Chapter III.

       Where Does Your Energy Go?

       Table of Contents

      Ninety-nine per cent, of the sun-power or energy stored up in a ton of coal is lost on its way to the electric-light bulb. Thus we get only a hundredth part of the possible light contained in a ton of coal. The other ninety-nine parts are dissipated in heat, and used up in friction in the engine or the electric apparatus, and never become light. To discover some way to prevent this fearful waste of energy is one of the great problems confronting scientists to-day.

      Just as fearful a waste of energy goes on in man’s use of his own powers. Instead of one hundred per cent, of his energy appearing in results that are worth while, often not more than one per cent, of it gets into his real work, the rest being thrown away, dissipated in scores of ways.

      A young man starts out in life with a large amount of force and vitality stored up in his brain, nerves, and muscles. He feels an almost limitless supply of energy welling up within him, a fulness and buoyancy which know no repression. He believes he will do wonders with this energy, and that he will transmute practically all of it into light,—achievement. In the pride of his youth and strength, he seems to think that there is practically no end to his power to throw off energy, and so he often flings it out on every side with reckless prodigality. He burns it up here in a cigarette or a pipe, there in whisky or wine; here he drains it off in heavy suppers and late hours, there in vicious living, idleness, shiftlessness, and botched work, until he finally comes to himself with a shock and asks, “Where is the electric light I meant to produce with all my energy? Is this flickering candle flame all that I can generate?” He is appalled to find that, with all his superabundant vitality, he has scarcely produced light enough to illumine his own way, and has nothing left for the world. He who had boasted of his strength and felt confident of shedding a light that would dazzle the world stumbles along himself in semi-darkness. The energy which should have been transmuted into achievement has been lost on the way.

      It is not the vitality we utilize that dwarfs achievement and whittles away and shortens life: it is what we foolishly throw away. Millions of people have made miserable failures in life by letting this precious energy, which might have made them successful, slip away from them in foolish living and silly dissipation.

      It is considered a terrible thing for a youth to spend a thousand dollars of his father’s money in a single night’s dissipation; but what about the strain upon his vitality, the life forces which he throws away, or the wasted energy which might have been put into physical and mental achievement? What is the loss of money compared with the demoralization wrought by such a debauch? What are a thousand dollars in comparison with even a small fraction of precious life-power? Money lost may be regained, but vitality lost in dissipation not only can not be regained, but it is also a thousand times worse than lost, because it has demoralized all that is left, deteriorated the character, and undermined the very foundation of all that is best in life.

      But it is not always what is classed as “wicked dissipation” that robs us of energy. There is a wanton waste of vitality in various forms going on all about us, which might be converted into something that would count in life. Some time ago there was a six days’ bicycle race in Madison Square Garden, New York City, in which the contestants drained off more vitality than would have accomplished years of ordinary work. It was really pitiable to watch the exhausted victims, who were determined not to give up though they should die in the struggle. The drawn lines about the mouth and eyes, and the haggard expression of those men in the last hours of their desperate ride, haunted everybody who saw them. Many of those naturally strong, rugged fellows had to be lifted from their wheels, while some of them fell prone upon the floor in their utter physical exhaustion and mental stupor. Others completely lost consciousness, owing to brain poisoning caused by the accumulation of worn-out muscle and nerve tissue in the blood.

      Thus do we turn even our most healthful, recreative exercises and sports into fatal energy-wasters, degrading them into exhibitions of mere brutality, in which men lose manhood and strength instead of gaining them.

      A foreigner traveling in this country says, “Americans waste as much energy as most other nations utilize.” It is true that there is a woful lack of serenity, of poise, and of balance among us. We are always on the move,—always twitching somewhere.

      A noted physician says that most people expend ten times the energy really necessary in almost everything they do. Many grasp a pen as if it were a crowbar, keep the muscles of the arm tense when they write, and pour out as much vital force in signing their names as an athlete would in throwing a heavy weight a great distance. Not one person in a hundred, he says, knows how to make proper use of his muscles or to relax perfectly when at rest. Yet it is chiefly through repose, or perfect rest, that we are enabled to store up energy, to stop the leaks, and to cut off all wastes.

      A normal person, who has stopped all these energy leaks is not nervous or restless. He has control of his muscles, and is ever master of himself, self-centered, and poised. He gives you the impression of a mighty reserve power, because he has not wasted his energy. He' can sit or stand still, looking you squarely in the eye without flinching, because there is power back of the eye. He is always balanced, never flies off his center, and does not need artificial stimulants or bracers.

      It is no wonder that so many of our nervous and over-active business men begin so early to die at the top; that they feel exhausted in the morning; that they are fagged and tired out most of the time; and that they resort to stimulants or smoking to keep up the intense, unnatural strain, and to give them artificial energy as a substitute for the real energy which is constantly leaking away in a score of ways.

      The tired brains and fagged nerves of the spendthrifts of energy are responsible for a large proportion of the abnormal thinking, the wretched mistakes in business, the fatal blunders which cost human lives on land and sea, the suicides, the insanity, and the crime of the world. When the brain cells and nerve cells are well supplied with reserve force, a man is normal, strong, and vigorous. He is not haunted by all sorts of unhealthy appetites, or by a desire to do abnormal things, or live an unnatural life of excitement and self-indulgence.

      Just look back over the day and see where your energy has gone. See how much of it has leaked away from you in trifles. Perhaps you have wasted it in fits of fretting, fuming, grumbling, fault-finding, or in the little frictions that have accomplished nothing, but merely rasped your nerves, made you irritable, crippled you, and left you exhausted. You may have drained off more nerve and brain force in a burst of bad temper than you have expended in doing your real work. Perhaps you did not realize that, in going through your place of business like a mad bull through a china shop, you pulled out every spigot and turned on every faucet of your mental and physical reservoir, and left them open until all the energy you had stored up during the night had run off. Look