There is a difference between idleness and inaction.  It is the natural propensity of man to be idle, but not to be inactive.  Enjoyment is his aim, after he has secured the means of existence.  Enjoyment and idleness are supposed, in many cases, to go hand in hand; at any rate, they can be reconciled, whereas inaction and enjoyment are irreconcilable. {70}

But we may still go farther.  As taste for any particular enjoyment is acquired when a man is young, and the same taste continues in a more advanced age; a man who has been long in business has had no time to acquire a taste for those enjoyments that are incompatible with, or perhaps that admit of being substituted for it.

Reading the study of the fine arts, and such other means of employing time as men enjoy, who, at an early period of life, are exempted from labour, afford no amusement to the man who has been always accustomed to a life of business, {71} with whom there is an absolute ne-

—–­ {69} It is perhaps amongst chances that seem likely enough; the only one that has never happened, that of a race of misers, in the same lineal descent, for several generations.  The reason why I say it never has happened is, that, if it had, the effects would have become so conspicuous, by the riches accumulated, that they could not have passed unobserved.

{70} By inaction is not meant the opposite of loco-motion, such as laying =sic= in bed, or basking in the sun; it is supposed that a man, to enjoy himself, must be reading, talking, in company, or doing something.

{71} They sometimes affect this, but it is little else than through vanity.  It would be easy to give a hundred striking proofs, but their frequency renders that unnecessary.

Hunting and fishing, the two most anxious and painful occupations in the world, are, in all countries, followed by the affluent and idle as amusements; they want to interest the mind, and occupy themselves.  Gaming, which is attended with very painful sensations, is followed much more frequently from propensity than from the love of gain; and, indeed, it would appear, that a life without occupations that interest the mind, is of all others the most insipid:  it appears to be worse, it appears to be miserable. -=-

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cessity of filling up the time in one way or another.  A certain portion of time may be spent in company; but even that, to be enjoyed, must be spent in the society of men of the same class.  The inducement, then, to a man who has dedicated the first part of his life advantageously to industry, to become idle, is not great, even when he is at free liberty to follow his inclination.

It is totally different with a young man; his propensity is to idleness, without any of those favourable circumstances that counteract that propensity.  Necessity alone can be expected to operate on him; it is in vain to seek for any other substitute.  Not that we mean, by idleness, to signify inaction; but that sort of idleness, which resists regular labour.  There is a natural propensity to action, but then it is a propensity that operates irregularly, unless under the influence of necessity.  It is a continued and regular exertion, directed to a proper object, that is wanted to obtain wealth; to procure this, it is well to imitate nature, and create necessity.