Certainly when one compares a portrait of Reynolds, Gainsborough, or Stuart with one by Sargent, Thayer, or Alexander, there is a noticeable difference of type, indicative of a different ideal of life in the upper stratum of society, an ideal of effort and efficiency, which is far better than a patrician dilettantism, but has in turn its dangers.We need to recall the line of AEschylus, “All the gods’ work is effortless and calm.”  Or Matthew Arnold’s sonnet on Quiet Work: 

“One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee, A lesson that on every wind is borne, A lesson of two duties kept at one Though the loud world proclaim their enmity:  Of toil unsevered from tranquility, Of labor that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplished in repose, Too great for haste, too high for rivalry...”

Most of us would find our powers adequate to our duties if we learned to rest when we are not working, and spend no energy in worry and fretfulness. [Footnote:  Cf.  W. James’s essay on “The Gospel of Relaxation,” in Talks to Teachers and Students, or Annie Payson Call’s books, of which the best known is Power Through Repose.] This nervous leakage is a notoriously American ailment; we knit our brows, we work our fingers, we fidget, we rock in our chairs, we talk explosively, we live in a quiver of excitement and hurry, in a chronic state of tension.  We need to follow St. Paul’s exhortation to “Study to be quiet”; to learn what Carlyle called “the great art of sitting still.”  We must not lower our American ideal of efficiency, of the “strenuous life”; but it is precisely through that self-control that is willing to live within necessary limitations, and able to cut off the waste of fruitless activity of mind and body, that our national efficiency can be maintained at its highest.

Is continued idleness ever justifiable?

We do not need Stevenson’s charming Apology for Idlers, to know that rest and recreation are as wholesome and necessary as work.  But idleness is only profitable and really enjoyable when it comes as an interlude in the midst of activity.  There is much to be done, and no one is free to shirk his share of the world’s work; we may enjoy our vacations only as we have earned the right to them.  Except for invalids and idiots, continued idleness never justifiable.  Clothes we must have, and food, and shelter, and much else; if a man does not produce these things for himself, or some equivalent which he can fairly exchange for them, he is a parasite upon other men’s labor.  “Six days shalt thou labor” is the universal commandment, and “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.”  An old Chinese proverb runs, “If there is one idle man, there is another who is starving.”  Certainly a state in which the masses will have their drudgery lightened for them and opportunity for a well rounded human life given, will be attained only in a society where there are no drones; and no man or woman worthy of the name will be content to live idly on the labor of others.  “Others have labored, and we have entered into their labors”; it is not fair to accept so much without giving what we can in return.