what to do with yourſelves. Nay, you actually committed a ſin; for you devoured cakes without feeling hunger, merely to kill time, whilſt many poor people have not the means of ſatiſfying their natural wants. When I deſired you to read to me you were amuſed; and now you have been uſeful you are delighted. Recollect this in future when you are at a loſs what to do with yourſelves; and remember that idleness must always be intolerable, becauſe it is only an irkſome conſciousneſs of exiſtence.
Every gift of Heaven is lent to us for our improvement; fancy is one of the firſt of the inferior ones; in cultivating it, we acquire what is called taſte, or a reliſh for particular employments, which occupy our leiſure hours, and raiſe us above the vulgar in our converſation. Thoſe who have not any taſte talk always of their own affairs or of their neighbours; every trivial matter that occurs within their knowledge they convaſs and conjecture about—not ſo much out of ill-nature as idleneſs: just as you eat
