Duncan Sumter

Duncan Sumter

The hours

Four books. Read them one after the other.

You are already tired, and you have not opened the day you call your own.

The hours — front cover

I love my people, and I can see them thriving in a life so full that the countries which call themselves serious would think it extravagant. What stands between them and that life is what this book is for.

The tiredness feels like evidence that you are a serious man. It is what the workweek left in you after it had used the hours in which a life is made.

This book is four books. Read them one after the other. The first is one hour. If you grant it and remain as you are, you have chosen. The second is the law of that hour for a people. The governments now standing are cancelled by it, not improved. The third is one life. The practice is forged in it, and survival is the only thing allowed to take the hour. The fourth is the week the practice is lived: the bells, the page, and the thirteen. It will cost you the comfort.

The morning is the book now.

Four books

Read them one after the other

  1. 01The hourOne hour. If you grant it and remain as you are, you have chosen.
  2. 02The orderThe law of that hour for a people. The governments now standing are cancelled by it, not improved.
  3. 03The lifeOne life. The practice is forged in it. Survival is the only thing allowed to take the hour.
  4. 04The weekThe bells, the page, and the thirteen. It will cost you the comfort.

The week

The bells, the page, and the thirteen

Tonight, before sleep, four bells are set and four lines are written. Morning, midday, evening, night. No fifth line. The thirteen are given one at a time, on the day the foundation is kept, not on the day the chapter is read.

  • 6:00 to noon

    Morning

    One foundation, while you are still the most competent self of the day.

  • Noon to 18:00

    Midday

    The hunt, in the living world, with an open plan.

  • 18:00 to midnight

    Evening

    Home. The day stays outside the door.

  • Midnight to 6:00

    Night

    The stop, so tomorrow can begin with strength.

Given in this order

The thirteen

  1. 01The SeizerOne real seizure in each watch. The day is taken, or it is not.
  2. 02The SmithThe body is the instrument. Train today.
  3. 03The SubstanceKnow what is urgent and what is the path. Finish the one thing.
  4. 04The BondSomeone is actually in the day, in a real act.
  5. 05The BreakerFace the one chain. Live one moment it was keeping.
  6. 06The GroundStand up into the living world when the midday bell has rung.
  7. 07The MakerBy tonight something exists that did not exist at dawn.
  8. 08The ProtectorThe hours go to what you will not put down.
  9. 09The StillA time given to serenity, in a real place. A desk is not that place.
  10. 10The RaidOnce in the day, unleash it. The doubt is not in the act.
  11. 11The HouseAt the door the day stays out. A person is received as belonging.
  12. 12The WantStay until the first answer would have been a lie.
  13. 13The LineBuild, in the world, one thing a later hand can hold.

The book is written

Write if you want to hear when it is out. The life the book comes from is on its own page.