Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not,for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer. Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.

　　处于劳作和玩之间的是工作。如果一个人对社会付酬给他的工作感兴趣的话，他就是工作者;从社会的观点看，工作是必要的劳作也是个人心目中自愿的玩。例如：这个区别不同于体力劳动和脑力劳动之间的区别;一个园艺工人或一个补鞋匠可能是工作者，一个银行职员可能是劳作者。一个人属于哪一种可以从他对休闲的态度看出来。对于工作者来说，休闲只是他为了有效地工作而放松和休息的时间，所以他可能少休息而不是多休闲。工作者可能致于冠状动脉血栓症，忘记妻子的生日。反之，对于劳作者来说，休闲意味着从强迫中的摆脱，因此他们会很自然地想花在工作上的时间越少，自由自在玩的时间越多就越好。

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（编辑：王美娇）