may be called the rounding of the handle; and your education will be
normal if you have average application, intelligence, and memory. During
college your future course will begin to shape itself, but before you fix
upon your definite object there is likely to be a period at which you can
be tempted into the greatest dissipation. By dissipation I do not mean the
accepted term, but the scientific use of the word; namely, the useless
expenditure of energy in futile pursuits. It is the opposite of
concentration, which means directing energy upon your object. To make
myself clearer, I will define energy as also meaning, in addition to your
labor, your money, as money is the accumulated energy of your ancestors,
just as coal is the accumulated energy of sunshine.

You must remember also that there is a certain amount of allowance to be
made for some rather indefinite objects, which are none the less
important, and which, for want of a better name, I shall call the Discard.
Among these can be named the education of the imagination, having a good
time generally, foolishness, mysticism, good fellowship, æsthetics,
humanity, and humanities in general. The fact that many a man has thrown
himself away by putting all his time into these things, and lived solely
for good fellowship, for foolishness, or for imagination without
attainment, is no reason why you should not partake in a small measure of
these qualities, which is like the wheel grease on the axle or the clown
in the circus. It is apt to be even more important yet, as it may prove to
be the road to friendship, societies, society, and love. Moreover, you
should not forget that, in the pursuit of your object, you must provide a
material recreation for yourself,--literature, music, art, billiards,
anything; something that will give you (and others, if possible) pleasure
and diversion, and render your happiness independent of your work, if for
any reason you are prevented from devoting your life to it.