with original sin. Hard work occasioned the first murder. If Cain, instead of tilling the stubborn earth and earning his bread" by the sweat of his brow," had had nothing to do but lounge on the mountain-side like his brother Abel, play his pipe, watch his sheep feeding, and then feed himself, he would never have envied him, and the second great transgression would not have come to pass.

That idleness is the natural state of man, cannot be doubted. Like the flowers of the field it springeth up without care or culture; but industry is a hot-house plant, of forced and artificial growth, and is apt to wither away, if not anxiously tended and cherished. In asserting these undeniable truths, let it not be supposed that any reproach is meant to be cast on the industrious. No-the man who sacrifices his love of ease, and labors unremittingly that his wife may be at rest, and his little ones comfortably clothed and fed-that he may be free from duns and debts, and walk through the world fearing and beholden to no living creature-such a man is worthy of all admiration. But there are others, who have enough and to spare, but still go on-the slaves of avarice and habit; who dignify their love of gain with the name of industry, and plume themselves mightily on "never being a single minute idle ;" why what are they at best but

miserable earth-worms-voluntary bondmen; the worldly wise, and yet the most egregious fools!

One thing that has undeservedly brought idleness into bad repute, is the confounding it with laziness, than which no two things can be more different. The lazy sluggard who hates motion in every shape, and lies upon the earth an inert piece of animation, is scarcely upon a par with the beasts that perish. A fine specimen of this tribe was a fat old gentleman of this city, a prodigious eater, who, in the summer time, used to sit, by the day together, smoking and steaming like a caldron. The only exercise he was ever known to take consisted in calling out, after he had sat on one seat long enough to make it uncomfortably warm, "John, bring me a cool chair!" and then moving from one chair to the other. Now idle people are the very reverse of this. In all sorts of games and sports they are first and foremost. It is they who can pitch a quoit or bowl a cricket-ball straighter and truer than any one else; the swiftest runners and most active wrestlers of the district. It is they who have roamed the country far and wide, and know where the finest fishing streams are to be found, and where the birds are most plentiful-the healthiest, hardiest, and most venturesome of heaven's creatures; who will scramble up a precipice,

and risk their necks for a bird's nest, but droop and pine away under a regular routine of money-mak

different varieties

Some of a more

ing tasks. There are, however, of this species, like every other. contemplative turn, who seek out the pleasant nooks and shady places, known but to themselves, and there muse away their hours. These are intimate acquaintances of nature, and are initiated into thousands of her little secrets that others know not of; and with Shakspeare in their hand, they read unfolded mysteries of mind and matter, that seem, and are, not the records of observation, but the outpourings of inspiration. Such an one was Jaques, though rather too cynical; and, at times, even such an one must Shakspeare have been. It appears impossible that the scenes in the forest of Arden could have been engendered any where except "under the shade of melancholy boughs." So thoroughly are they imbued with a true pastoral spirit, so free from the noise and smoke of cities, that it is really strange, after reading "As you like it," with your mind filled with images of lonely forest walks, and their denizens the duke of Amiens and his " COmates and brothers in exile," to walk to the window and see so many streets, houses, carriages, and fantastically dressed men and women. How pitiable would he be who could afford to dream away

hours amid such scenes, and yet who should forsake them

"For so much dross as may be grasped thus!"

Yet idle people are looked upon as the very worst and "most good-for-nothing" people in existence. They are under the ban of society. The worldly father points them out to his son as a warning, and the prudent mother watches that her marriageable daughter's eye rests not on them; their names are stricken from invitation lists; and every griping scoundrel twitteth them and vaunteth his superior pack-horse qualifications. And for what?—why, their comparative poverty and practical philosophy. Yet they are in one sense the wealthiest of men,

"Poor and content, is rich, and rich enough;
But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor."

In towns a person of this temperament is altogether out of his element. He is a connoisseur in sweet, wholesome air, and sighs to rove about in search of it. As long as the grizzly tyrant winter keeps the fair spring in chains, it matters little where he is; but when one of those glorious days that herald her approach breaks forth, and nature becomes, on the instant, all life and animation, there are few men, let them be as industrious as

they may, who have not experienced his feelings. Who, on such a day, has not felt a pleasing languor steal over him, and a distaste for ordinary pursuits and avocations? Who does not long to leave the hubbub of the city far behind, to stroll forth into the fields, and have the taint of the smoke blown off by the fresh April winds? and who would not do so if

did not drag him back to his toils? Oh! what a clog it is on a man's spirit to feel that he is a slave

(for what are they but slaves with the privilege of change, whose daily labor buys their daily bread?) -to long for liberty, yet feel that the pure air, the green fields, the blue sky, the very commonest gifts of nature, that are enjoyed by the brutes of the earth and the birds of the air, are denied to him? True, he may break through all restraints and go about inhaling as much fresh air as he pleases; but when the cravings of appetite hint to him that it is dinner time, whence are to come the victuals that constitute that important item in the sum total of human happiness? Man is unfortunately a carnivorous animal, and must, once a day at least, be fed with flesh, fowl, or fish: he cannot make an