Wesley Corpus

of the ancient stamp, who are patterns of industry in their calling to all that are round about them, but it is undeniable that a vast majority of the middle and lower ranks of people are diligently employed from morning to night, and from the beginning to the end of the year. And indeed those who are best acquainted with other nations, will not scruple to testify, that the bulk of the English are at this day as diligent as any people in the universe. 5. Neither is sloth the constant, any more than the universal, character of the English nation. Upon many occasions even those that are most infected with it arise and shake themselves from the dust. Witness the behaviour of those of the highest rank, when they were engaged in war. Did any one charge sloth on the late Duke of Marlborough, or the Marquis of Granby ? Witness the behaviour of many eminent men in the militia, setting an example to all their troops ' Yea, some of them were neither afraid nor ashamed to march on foot at the head of their men 6. Least of all is sloth peculiar to the English nation. Is there no such thing even in Holland? Is there none in Germany? Certainly there is enough of it, and to spare, in every part of France; and yet there is a more abundant harvest of it both in Italy, Spain, and Portugal: So utterly void of truth is that assertion, that sloth is the present characteristic of the English nation | 7. Neither is luxury. For it is not universal, no, nor general. The food which is used by nine-tenths of our mation is (as it ever was) plain and simple. A vast majority of the nation, if we take in all the living souls, are not only strangers to gluttony and drunkenness, but to delicacy either of meat or drink. Neither do they err in quantity any more than in quality, but take what nature requires, and no more. 8. And as luxury in food is not universal in England, so neither is luxury in apparel. Thousands in every part of the kingdom are utterly guiltless of it. Whether by choice or necessity, their dress is as plain as their food; and so is their furniture.