The great state : essays in construction / by H.G. Wells [and others].

Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The great state : essays in construction / by H.G. Wells [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    certain lack of dexterity, then an interval of maxi- mum interest and maximum efficiency, followed at length by a decline towards routine. Interest in most cases begins to flag before efficiency shows any serious signs of falling away, for after work has been well executed for a number of years me- chanical aptitude may keep one going, though fresh- ness and zeal have departed. An interesting side issue here would be to consider whether, generally speaking, our judges, bishops, admirals, and generals are not appointed at a period of life when fire and enthusiasm are declining and a certain staleness and secondary inefficiency are setting in. As a matter of fact, there comes to most specialists a time when they are glad to retire from the work to which they have devoted the greater portion of their lives. But this by no means necessarily indicates that their energies are exhausted. They are tired of their specialty, and at last comes a reaching-out to other things about which to centre their activities. Such names as Mr. Balfour, Lord Rosebery, and Sir Frederic Treves may be cited as British instances of this cessation of interests in a special occupation. The last is a particularly good example of a man who, having attained to an extreme eminence as a surgeon, retired deliberately while still in the prime of life to travel, to write, to become a more generalised pian. *-* New, bearing in mind the ample tradition and education of the Great State and the fact that 6 Fite