Idleness
Idleness is a great vice and a great danger. It is an evil in itself, and the father of other evils. It not only does harm but it prevents good. There is an English proverb to the effect that “Satan always finds some work for idle hands to do.” We are bound to do something or to think about something when we are not asleep, and unless that something is useful, it must be useless, or worse. At school, a boy should either be at work during work-time or at play-time, if he is not, he is in mischief of some kind or other. The idle man is not only doing any good, but he is actually going downwards in mind, body and character, for there is no such thing as standing still. We are continually moving onwards or backward, improving in health and strength, property and prosperity, virtue and character, or else we are doing the reverse. To be idle is to do the latter. No idle person is happy, for health is bound to suffer with idleness, and without health none can be happy. People who are not obliged to work, are less fortunate than those who have to earn their living, for they are in great danger of becoming idle, unhealthy, discontented and miserable.
