UNPROFITABLE READING. 239 the state of the mind is not very dis- similar. The difference 'between private excess and public intoxication, is not very material as to its effects on the individual : the chief difference lies in the example and the expense : for the mind is nearly as much unfitted for sober duties by the one, as by the other. It is the same principle which in- fluences the inveterate novel-reader, and the never-wearied pursuer ofpublic dissi, pation ; only its operation is different in different tempers. The active and lively trifler seeks to lose reflection in the bustling crowd ; while the more in- dolent alienates her mind from what is right, without any exertion-of' the body. In one, it is the imagination which is acted upon ; in the other, the senses. In one sense, indeed, the domestic idle- ness is the worst ; because it wraps itself up in its own comparative merit, and complacently reposes on its superior sobriety ; for, if the spirits. are more agitated in the one case, in the other
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=