Of Idleness.



A wise government will not suffer in the midst of labour and industry, that 

kind of political idleness which is confounded by rigid declaimers with the 

leisure attending riches acquired by industry, which is of use to an 

increasing society when confined within proper limits. I call those 

politically idle, who neither contribute to the good of society by their 

labour nor their riches; who continually accumulate, but never spend; who 

are reverenced by the vulgar with stupid admiration, and regarded by the 

wise with disdain; who, being victims to a monastic life, and deprived of 

all incitement to that activity which is necessary to preserve or increase 

its comforts, devote all their vigour to passions of the strongest kind, the 

passions of opinion. I call not him idle who enjoys the fruits of the 

virtues or vices of his ancestors, and, in exchange for his pleasures, 

supports the industrious poor. It is not then the narrow virtue of austere 

moralists, but the laws, that should determine what species of idleness 

deserves punishment.