I have seen it quoted from Aristotle, that the end of labour is to
gain leisure. It is a great saying. We have in modern times a
totally wrong view of the matter. Noble work is a noble thing, but
not all work. Most people seem to think that any business is in
itself something grand; that to be intensely employed, for instance,
about something which has no truth, beauty, or usefulness in it,
which makes no man happier or wiser, is still the perfection of
human endeavour, so that the work be intense. It is the intensity,
not the nature, of the work that men praise. You see the extent of
this feeling in little things. People are so ashamed of being
caught for a moment idle, that if you come upon the most industrious
servants or workmen whilst they are standing looking at something
which interests them, or fairly resting, they move off in a fright,
as if they were proved, by a moment's relaxation, to be neglectful
of their work. Yet it is the result that they should mainly be
judged by, and to which they should appeal. But amongst all
classes, the working itself, incessant working, is the thing
deified. Now what is the end and object of most work? To provide
for animal wants. Not a contemptible thing by any means, but still
it is not all in all with man. Moreover, in those cases where the
pressure of bread-getting is fairly past, we do not often find men's
exertions lessened on that account. There enter into their minds as
motives, ambition, a love of hoarding, or a fear of leisure--things
which, in moderation, may be defended or even justified; but which
are not so peremptory, and upon the face of them excellent, that
they at once dignify excessive labour.

The truth is, that to work insatiably requires much less mind than
to work judiciously, and less courage than to refuse work that