The significant inscription found on an old key "If I rest, I rust" would be an excellent motto
for those who are afflicted with the taint of idleness. Even the most industrious might adopt it
with advantage to serve as a reminder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron
in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, cannot do the required of
them.
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished
by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gate that guard the entrances
to the professions, to science, art, literature - every department of human endeavor.
Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasury of achievement. If Hugh Miller, after
toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have
become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stine, would never have published
a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science if mathematic, if he had given
his spare moments to idleness. Had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain
to go to sleep while he tended sleep on the hillside instead of calculating the position of
the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquishes all - not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor, but faithful,
unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.