The New Hampshire Gazette

The Evils of Idleness; from The CONNOISSEUR, No. 131.

No other disposition or turn of mind so totally unfits a man for all the social offices of life as indolence. An idle man is a mere blank in the creation, he seems made for no end, and lives to no purpose. He cannot engage himself in any employment or profession, because he will never have diligence enough to follow it; he can succeed in no undertaking, for he will never pursue it: he must be a bad husband, father, and relation, for he will not take the least pains to preserve his wife, children, and family from starving; and he must be a worthless friend, for he would not draw his hand from his bosom, though to prevent the destruction of the universe. If he is born poor he will remain so all his life, which will probably end in a ditch or at the gallows: if he embarks in trade he will be a bankrupt: and if he is a person of fortune, his stewards will acquire immense estates, and himself perhaps will die in the Fleet.

It should be considered that nature did not bring us into the world in a state of perfection, but has left us in a capacity of improvement, which should seem to intimate that we should labour to render ourselves excellent. Very few are such absolute idiots, as not to be able to become at least decent, if not eminent, in their several stations, by unwearied and keen application: nor are there any person of such transcendent genius and abilities, as to render all pains and diligence unnecessary.

Perseverance will overcome difficulties, which at first appear insuperable; and it is amazing to consider, how great and numerous obstacles may be removed by a continual attention to any particular point. I will not mention here the trite example of Demosthenes, who got over the greatest natural impediment to oratory, but content myself with a more modern and familiar instance. Being at Sadler's Wells a few nights ago, I could not but admire the surprising feats of activity there exhibited, and at the same time reflected what incredible pains and labour it must have cost the performers to arrive at the art of writhing their bodies into such various and unnatural contortions. But I was most taken with the ingenious artist, who after fixing two bells to each foot, the same number to each hand, with great propriety placing a cap and bells on his head, played several tunes, and went through as regular triple peals and Bob Majors, as the boys at Christ Church hospital; all which he effected by the due jerking of his arms and legs, and nodding his head backward and forward. If this artist had taken equal pains to employ his head in another way, he might perhaps have been as deep a proficient in numbers as Jedediah Buxton, or at least a tolerable modern rhymer, of which he is now no bad emblem: and if our fine ladies would use equal diligence they might fashion their minds as successfully as Madam Catherina distorts her body.

There is nothing in the world a more useless idle animal, than he who contents himself with being merely a gentleman. He has an estate therefore he will not endeavour to acquire knowledge: he is not to labour in any vocation, therefore he will do nothing. But the misfortune is, that there is no such thing in nature as negative virtue, and that absolute idleness is impracticable. He who does no good, will certainly do mischief; and the mind, if it is not stored with useful knowledge, will necessarily become a magazine of nonsense and trifles. Wherefore a gentleman, tho' he is not obliged to rise to open his shop or work at his trade, may always find some ways of employing his time to advantage. If he makes no advances in wisdom, he will become more and more a slave to folly: and he that does nothing because he has nothing to do, will become vicious and abandoned, or at best, ridiculous and contemptible.

There is not a more melancholy object, than a man of an honest heart and fine natural abilities, whose good qualities are thus destroyed by indolence. Such a person is a constant plague to all his friends and acquaintance, with all the means in his power of adding to their happiness; and suffers himself to rank among the lowest characters, when he might render himself conspicuous among the highest. Nobody is more universally beloved, and more universally avoided than my friend Careless. He is a humane man, who never did a beneficent action; and a man of unshaken integrity, on whom it is impossible to depend. With the best head and the best heart he regulates his conduct in the most absurd manner, and frequently injures his friends; for whoever neglects to do justice to himself, must inevitably wrong those with whom he is connected; and it is by no means a true maxim, that an idle man hurts nobody but himself.