, you have to work.
Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-barrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing an auction bell or writing funny things, you must work. If you look around you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest. Don't be afraid of killing yourself with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the morning. It's the interval that kills, my son. The work gives you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity to your slumbers; it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holiday.