Men of trained working faculty so contract the habit of labour
that idleness becomes intolerable to them; and when driven by
circumstances from their own special line of occupation, they find
refuge in other pursuits. The diligent man is quick to find
employment for his leisure; and he is able to make leisure when
the idle man finds none. "He hath no leisure," says George
Herbert, "who useth it not." "The most active or busy man that
hath been or can be," says Bacon, "hath, no question, many vacant
times of leisure, while he expecteth the tides and returns of
business, except he be either tedious and of no despatch, or
lightly and unworthily ambitious to meddle with things that may be
better done by others." Thus many great things have been done
during such "vacant times of leisure," by men to whom industry
had become a second nature, and who found it easier to work
than to be idle.
Even hobbies are useful as educators of the working faculty.
Hobbies evoke industry of a certain kind, and at least provide
agreeable occupation. Not such hobbies as that of Domitian, who
occupied himself in catching flies. The hobbies of the King of
Macedon who made lanthorns, and of the King of France who made
locks, were of a more respectable order. Even a routine
mechanical employment is felt to be a relief by minds acting under
high-pressure: it is an intermission of labour--a rest--a
relaxation, the pleasure consisting in the work itself rather than
in the result.
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