On Liking One's Job.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 12

On Liking One's Job.

j By S. M. Crothers. B

Mr..- G. H. Wells recently asked how the world's necessary work could be relieved from boredom in doing it. Mr. S. M. Crothers, in the "Atlantic Monthly," has a very vivacious paper "On Liking One's Job," in which he throws some light on the problem of what makes work a. pleasure, and denies that it is necessary to bo miscrablo in doing one's work, or even in doing good!

"Among the most persistent of my early, dreams was that of being a missionary,"- says Mr. Crothers. "I wanted to be a missionary before it occurred to me that I had any particular doctrine to, cbmmunieate or manner of life to recommend. Indeed, I now perceive that my call was more of Nature than of Grace.

"I wanted to bo a missionary because I; louged to go On missionary journeys. The call of tho wild, the' lure of the unknown, the fascination of terrestrial •mystery, takes many forms. It is all a part of the romance, of Geograpliy, which has survived even the invention' of maps.

"When ouo *is . eleven and going on twelve, there comes a great longing to go to the Antipodes, to visit No Man's Land, to wander through forsaken cities, to climb lonely towers, and to look out through

'Magic casements opening' oa the foam Of perilous seas. J

"In different generations this demand has been variously met. Tho institutions of civilisation, besides their primary objects, have had the secondary function of satisfying the youthful desire to go into a far country, a desire not of the Prodigal alone. Patriotism, Religion, Commerce, cach has its linger-post pointing to the unknown."

. When the writer of the article wanted to be a missionary because he had heard one who "had crossed deserts in caravans and had endured perils of robbers"; when he fell in love with Persia and read Thomas Moore's "Lalla Rookh" and the "Arabian - Nights," and was saturated with the' glow and colour of the East, his grandmother checked him, for she said: "You must not go as missionary to- Persia, for if you do the Persians will convert you."

' Now he asks, "Was my. grandmother right in thinking that my pleasure in Persia. was likely to be a detriment to my usefulness? Was-I less likely to do good ,to the Persians because I thought well of tliem to begin with? And would it have-been a waste of .time if, after a term of years, I had partly converted tho Persians and the Persians had partly converted me? May there uot be' a profitable reciprocity in spiritual influence ? . .

"In attempting to answer such questions we encounter the prejudice which exists among' the more moral - and .intellectual classes, against mixed motives. There seems something especially meritorious in the more unplcasing manifestations of duty, as then we are free from any doubts as to its being the genuine article. If the duty happens' not to be disagreeable, we try .to make it .appear so. Thus a patriotic citizen, being nominated for an office- of "dignity, is careful to inform his constituents that he accepts at' the sacrifice of his personal desires,, which are all for a strictly private life.. :

: . "Biographers of missionaries, philanthropists, reformers, and all kinds of altruists, seem to think it necessary to do something like this. They represent their.heroes as doing all sorts of-dis-agreeable things which they do not want to do. They sot up one single dignified motive, and severely eliminate all the little subsidiary motives that grow around.-it.. •' "The 'strong man' rejoicing to run a raceS tis.,-pr.aissd.i for.:Jiis disinterested' virrtue. r, ?Bravo - fellbw-l How . noble he .is in his self-forgetting zeal! . Theie he goes, through all the heat and dust, when ho might be here sitting, in a rocking-chair.'- ■■ -i ■ "The sympathetic and tearful admirer would feel. that you were attempting to pull his hero down from the high moral pedestal if you \were to say that, rocking in a chair was an acquired tasto which the strong man does -not as yet possess. He prefers to runi He has an excess of animal spirits which must be worked off in some way. He rejoices to run, partly because he is alive, and partly -because he has a worthy goal. presented to him. . - "So far as I have been able to observe, such mixed motives aro the . ones that tako men furthest. Altruism is no exception to tlie general rule' that a man does good work when-lie likes, his job. The football "player : doesn't- mind his. incidental bruises. 'The fisherman rejoices in his tribulations, and no one thinks it strange. Why should, not the, altruist got the same sportsmanlike pleasure out of the incidents,of his work? . : ''Human nature is so constituted that it demands that duty be mixed with pleasure. We cannot abide an altruist who does not -enjoy himself, and who. has not a sportsmanlike spirit. We resent his-attempt to monopolise, brotherly kindness. "The great helpers of mankind have been men who were shrewd enough to see this condition and frankly. to accept it. They have turned their duty into pleasure, and then claimed ■ for themselves only the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. If-in this pursuit they incidentally helped their neighbours, they hoped that this would not -prejudice anyone against them: f . ■ -j

"A disciple camo.to Confucius, and, witli. that admirable directness in.asking questions characteristic of Chinamen, .inquired, 'Master, arc you a sage?' CcafuciHS answered, 'No, lam not:a sage; I Mil only one who learns - without satiety, and who ieaches without getting tired.' "There was John Wesley. His 'Journal,' with its record of indefatigable labour, is one of the cheeriest books in the language., "What a rave good time he had! When ho was .eighty-seven, .he could say, 'I do not remember to -havo felt .lowncss o£ spirits for a quarter of an. hour since I was born.' For inoro than . sixty " years , this indefatigable pleasure-seeker • had been.. doing as ho pleased. Up every day in . time'to preach i at five o'clock in the morning; then over [ the hills or through tho pleasant lanes t to preach again nt about the time lazycitizens, ready, for breakfast; off again, on horseback or.'by chaise,'or .in a lumbering stage-coach, for more preach-: ing to vast crowds of sinners—just the kind of sinners he liked to. preach to. Between, sermons lie refreshed his mind withall sorts and conditions of books. • "When wo read Borrow's 'Bible in Spain,' we feel that Borrow would have gone .to Spain any way, even if •there: had been no Bibles to distribute. ■'Nevertheless, his natural affinity for gypsies, muleteers, and picturesque vagabonds .of all sorts enabled hiin to carry the Biblo into out-of-the-way places which would never have been dreamed of by a zealous person'of sedentary habits. "There is always' something to bo said in favour of the strong bent of the spirit, whether it tends toward Connecticut or Persia."