LETTER XLIX. TO THE SAME. Amfterdam. IT has been obferved of this place, that none of the inhabitants are idle. This is fo true, that an indolent perfon might traverse the city in all its parts without finding a companion. He would thus be driven, by the very nature and mifcarriage of his fearch, into action himself. Nay, he would fee every eye fo bufy, every foot fo hard at work, and every head feem at least fo full, that, forgetting his natural torpidity, or remembering it with reproach, he would catch the fpirit of objects before him, and feel that it is at least as good and natural for man to be in motion as at reft. The city of Amfterdam is a hive where all the inhabitants are collecting honey from one end of the year to the other, (excepting only the repose of every seventh day) and where a drone dares not fhew his head. If, in fo large a Republic, large with refpect to its population, as this fingle city is computed at 300,000 perfons, there fhould be any unworthy members ef that defcription, they are conftrained to lurk în holes and corners, indulging their dormouse difpofitions apart from the fcenes of almoft universal industry, where wealthy ftores are accumulating by inceffant attention, and where an unwholesome foil is fo meliorated by the exercife neceffary to fuch accumulation, that the air and water, which would almoft fuffocate a lazy fish, is found very little to invade the powers of health: for it is more an ill name than a fact, that the prefidents of this city are the victims of avarice, which leads them to dig for gold in a foil that produces it, amidst the drofs of diseases. The florid vigour, which glows in the cheeks, and braces the limbs of the inhabitants of other places in Holland, Rotterdam, and the Brielle, more especially, is not, certainly, feen fo commonly in the Amfterdamians, but there is good general health amongst them; and therefore, as there is no denying the atmosphere is in itself "a foul and peftilent congregation of vapours," it is manifeft that induftry fupplies what nature has refufed-no fmall motive to labour diligently in one's calling this. In like manner, it is no iefs true, that ftagnant indolence will create a diftemper, fatal to the fpirits, the ftrength, and the understanding, where nature has been the most prodigal of her bounties, and every day convinces us, that, as at Amfterdam, while men grow rich, healthy, and happy, amidst the toils of life in the moft noxious fituation, those who neither toil nor fpin, and who, curfed with the inverted bleffing of an unwieldy fortune, and with either the apathy or the paffions, which too often are in the train of hereditary wealth, confume their beings in uselefs inaction, and wafte themselves by indulgence, though they breathe in the pureft air, and flumber on beds the fofteft luxury has prepared, amidst flowers and fragrance: "Die of a rofe in aromatic pain;" Or live only to prove, that exercise alone can give it a wholesome perfume. Thus, if labour is its own reward, indolence is its own proper punishment, according to the maxim of the ancients," that acute (which to the induftrious are rare) diseases are from heaven, and chronic from ourselves;" and in the whole circle of human truisms, there is not one, my dear friend, more incontrovertible than this, that almoft every occupation, however inconvenient, or formidable, is happier and fafer than a life of floth. Diligence, fays Addifon, makes more lafting acquifitions than valour, valour, and floth has ruined more nations than the fword. It would have diverted you extremely to have been an eye-witnefs to my progrefs through the streets of Amfterdam: any indif ferent fpectator, indeed, unacquainted with my habits of fauntering, at fome moments, and quickening my pace, almost into a run, at others, would have imputed my irregular motions and paufes to a difpofition equally partaking the vice of idleness, and the virtue of industry. I fallied forth on a fair morning, with gleaning defigns, to make a tour of the town, Convinced by experience, that at almost every step a diligent man, who will take time to look about him, may find fomething to carry to his fheaf, I stopped almoft at every fhop, looked into every face as long as it remained in view; and if by good luck I could catch a knot of men of bufinefs, gathered together upon a bridge, by the fide of a quay, or at a fhop-door, I broke fhort my own ftep, and ftood fixed as a fetting dog, while they staid. If in any of the party I faw a face I was interefted about more than the reft, that I fol lowed, towed, and ftuck to it, till it was loft in the coffee-houses, or at the exchange. These general reforts I often entered, and there loft myfelf in the croud of various affairs and nations: but even here, when it were poffible to fingle out a particular object, whofe difcourfe, manner, or appearance were inftructive or interesting, I stopped to glean him. In any other city of the world, perhaps, this would have been noted as ridiculous, at leaft fingular. A polite mob would have fet it down as an offence, and corrected it as impertinence; as, in effect, though not in defign, it might be, but at Amsterdam, either because an apparently faucy fellow, who has nothing better to do, was deemed too infignificant for remark; or because the people were really too ferioufly engaged in their own bufinefs, to attend to another man's idleness, they never noticed me. They took their noses almoft out of my ears, where I had (to come within gleaning distance) planted them, Men the hurried off on the full trot to their different concerns. I trod upon a merchant's toes, and ¦ by my anxious look, fuppofing he had returned the compliment with intereft, he took off his hat, begged my pardon, and bustled away. With refpect to the subject of discourse, it was uniform, with a fingle exception. During two hours |