Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

122 An Apology for Idlers
disposition. A man may send you six
sheets of letter-paper covered with the most
entertaining gossip, or you may pass half an
hour pleasantly, perhaps profitably, over an
article of his ; do you think the service
would be greater, if he had made the manu-
script in his heart's blood, like a compact
with the devil ? Do you really fancy you
should be more beholden to your corres-
pondent, if he had been damning you all
the while for your importunity? Pleasures
are more beneficial than duties because, like
the quality of mercy, they are not strained,
and they are twice blest. There must always
be two to a kiss, and there may be a score
in a jest ; but wherever there is an element
of sacrifice, the favour is conferred with pain,
and, among generous people, received with
confusion. There is no duty we so much
underrate as the duty of being happy. By
being happy, we sow anonymous benefits
upon the world, which remain unknown even
to ourselves, or when they are disclosed, sur-
prise nobody so much as the benefactor.