10 ON THE ART OF IDLENESS. May II 



great et catera of fuch ufelefs and pernicious people, 

 did not fall under the head of my trcatife, as not being 

 idle men, but ill employed ones, who have all the reft- 

 lefsnefs and anxiety of defires unfatisfied, and are there- 

 fore to be counted among men of bufinefs. My pupils 

 feek amufements that are innocent, eafy, always ia 

 their own power to procui-e ; fuch as improve the mind, 

 and fit it for farther enjoyment, and finally are benefi- 

 cial to mankind. One of them having nothing to do, 

 inclofes ten barren acres worthy only a Ibilling per 

 acre of yearly rent ; and whilft he is pleafing himfelf 

 with feeing his hedges grow, and to find a freih ver- 

 dure where there was only blafted heath before, he is 

 agreeably farprifed to find his ten acres -now yield ten 

 pounds a-year. If a rainy day confine him at home to 

 his houfc, that is a day of high entertainment, for he 

 will furely fee fome new beauty in Virgil, or other 

 claiDc, that he had not obferved before, find out 

 the caufe of fome appearance in nature which he had 

 not hitherto explored, feaft on a difh of Tacitus, Hume, 

 or Voltaire, or take his pen and write a letter that has 

 nothing in it, to fome one whom he hopes " Suas ejje 

 aliquid putare ni/gas" and pleafes himfelf before hand 

 •with the fatisfaftion he fhall receive when he gets an 

 anfwer. I would choofe for the motto of this treatife, 

 or rather, I Ihould iay the text for this fermon, 



Paiici qiios jequus amavit 



Jupiter, et ardens cvexiL ad atheia virtus, 



Di^ geniti potuere. 



" Obferve, my beloved, how my text naturally di- 

 vides itfelf into three heads, and how abfolutely necef- 

 fary it is that all three fliould concur to form the hap- 

 py hero of idlenefs, whom I rather frame to myfelf 

 in idea, t- an ever expeft to meet with. 



" ift. JEquus amavit 'Jupiter. He mull have a happy 

 natural difpofition, as the foundation on which fo mag- 

 nificent a fuperltruflure is to be raifed. 



