noon
The fact is no blacksmith ought to be troubled with more than five languages ; and instead of shoemakers becoming philosophers , we would like to turn our surplus of philosophers into shoemakers ; and the supply of poetry is so much greater than the demand that we wish milliners would stick to their business . Extraordinary examples of work and endurance may do as much harm as good . Because Napoleon slept only three hours a night , hundreds of students have tried the experiment ; but instead of Austerlitz and Saragossa , there came of it only a sick headache and a botch of a recitation . We are told of how many books a man can read in the five spare minutes before breakfast , and the ten minutes at noon , but I wish some one could tell us how much rest a man can get in fifteen minutes after dinner , or how much health in an hour 's horseback ride , or how much fun in a Saturday afternoon of cricket . He who has such an idea of the value of time that he takes none of it for rest wastes all his time . Most Americans do not take time for sufficient sleep . We account for our own extraordinary health by the fact that we are fanatics on the subject of sleep .