The significant inscription¹ found on an old key "If I rest, I rust²" would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted³ with the slightest taint⁴ of idleness. Even the most industrious⁵ might adopt it with advantage to serve as a reminder⁶ that, if one allows his faculties⁷ to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the work required of them.

 

Those who would attain⁸ the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, art, literature, agriculture --- every department of human endeavor.

 

Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury⁹ of achievement. If Hugh Miller¹⁰, after toiling¹¹ all day in a quarry¹², had devoted¹³ his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist¹⁴. The celebrated¹⁵ mathematician¹⁶, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness. Had the little Scotch¹⁷ lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep while he tended sheep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads¹⁸, he would never have become a famous astronomer¹⁹

 

Labor²⁰ vanquishes²¹ all --- not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.

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