" (3)
Burton says a great deal more to the same effect; the burden and
lesson of his book being embodied in the pregnant sentence with
which it winds up:- "Only take this for a corollary and
conclusion, as thou tenderest thine own welfare in this, and all
other melancholy, thy good health of body and mind, observe this
short precept, Give not way to solitariness and idleness. BE NOT
SOLITARY--BE NOT IDLE." (4)
The indolent, however, are not wholly indolent. Though the body
may shirk labour, the brain is not idle. If it do not grow corn,
it will grow thistles, which will be found springing up all along
the idle man's course in life. The ghosts of indolence rise
up in the dark, ever staring the recreant in the face, and
tormenting him:
"The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices,
Make instrument to scourge us."
True happiness is never found in torpor of the faculties, (5) but in
their action and useful employment. It is indolence that
exhausts, not action, in which there is life, health, and
pleasure. The spirits may be exhausted and wearied by employment,
but they are utterly wasted by idleness. Hense a wise physician
was accustomed to regard occupation as one of his most valuable
remedial measures. "Nothing is so injurious," said Dr. Marshall
Hall, "as unoccupied time." An archbishop of Mayence used to say
that "the human heart is like a millstone: if you put wheat under
it, it grinds the wheat into flour; if you put no wheat, it grinds
on, but then 'tis itself it wears away.
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