CHAPTER XVI.
SLOTH.

NOT the least, if the last, of capital sins is sloth, and it is very
properly placed; for who ever saw the sluggard or victim of this
passion anywhere but after all others, last!

Sloth, of course, is a horror of difficulty, an aversion for labor,
pain and effort, which must be traced to a great love of one's comfort
and ease. Either the lazy fellow does nothing at all--and this is
sloth; or he abstains from doing what he should do while otherwise
busily occupied--and this too, is sloth; or he does it poorly,
negligently, half-heartedly--and this again is sloth. Nature imposes
upon us the law of labor. He who shirks in whole or in part is
slothful.

Here, in the moral realm, we refer properly to the difficulty we find
in the service of God, in fulfiling our obligations as Christians and
Catholics, in avoiding evil and doing good; in a word, to the discharge
of our spiritual duties. But then all human obligations have a
spiritual side, by the fact of their being obligations. Thus, labor is
not, like attendance at mass, a spiritual necessity; but to provide for
those who are dependent upon us is a moral obligation and to shirk it
would be a sin of sloth.

Not that it is necessary, if we would avoid sin, to hate repose
naturally and experience no difficulty or repugnance in working out our
soul's salvation. Sloth is inbred in our nature. There is no one but
would rather avoid than meet difficulties. The service of God is
laborious and painful. The kingdom of God suffers violence. It has