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Lesson 60 Too early and too late 太早和太晚 Punctuality is a necessary habit in all public affairs in civilizedsociety. Without it, nothing could ever be brought to a conclusion; everythingwould be in a state of chaos. Only in a sparsely-populated rural community isit possible to disregard it. In ordinary living, there can be some tolerance ofunpunctuality. The intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, haseverything coordinated and organized for the matter in hand. He is thereforeforgiven, if late for a dinner party. But people are often reproached forunpunctuality when their only fault is cutting things fine. It is hard forenergetic, quick-minded people to waste time, so they are often tempted tofinish a job before setting out to keep an appointment. If no accidents occuron the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of traffic, sudden descent of fog,they will be on time. They are often more industrious, useful citizens thanthose who are never late. The over-punctual can be as much a trial to others asthe unpunctual. The guest who arrives half an hour too soon is the greatestnuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating habit. The only thingto do was ask them to come half an hour later than the other guests. Then theyarrived just when we wanted them. If you are catching a train, it is always better to be comfortablyearly than even a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may meanwasting a little time, this will be less than if you miss the train and have towait an hour or more for the next one; and you avoid the frustration ofarriving at the very moment when the train is drawing out of the station andbeing unable to get on it. An even harder situation is to be on the platform ingood time for a train and still to see it go off without you. Such anexperience befell a certain young girl the first time she was travelling alone. | 
