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68 to manual labour, when it is your duty to undertake works which seem to sloth interminable and tedious, and which, therefore, you cannot view without vexation of mind; begin, nevertheless, courageously and calmly with one, as if it were the only one you had to do; and when, having confined your attention to that, you have finished it, then go on with the next; and in this way, you will get through the whole of them with far less exertion than your slothfulness could have conceived to be possible.

But if you do not follow this plan, and face with courage the toil and hardship which lie in your way, the vice of sloth will so gain the mastery over you, that you will be always harassed and vexed, not only by the present toil and struggle, which ever accompany the first practice of virtue, but also by the sight of that which is afar off. You will live in dread of being tried and assailed by enemies, or of seeing some one impose a fresh burden on your shoulders; so that, even in times of peace, you will be full of apprehension.

Further, remember, beloved, that this vice of sloth, with its secret poison, will not only gradually kill the early and tender roots which would ultimately have produced habits of virtue, but also habits of virtue which are already formed. It will, like the worm in the wood, insensibly