Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-25
A Defense of the Sluggard.
From the Boston Gazette.

From the Boston Gazette.
In recent number of the English Illustrated
Magazine, Mr.. Trail enters bold defense for
the sluggard who has been walked too soon,
and must slumber again, and I heartily agree
with him, although he has not carried the ar
gument far enough. Duty is one thing and
theory another. / have no sympathy with that
laziness which neglects the business of life:
with the seltishness that nerrows life down to
self-comfOrt. What should be done must be
done, but there are hosts of people who find a
pleasure in the doing wholly aside from the
necessity; people who make themselves and
others miserable by inventing stupid little
moral law. Early to bed and early to rise
axes man healthy and wealthy and wise. u
1T Is the early bird that catches the worm
poor. foolish, little early wormi ''How doth
the little busy bee improve each shining hour. ~
Aside from all questions of duty, cannot and
never could see the superior merit of doing a
thing quickly that could be done slowly;
of running to the end of journey when you
could lounge to it more comfortably. All other
things being equal, it is a matter of taste with
the bee to do in buzzing hurry what he
might do less hastily. He finds a pleasure
in making fussy apiarian jackass of himself.
or he would not do it. But why should he be
held up as a model to me? There is no merit
in fretful activity; no seh-evident proposition
to assert that motion is superior to rest. Hav-
nOIuiIly 10 no. why SQOulQ not sleep again,
II am walked too soon? To me there is a de-
testable self-conceit in these moral maxim ma
kers; in these people who want to lift their &C.
centricities to pedestal Of workmanship. If
We could seriously and honestly consider the
matter, there are very few of us who would not
prefer Lotos land to this weary world of steam
and electricity; but we are deferred from ex-
pressing our opinions by DR.. Watts and his i'm
itators. Personally. / am an advocate of
inactivity. When 1 have paid my debt
to duty 1 would sooner pay my wor-
ship to sleep than to any other god of this our
lower world Ambition counts for some
thing, know; but do not envy the man who
wastes his leisure making ripples in mud
puddle with the hope that they will last after
he has ceased to trouble the water To burn
midnight oil for the mere pleasure of the thing
has no meaning to me; and 1 deny that in it
self, it is any nobler than indulging in the mid
night snore. Young people think otherwise,
people, and when contact with the world has
rounded the angles of their ambition and con-
ceit, they cease to admire DIR. Watts, and wonder
who they permitted him to cause them to I'M
dergo SO much unnecessary anxiety. Evolution
has solved a very important question by
telling rs why we are here. If there had
been no ancestor to the monkeys there
would have been no human beings. If must
accept the monkey theory, / am entitled to the
monkey luxury of cOntemplative Incidence
and unconscious sleep; am entitled to my
evolutionary brthright to enjoy inactivity when
there is no need of my indulging in activity.
If money could be earned by sleeping for it,
should the richest of millionaires. / do not
love brambles for brambles' sake, even when
you label them with the high-sounding names
politics" ambition" fashion," fame or
monumental mockery." may be wrong, but
in the life of human being are those in which
he lies in bed sound asleep