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not succeed in anything. It is a burden, an incumbrance, and a nuisance 
—always useless, complaining, melancholy, and miserable. * 
“Idleness,” says Burton, “is the bane of body and mind, the nurse of 
naughtiness, the chief mother of all mischief. . . . the devil’s cushion, his 
pillow and chief reposal. . . . An idle dog will be mangy; and how shall 
an idle person escape ? Idleness of the mind is much worse than that of 
the body; wit, without employment, is a disease—the rust of the soul, a 
plague, a hell itself. As in a standing pool, worms and filthy creepers in¬ 
crease, so do evil and corrupt thoughts in an idle person; the soul is con¬ 
taminated. . . . Thus much I dare boldly say: he or she that is idle, be 
either of what condition you will, ever so rich, so well allied, fortunate, 
happy—let each have all things in abundance and felicity that heart can 
wish and desire, all contentment—so long as he or she is idle, neither shall 
ever be pleased, ever well in body or mind, but weary still, sickly still, vexed 
still, loathing still, weeping, sighing, grieving, suspecting, offended with 
the world, with every object, each wishing to be gone or dead, or else car¬ 
ried away with some foolish phantasy or other.”* 
Sir Walter Scott, by his friends so much admired for his constant 
good humor, used to say (to them) : “Dogged persistency at literary work 
(composition), I found an unfailing remedy against all discouragement.” 
And we would say, especially to young persons inclined to melancholy: 
“Ora et labor a”—“Work and Pray.” 
“There is no remedy for time misspent: 
No healing for the waste of idleness, 
Whose very languor is a punishment 
Heavier than active souls can feel or guess.” 
—Aubrey de Vere. 
Avoid that Idleness, also, which is “busy” indeed, but only with 
trifling, inane, and useless things. 
♦Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy.” 
