" (8)
Even on the lowest ground--that of personal enjoyment--constant
useful occupation is necessary. He who labours not, cannot
enjoy the reward of labour. "We sleep sound," said Sir Walter
Scott, "and our waking hours are happy, when they are employed;
and a little sense of toil is necessary to the enjoyment of
leisure, even when earned by study and sanctioned by the
discharge of duty."
It is true, there are men who die of overwork; but many more die
of selfishness, indulgence, and idleness. Where men break down by
overwork, it is most commonly from want of duly ordering their
lives, and neglect of the ordinary conditions of physical health.
Lord Stanley was probably right when he said, in his address to
the Glasgow students above mentioned, that he doubted whether
"hard work, steadily and regularly carried on, ever yet hurt
anybody."
Then, again, length of YEARS is no proper test of length of LIFE.
A man's life is to be measured by what he does in it, and what he
feels in it. The more useful work the man does, and the more he
thinks and feels, the more he really lives. The idle useless man,
no matter to what extent his life may be prolonged, merely
vegetates.
The early teachers of Christianity ennobled the lot of toil by
their example. "He that will not work," said Saint Paul, "neither
shall he eat;" and he glorified himself in that he had laboured
with his hands, and had not been chargeable to any man.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135