If a man determined, because his horse or his dog showed exceptional
intelligence, that he would endeavor to develop that intelligence by
setting the animal at mental tasks, and so gave it only the exercise
that would come from moving about the room, and no fresh air or
sunshine, no road-work or hunting--well, we are all quite familiar with
what the result would be.

If a parent had a child who showed unusual mental precocity and
thereupon forced the brain of that child, with no outdoors, no fresh
air, no sunshine, and even to late hours, we all recognize that such
action would be criminal. Yet probably 50 per cent, of our best
executives, in their efforts to aid in the present emergency, are doing
just what we are ready to condemn in the hypothetical cases given above.
Some of these men, while still able to whip up their will into going on
from day to day with the same exhausting program, finally conclude that
unless they take a vacation they are going to break down. The doctor
tells them so and they know it. Whereupon they rush off for a week or
ten days; some of them enter upon an orgy of exercise, others relax into
a somnolent state of lying around and thanking their stars that they can
rest at last. They certainly do feel better and do improve, but they
come back to work merely to begin the same old vicious round. They have
had their lesson, but they have not learned it.




CHAPTER III