THE PEDALTO INSTITUTION FOR INCORPORATED ART

 
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DIRECTOR   Pangloss Downer

ABOUT

Many who have calculated how much of their lives has been spent in doing nothing, have declared their astonishment and shame at the result. The superfluous hours of steep amount to a fourth of the lives of many thousands ; to this let us add the time dedicated to amusements for which there is no necessity, and we (hall not be surprised if the half of such lives is consumed in vain. The important purposes of human reason are forgotten, or defeated, and the utmost that an honest epitaph could fay of one of the persons here alluded to, would be that he lived half his days anddltd. But the mischiefs of idleness arc not merely negative. It is a property in our minds never to rest from employment of some kind or other. Men who are to all appearance doing nothing, are often doing ill. Vices of r.ll kinds spring up and flourish in the minds of idle men. This is as obviously the case in the minds of the rich idle, as of the poor; and it is, from its justness, so trite ap observation as might have excused the omission of it, were it not as juffto add, that the vices of the idle poor are far more blameless than those of the other; they are confined to themselves, and generally end in a speedy punishment of (ome kind; whereas the idle follies and vices of the rich, spread wickedness over a great surface. It is the pride of the larter to make others falser by their indulgences, to keep no company whom they do not make worse, and visit no place where they do not leave the coniag;ou of evil example. Nothing so soon becomes a habit as idleness, and nothing is cured with more difficulty. Temporary vices or follies geneially cure themsel'es. It is only when frequent repetition renders more frequent repetition necessary, that their effects are to be deplored ; when they taint the con nation, and, to speak medically, when the acute disorder becomes chronical. Could any thing remedy idleness, an appeal might be made to the shortness and uncertainty of time, to the numerous duties of a thinking being, to the obligations we are under to do as much good to others, and give as much improvement to ourselves, as lies in our power, and to the numerous faculties with which nature has furnished us. Such .an appeal is made in vaii to those whose wealth can supply a succession of idle follies, and, in the popular opinion, screen both the absurdity and the wickedness of a useless life. It will not, we trust, be equally neglected by those whose errors of this kind have been few, whose relapses have beery followed fay shame, and wiio have not for^ got that the obligations of duty oug!it to precede the indulgence of the fense. We may all be conscious how much of our time has passed as much without enjoyment as without usefulness; and we cannot but be sensible that even in human opinion, idleness is the most contemptible of all vices, and the accusation is never k/ouzht against ux without exciting