"For sottish ease, and a life wholly sedentary and given up to Idleness, spoils and debilitates, not only the Body but the Soul too: And as close Waters shadowed over by bordering Trees, and stagnated in default of Springs, so supply current and motion to them become foul and corrupt; so methinks the Innate Faculties and Powers, of a dull unstirring Soul, what ever usefulness, whatever Seeds of good she may have latent in her, yet when she puts not those Powers into Action, when once they stagnate, they lose their vigour and run to decay; See you not how on Nights approach a sluggish drowsiness oft-times seizes the Body, and sloath and unactivness surprize the Soul, and she finds her self heavy and quite unfit for Action?"
Whether 'Twere Rightly Said, Live Conceal'd [from Plutarch's Morals]
Text from "Whether 'Twere Rightly Said, Live Conceal'd," trans. Charles Whitaker in <u>Plutarch's Morals: Translated from the Greek by Several Hands</u>, 5th ed., vol. 3 of 5 (London: Printed for William Taylor, 1718), 35-42. &lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=U0RWAAAAYAAJ">Link to Google Books</a>&gt;<br>

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See also Liberty Fund edition, digitized from <u>Plutarchâ€™s Morals. Translated from the Greek by Several Hands</u>. Corrected and Revised by William W. Goodwin, with an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1878). This 1878 American edition is based on the 5th edition of 1718. &lt;<a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1753">Link to OLL</a>&gt;