Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-04-08
IDLENESS.

mere is perhaps HO SeHV0HoO IA 'hO
English language more frequently quoted
than the line of DR.. Young: " Procras-
tination is the thief Of time" Yet it would
be difficult to find any precept more gem
orally neglected than the one which 1t I'M
plies, or any possession layished away
with such needless prodigality, as the
most fmen evince in the disposal of time.
The necessity of diligence is universally
acknowledged but it is necessity to
which the mind reluctantly yields, until
every excuse for delay has been exhausted,
and every suggestion of the imagination
that another day will diminish the labour,
or increase the ability, has been shown to
be Elusive. The absurdity of procrasti-
mating that which cannot be eventually
avoided of deferring to more convenient
season the duties which require present
accomplishment, is one of the weaknesses
Of our nature, which the satirist has derid-
ed, and the moralist rebuked but which
will be- found to exist, in some degree or
other, in every mind, however stored with
knowledge, or regulated by reason.
1t is the nature of man to look upon
evils with dread not so much in refer
ence to their magnitude, as in proportion
to their proximity; distance softening to
the mental, as to the bodily, vision, the
ruggedness of mountains into shadowy
smoothness trivial distractions, that lie
Immediately before him, are viewed with
apprehension, and avoided with eagerness.
Accordingly, by the operation Of this prin-
ciple, days Of present ease are willingly
purchased at the price of future weeks of
labour; the heart easily deluding itself into
the belief that the period of ultimate me-
cessityis afar off, and that when the noun
tain is to be climbed, augmented vigour
will be furnished for the task.
But vigour is not the result of indo-
lence; and he who suffers the proper time
for action to pass by unimproved, will find
his difficulties increase, and his capability
diminish, with each succeeding moment
of delay-until the fruit which at first
might have been easily plucked, shall hang
above his head, in irritating mockery, al
Turing tothe eye, but receding from the
grasp, asfrom that of the tabled Tantalus.
The story of Sisyphus is no fiction, as
applied to human life. Each man is
doomed to roll heavy burden up the toll
some ascent of years; and every remission
of diligence is invariably followed by a
necessity of greater exertion. But labour
soon becomes light to assiduous industry /;
while to the dilatory and procrastinating,
that which was dreaded at first grows
more and more repulsive; each hour as it
passes adds difficulty to difficulty, and
each suggestion of fear augments timidity,
until the lime in which what Is neglected
might easily have been accomplished, not
only elapses, but our capacity for effort is
dwindled, in consequence of the imbecility
which always follows representation.
"Be wise to-5av; it's madness to de-
fer" 1t is &C. In that life cannot be of
long duration at any rate, and accident or
disease may shorten its brevity !; it is there
fore requisite that what is necessary to be
done, be done with activity, while yet we
may call the day our own. Memory and
anticipation are both the friends of indus
try; while idleness bushes to look back,
and trembes to look forward. The true
way to be happy is to be well and con-
stantly employed but none are so wretch
ed as they who have nothing to do; who
postpone the execution of petty duties,
until, by constant agglomeration, they
have grown into mountains, which the be-
holder looks upon with feelings of mingled
apprehension and remorse.
Certainty of success cannot be proposed
as the reward of assiduity; for the grave
sometimes ingulfs the bark that is but
midway of the ocean but it is ours to be
cut off in the career of duty, not reposing
in unmanly incidence; to die with har-
ness on our back" not slumbering in
cowardly supineness, afar from the scene
of ction.-Merchants' Telegraph.
jealousy