Page:Stevenson - Virginibus Puerisque (1881).djvu/129

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AN APOLOGY FOR IDLERS.

"Boswell: We grow weary when idle.
"Johnson: That is, sir, because others beng busy, we want company; but if we were idle, there would be no growing weary; we should all entertain one another."

Just now, when every one is bound, under pain of a decree in absence convicting them of lèsc-respectability, to enter on some lucrative profession, and labour therein with something not far short of enthusiasm, a cry from the opposite party who are content when they have enough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile, savours a little of bravado and gasconade. And yet this should not be. Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling