least use to him, simply because he has not carried them far
enough, and could not carry them far enough in the time he had to give.
Yet this might have been ascertained at the beginning by the simplest
arithmetical calculation. The experience of students in all departments
of knowledge has quite definitely ascertained the amount of time that is
necessary for success in them, and the successful student can at once
inform the aspirant how far he is likely to travel along the road. What
is the use, to anybody, of having just enough skill to feel vexed with
himself that he has no more, and yet angry at other people for not
admiring the little that he possesses?

I wish to direct your attention to a cause which more than any other
produces disappointment in ordinary intellectual pursuits. It is this.
People can often calculate with the utmost accuracy what they can
accomplish in ten minutes or even in ten hours, and yet the very same
persons will make the most absurd miscalculations about what they can
accomplish in ten years. There is of course a reason for this: if there
were not, so many sensible people would not suffer from the delusion.
The reason is, that owing to the habits of human life there is a certain
elasticity in large spaces of time that include nights, and mealtimes,
and holidays. We fancy that we shall be able, by working harder than we
have been accustomed to work, and by stealing hours from all the
different kinds of rest and amusement, to accomplish far more in the ten
years that are to come than we have ever actually accomplished in the
same space. And to a certain extent this may be very true. No doubt a
man whose mind has become seriously aware of the vast importance of
economizing his time will economize it better than he did in the days
before the new conviction came to him. No doubt, after skill in our work
has been confirmed, we shall perform it with increased speed. But the
elasticity of time is rather that of leather than that of india-rubber.
There is certainly a degree of elasticity, but the degree is strictly
limited. The true master of time-thrift would be no more liable to
illusion about years than about hours, and would act as prudently when
working for remote results as for near ones.

Not that we ought to work as if we were always under severe pressure.
Little books are occasionally published in which we are told that it is
a sin to lose a minute. From the intellectual point of view this