There is no greater enemy to improvement than an indolent spirit. An aversion to effort paralyzes every noble desire, and defeats every attempt at advancement. If you are naturally indolent, you must put on resolution to overcome it, and strive against it with untiring vigilance. There is not a single point, in the process of education, at which this hydra-headed monster will not meet you. “The slothful man saith there is a lion without, I shall be slain in the street.” There is always a lion in the way, when slothful spirits are called upon to make any exertion. “I can’t,” is the sovereign arbiter of their destiny. It prevents their attempting any thing difficult or laborious. If required to write a composition, they can’t think of any thing to write about. The Latin lesson is difficult; this word they can’t find; that sentence they can’t read. The sums in arithmetic are so hard, they can’t do them. And so this lion in the way defeats every thing. But those who expect[166] ever to be any thing, must not suffer such a word as can’t in their vocabulary.

It is the same with labor. The indolent dread all exertion. When requested to do any thing, they have something else to do first, which their indolence has left unfinished; or they have some other reason to give why they should not attempt it. But if nothing else will do, the sluggard’s excuse, “I can’t,” is always at hand. Were it not for the injury to them, it would be far more agreeable to do, one’s self, what is desired of them, than to encounter the painful scowls that clothe the brow, when they think of making an effort. Solomon has described this disposition to the life:—“The slothful ma............