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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
health artel vigour as well as in man ^ other things of much greater importance . The idle man is commonly low-spirited , peevish and splenetic ; every little inconvenience or obstacle to the accomplishment of his desires , vexes him and ruffles his temper ; but since he is not thus excited to exert himself in its removal , his life is
rendered an endless scene of petty troubles and vexations , which if he had any habits of enterprise or activity would be removed without difficulty as soon aa they made their appearance , and before they had had time to occasion any material inconvenience . But when allowed to remain and
accumulate , they grow up to a serious amount ; which one more accustomed to look difficulties in the face might contemplate with apprehension , and which fill him with absolute despair . Still , though he despairs of getting , rid ef them , they are not on that account the less felt ; they
produce a permanent effect upon his temper , he contracts a sour , morose , complaining disposition ; and thus , from being at first merely indolent , he becomes a thoroughly discontented , dissatisfied creature , caring for no one but himself , and despised or disliked by every one else . Even when it does not operate in this manner ; when circumstances are not such as
to throw any of these petty miseries in his way , yet the necessary effect of laziness is to bring on ill-humour and disquiet ; a temper of mind which is most destructive of his own peace , and must greatly impede his usefulness to others .
To correct this unhappy disposition , there is no remedy more effectual than employment ; perhaps no sovereign remedy but this . In $ o far as its efficac y in promoting this object is concerned it is of little consequence what
| he employment is ; provided it interests the mind and presents it with some other object on which it can dwell with more complacency than ot \ its own grievances and complaints . If the employment be one which is fate $ l at the same time to answer
some valuable eryl , to contribute to « is own comfort or convenience '; to Promote his improvement in useful knowled ge ; or still more to promote th $ comfort or relief of others ; so * J * uch the better . It is scarcely neceswyto dwell-on * the obvious tendency
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of idleness to concentrate tfte thought * on self , in a manner Which is utterly inconsistent with the cultivation &f any elevated or enlarged sentiment , aixd destructive of all real enjoyment ; while on the other hand , an active
disposition 13 continually carrying us beyond these narrow bounds ; and thus , as it is often first excited by benevolent and amiable feelings , so it hats commonly the happiest effect in
continuing , enlivening and purifying these feelings , converting them into habitual states of mind , and ruling principles of conduct . «* The necessity of action , " says 5 > r . Johnson , ** i&
not only demonstrable from the fabric of the nun ^ an body , but is also evident from the universal practice of mankind ; since all men , for the preservation of their health , for pleasure and enjoyment , even when exempted by circumstances from the
necessity of pursuing any kind of lucrative labour , have invented sports and diversions which though not equally useful to the world with the mechanical or menial arts , yet equal them in the fatigue they occasion to those
who practise them ; differing frost them onl y as acts of choice differ from those which are attended by the painful sense of compulsion . " Even this sense of compulsion which is the general subject of complaint , may nevertheless be of considerable
service , by excluding that undecided , vacillating state of mind which often at tend 9 * those who are aware that their laborious exertions are merely the objects of their own free choice , and than which nothing can be more mortifying and humiliating to those who are conscious of its influence
yet cannot shake off its power . This is another reason why it is a most wise ancjl excellent appointment q £ Providence , that in most cases it is not leit to our own choice whether we will exert ourselves or no : but
that we are most of us compelled , in order to gain the means 01 comfortable subsistence , to devote ourselves to some regular employment . Dr . Johnson himself seems to have furnished a striking illustration of the
truth of tfiis remark ;—though abundantl y active in the earlier part of his life , his latter years whion were spent in ease and comparative affluence were clouded with melancholy , occasioned it would seem * $ i a great
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On the Sources of * Human Happiness . , 3 i £
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 315, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/7/
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