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IDLENESS.

"Idleness is sweet and sacred."

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

"When you have found a day to be idle, be idle for a day.

When you have met with three cups to drink, drink your three cups."

CHINESE POET.

THE rain is playing its soft pleasant tune

Fitfully on the skylight, and the shade

Of the fast-flying clouds across my book
Passes with gliding change. My merry fire
Sings cheerfully to itself; my musing cat
Purrs as she wakes from her unquiet sleep,
And looks into my face as if she felt,

Like me, the gentle influence of the rain.
Here have I sat since morn, reading sometimes,

And sometimes listening to the faster fall

Of the large drops, or rising with the stir

Of an unbidden thought, have walk'd awhile,
With the slow steps of indolence, my room,

And then sat down composedly again
To my quaint book of olden poetry.

It is a kind of idleness, I know;
And I am said to be an idle man-
And it is very true. I love to go
Out in the pleasant sun, and let my eye
Rest on the human faces that pass by,
Each with its gay or busy interest:

And then I muse upon their lot, and read
Many a lesson in their changeful cast,
And so grow kind of heart, as if the sight
Of human beings bred humanity.
And I am better after it, and go

More grateful to my rest, and feel a love
Stirring my heart to every living thing;
And my low prayer has more humility,
And I sink lightlier to my dreams-and this,
'Tis very true, is only idleness!

I love to go and mingle with the young In the gay festal room-when every heart Is beating faster than the merry tune, And their blue eyes are restless, and their lips Parted with eager joy, and their round cheeks Flush'd with the beautiful motion of the dance. And I can look upon such things, and go Back to my solitude, and dream bright dreams For their fast coming years, and speak of them Earnestly in my prayer, till I am glad

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