:: meanders ::
souvenirs from the space-time continuum

By now most people have heard of Project Gutenberg, but a reminder and a revisit may be worth your while as the quantity of ebooks in the public domain has mushroomed over the past few years. A good starting place is the Top 100 - Project Gutenberg.

Being as a large focus of my web logging is market oriented, try P. T. Barnum's The Art of Money Getting, published in 1880 from a series of lectures delivered in 1863. Although PT Barnum is forever associated with "a sucker is born every minute", he was also a popular speaker in his day. The "self improvement" movement was hardly invented in the New Age and like James Allen, Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, and Tony Robbins, the focus is on axioms for success in life. The specifics may differ, but the messages share several threads in common: the individual must put in hard work at understanding their self, set specific goals, develop kindness towards others, and cultivate ethical behavior. Here is an easier to read version divided up into chapters.

Arnold Bennett in his How to Live on 24 hours a Day, has this practical advice

Rise an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours earlier; and--if you must--retire earlier when you can. In the matter of exceeding programmes, you will accomplish as much in one morning hour as in two evening hours. "But," you say, "I couldn't begin without some food, and servants."

Surely, my dear sir, in an age when an excellent spirit-lamp (including a saucepan) can be bought for less than a shilling, you are not going to allow your highest welfare to depend upon the precarious immediate co-operation of a fellow creature!

Instruct the fellow creature, whoever she may be, at night. Tell her to put a tray in a suitable position over night. On that tray two biscuits, a cup and saucer, a box of matches and a spirit-lamp; on the lamp, the saucepan; on the saucepan, the lid-- but turned the wrong way up; on the reversed lid, the small teapot, containing a minute quantity of tea leaves. You will then have to strike a match--that is all. In three minutes the water boils, and you pour it into the teapot (which is already warm). In three more minutes the tea is infused. You can begin your day while drinking it.

These details may seem trivial to the foolish, but to the thoughtful they will not seem trivial. The proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.

Would that I had a servant, getting up at 5am to trade would be so much easier!!

Finally, how about Hand Shadows To Be Thrown Upon The Wall, by Henry Bursill.