contempt, will lack the volition to put the fire out. But, be it noted,
he will not succeed until he can do it at once. A fire is a fire, and
the engines must gallop by themselves out of the station instantly. This
means the acquirement of a mental habit. During the preliminary stages
of the cure he should, of course, avoid inflammable situations. This is
a perfectly simple thing to do, if the brain has been disciplined out of
its natural forgetfulness.




X

MISCHIEVOUSLY OVERWORKING IT


I have dealt with the two general major causes of friction in the daily
use of the machine. I will now deal with a minor cause, and make an end
of mere dailiness. This minor cause--and after all I do not know that
its results are so trifling as to justify the epithet 'minor'--is the
straining of the machine by forcing it to do work which it was never
intended to do. Although we are incapable of persuading our machines to
do effectively that which they are bound to do somehow, we continually
overburden them with entirely unnecessary and inept tasks. We cannot, it
would seem, let things alone.

For example, in the ordinary household the amount of machine horse-power
expended in fighting for the truth is really quite absurd. This pure
zeal for the establishment and general admission of the truth is usually
termed 'contradictoriness.' But, of course, it is not that; it is