The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-04-29

1 lose Ine opportunity OF llfeClme is 10y
I the same principle. They say, Wait 1
minute My advice is not to wait al
III.
SINFUL INDULGENCE AND IDLENEsS.
, Again, bad habits are fruitful source
Of Incidence. Sinful indulgences shut q
mans shop and dull his tools and steal
his profits. Dissoluteness is generally
the end of industry. There are those
who have the rare faculty of devotina
occasionally day or week to loose in.
dulgences, and at the expiration of that
time go back with bleared ewes and
tremulous hands and boated cheeks to
the faithful and successful performance
Of their duties. Indeed, their employ.
ers and neighbors expect this amuse-
ment or occasional season of frolic and
wassail.
Some of the best workmen and most
skillful artisans have this mode of con-
1ucting themselves, but, as the time
rolls ON, the season of dissipation be-
comes more protracted and the season
of steadiness and sobriety more limited.
Hptil the employers become disgusted
and the man is given up to continual
and fninous idleness. When that point
has arrived he rushes toxestruction with
astonishing velocity hen man will,
wrong proclivities has nHthing to do no
former self respect or mi pal restraint or
the beseechings of kind2ed can save him.
The only safety for man who feels
himself under the fascination of any
form of temptation is an employment
which affords neither recreation nor
| holiday Nothing can be more unfortu-
nate for a man of evil inclination than
an occupation which keeps him exceed
ingly busy during part of the year and
then leaves him for weeks and months
entirely unemployed. There are many
men who cannot endure protracted
leisure. They are like fractions steeds
that must constantly be kept to the load,
for weeks quiet makes them intract-
able and uncomfortable. Bad habits
produce idleness and idleness produces
bad habits.
The probability is that you will either
have to give up your loose indulgences
or else give up your occupation. Sin
will take all enthusiasm out of your work
and make you sick of life's drudgery.
and though now and then between your
seasons of dissipation, you may rouse up
to sudden activity and start again in
the chase of some high and noble end,
even though you catch the game, you
will sink back into slothfulness before
you have roasted that which you took
in hunting. Bad habits unfit man for
everything but politics.
Now, what are the results of indo-
lence? A marked consequence of this
vice is physical disease. The health
ness of the whole natural world depends
upon activity The winds, tossed and
driven in endless circuits, scattering the
mists from the mountains, and scooping
out death damps from the caves, and
blasting the miasma of swamps, and
hurting back the fetid atmosphere of
great cities, are healthy just because of
their swiftness and uncontrollableness
of sweep. But after awhile the wind |
falls, and the hot sun Hours through it,
and when the leaves ftill, and the
grain fields bend ncsoanLS all day long,
then pestilence tsnart' eiet a..-s md |
digs trenches for the dead.f
The fountain, born far up in the wild |
wood of the mountain, comes down
bright for every obstacle against which
it is riven, and singing a new song on
every shelf of rock over which it bounds,
till it rolls over the water wheels in the
valley, not ashamed to grind corn, and
runs through the long grass of the
where the willows reach down
to dip their branches and the unyoked
oxen come at eventide to cool. Healthy
water! Bright water! Happy water!
While some stream, too lazy any more
to run, gathers itself into wayside pool
where the swine wallow, and filthy in
sects hop over the surface, and reptiles
crawl among the ooze, and frogs utter
their hideous croak, and by day and
night there rises from the foul mire and
green scum fever and plague and death.
There is an endless activity underfoot
and overhead.
Not one four o'clock in the flower bed,
not one fly on the window pane, not one
squirrel gathering food from the cones
lI uD6 WHO pune, uOU one TdUDlU IeeulnR
III clover tops, MT one drop falling in a
shower, not one minnow glancing in the
sea, not one quail whistling from the
grass, not one hawk cawing in the sky,
out is busy now and is busy always, full
illing its mission as certainly as any
on earth or any angel in heaven.
NATURE NEVER IDLE.
You hear the shout of the plowbovs
pussy in the field and the rattle of the
on the harrow, but you do
lot know that there is more industry in
he earth upturned and in the dumb
underfoot than in all that
'ou see. If you put your ear to lump
If riven sod you may hear nothing in
he roots and spicule of grass, but there {
re at work spades and cleavers and pile
rivers and battering rams and inter- s
lecine wars. do not wonder that the
lively fancy of the ancients saw in the
creation around Floras and
'omonas and Graces and Fauns and {
'airies and Satyrs and Nymphs. Every g
hing is busy. Nothing is inanimate, q
kept the man who cannot see the life
nd hear the music. {
AT the creation the morning stars sang e
ogether, but they were only the choir t
Thich was to lead all the stars, and all /