AN APOLOGY FOR IDLERS
ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON
AN
APOLOGY FOR IDLERS
AND OTHER ESSAYS
PORTLAND MAINE
THOMAS B MOSHER
MDCCCCXVI
| FIRST EDITION, | OCTOBER, 1905 |
| SECOND EDITION, | SEPTEMBER, 1908 |
| THIRD EDITION, | SEPTEMBER, 1916 |
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| An Apology for Idlers | 9 |
| El Dorado | 35 |
| The English Admirals | 45 |
| Child’s Play | 77 |
AN APOLOGY FOR IDLERS
{9}
AN APOLOGY FOR IDLERS
JUST now, when every one is bound, under pain of a decree in absenceconvicting them of lèse-respectability, to enter on some lucrativeprofession, and labour therein with something not far short ofenthusiasm, a cry from the opposite party who are content when they haveenough, and like to look on and enjoy in the meanwhile, savours a littleof bravado and gasconade. And yet this should not be. Idleness socalled, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a greatdeal not recognised in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, hasas good a right to state its position as industry itself. It is admittedthat the presence of people who refuse to enter in the great handicaprace for sixpenny pieces, is at once an insult and a disenchantment for{10}those who do. A fine fellow (as we see so many) takes hisdetermination, votes for the sixpences, and in the emphatic Americanism,“goes for” them. And while such an one is ploughing distressfully up theroad, it is not hard to understand his resentment,