Language does not
appear to have justice done it, but is obviously cramped and
narrowed in its significance, when any meanness is described.
The truest construction is not put upon it. What may readily be
fashioned into a rule of wisdom, is here thrown in the teeth of
the sluggard, and constitutes the front of his offence.
Universally, the innocent man will come forth from the sharpest
inquisition and lecturing, the combined din of reproof and
commendation, with a faint sound of eulogy in his ears. Our
vices always lie in the direction of our virtues, and in their
best estate are but plausible imitations of the latter.
Falsehood never attains to the dignity of entire falseness, but
is only an inferior sort of truth; if it were more thoroughly
false, it would incur danger of becoming true.
"Securus quo pes ferat, atque ex tempore _vivit_,"
is then the motto of a wise man. For first, as the subtle
discernment of the language would have taught us, with all his
negligence he is still secure; but the sluggard, notwithstanding
his heedlessness, is insecure.
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