
			Against Idleness and Mischief

How doth the little busy bee		How skillfully she builds her cell!
Improve each shining hour,		How neat she spreads the wax!
And gather honey all the day		And labours hard to store it well
From every opening flower!		With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill		In books, or work, or healthful play,
I would be busy too;			Let my first years be passed,
For Satan finds some mischief still	That I may give for every day
For idle hands to do.			Some good account at last.
		-- Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
