How to Live on 24 Hours a Day | Page 3

fees, that arise directly or
indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, [2]
alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by disk, book or any other
medium if you either delete this "Small Print!" and all other references to Project
Gutenberg, or:
[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this requires that you do not remove,

alter or modify the etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, if you wish,
distribute this etext in machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary
form, including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- cessing or hypertext
software, but only so long as *EITHER*:
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not* contain characters
other than those intended by the author of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and
underline (_) characters may be used to convey punctuation intended by the author, and
additional characters may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into plain ASCII,
EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays the etext (as is the case, for
instance, with most word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional cost, fee or expense,
a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent
proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits you derive
calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you
don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following each date you
prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax
return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning machines, OCR
software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of
contribution you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association /
Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

This Etext prepared by Tony Adam [email protected]

How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day
by Arnold Bennett

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION

This preface, though placed at the beginning, as a preface must be, should be read at the
end of the book.
I have received a large amount of correspondence concerning this small work, and many
reviews of it--some of them nearly as long as the book itself--have been printed. But
scarcely any of the comment has been adverse. Some people have objected to a frivolity
of tone; but as the tone is not, in my opinion, at all frivolous, this objection did not
impress me; and had no weightier reproach been put forward I might almost have been
persuaded that the volume was flawless! A more serious stricture has, however, been
offered--not in the press, but by sundry obviously sincere correspondents--and I must
deal with it. A reference to page 43 will show that I anticipated and feared this
disapprobation. The sentence against which protests have been made is as follows:-- "In
the majority of instances he [the typical man] does not precisely feel a passion for his
business; at best he does not dislike it. He begins his business functions with some
reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his
engines, while he is engaged in his business, are seldom at their full 'h.p.'"
I am assured, in accents of unmistakable sincerity, that there are many business men--not
merely those in high positions or with fine prospects, but modest subordinates with no
hope of ever being much better off--who do enjoy their business functions, who do not
shirk them, who do not arrive at the office as late as possible and
depart as early as possible, who, in a word, put the whole of their force into their day's
work and are genuinely fatigued at the end thereof.
I am ready to believe it. I do believe it. I know it. I always knew it. Both in London and
in the provinces it has been my lot to spend long years in subordinate situations of
business; and the fact did not escape me that a certain proportion of my peers showed
what amounted to an honest passion for their duties, and that while engaged in those
duties they were really *living* to the fullest extent