which happens more or less to all young wives. The best relief is
WORK, engaged in with interest and diligence. Work, then,
constantly and diligently, at something or other; for idleness is
the devil's snare for small and great, as your grandfather says,
and he says true." (10)

Constant useful occupation is thus wholesome, not only for the
body, but for the mind. While the slothful man drags himself
indolently through life, and the better part of his nature sleeps
a deep sleep, if not morally and spiritually dead, the energetic
man is a source of activity and enjoyment to all who come within
reach of his influence. Even any ordinary drudgery is better than
idleness. Fuller says of Sir Francis Drake, who was early sent to
sea, and kept close to his work by his master, that such "pains
and patience in his youth knit the joints of his soul, and made
them more solid and compact." Schiller used to say that he
considered it a great advantage to be employed in the discharge of
some daily mechanical duty--some regular routine of work, that
rendered steady application necessary.

Thousands can bear testimony to the truth of the saying of Greuze,
the French painter, that work--employment, useful occupation--is
one of the great secrets of happiness. Casaubon was once induced
by the entreaties of his friends to take a few days entire rest,
but he returned to his work with the remark, that it was easier to
bear illness doing something, than doing nothing.

When Charles Lamb was released for life from his daily drudgery of
desk-work at the India Office, he felt himself the happiest of
men. "I would not go back to my prison," he said to a friend,