Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/278

 272 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

perf onus a limited number of operations in her work^ there is constant opportunity for devising new combinations without limit, altiiongh hers is not usually considered a particularly intellectual occupation. Some girl who likes cooking may find in this work boundless oppor- tunities for intellectual growth, while a hundred boys and girls become merely cooking machines.

It is a characteristic of so-called professional work that it demands constant growth. This does not mean that every lawyer or minister or teacher is constantly growing. Unfortunately it is possible for a physician to keep himself going a number of years on a few cheerful phrases and an assortment of pill-bottles; it is possible for an archi- tect to make some sort of a living with a limited repertory of plans. But professional work is nevertheless of a kind that gives endless op- portunities for thinking and learning and ezperimentiag — ^in shorty for growing. The same is true of many occupations tiiat are not con- sidered professional; that is, they may become mechanical routine, or they may be used as instruments for personal enlargement. library work is a good example; stenography is another. In a particular library or in a particular office, the worker may be confined to routine operations indefinitely. Here we must distinguish between the voca- tion and the particular job. Indeed, this distinction is important in every department of economic life. For a person who has learned a special trade, one shop offers great opportunities, while another shop is a trap without an outlet.

In every occupation there must come times of great exertion that may leave one exhausted. But in some occupations the work is always pitched to the limit of endurance. In every occupation there come moments of suggestion or iospiration; but in some occupations there is stimulation every day. In some occupations the worker may set his own pace and produce — ^and earn — ^in accordance with the mood, or his energy, or his health; in others the pace is set by the machinery or by the speed of the fellow-workers, or by the character of the process, and the worker is under tension all the time.

The significance of these facts can be seen in their relation to the leisure life of the worker. One who finds his work stimulating is cap- able of enjoying life vigorously after working hours; one whose work is enervating becomes sodden, or seeks artificial stimulation in liquor or in dissipation. At best, the exhausted worker goes home to sleep until the next day; at worst, the drunken worker sobers up for another day's grind.

The hours of work determine the amount of leisure as well as the energy available for that leisure. But some men get more out of life^ with ten hours a day at their tasks than others get with only eight or six hours. The physician occasionally works twenty-four hours at

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