The INDOLENT. John Hoadly Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.006 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 294-295. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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The INDOLENT . WHAT self-sufficiency and false content Benumb the senses of the indolent ! Dead to all purposes of good , or ill , Alive alone in an unactive will . His only vice in no good action lies , And his sole virtue is his want of vice . Business he deems too hard , trifles too easy , And doing nothing finds himself too busy . Silence he cannot bear , noise is distraction , Noise kills with bustle , silence with reflection ; No want he feels , — what has he to pursue ? To him 'tis less to suffer , than to do . The busy world's a fool , the learn'd a sot , And his sole hope to be by all forgot : Wealth is procur'd with toil , and kept with fear , Knowledge by labour purchas'd costs too dear ; Friendship's a clog , and family a jest , A wife but a bad bargain at the best ; Honour a bubble , subject to a breath , And all engagements vain since null'd by death ; Thus all the wise esteem , he can despise , And caring not , 'tis he alone is wise : Yet , all his wish possessing , finds no rest , And only lives to know , he never can be blest .