<p><pre><code> 143. Diversion.--Men are entrusted from infancy with the
care of their honour, their property, their friends, and
even with the property and the honour of their friends.
They are overwhelmed with business, with the study of
languages, and with physical exercise; and they are made
to understand that they cannot be happy unless their
health, their honour, their fortune and that of their
friends be in good condition, and that a single thing
wanting will make them unhappy.
Thus they are given cares and business which make them
bustle about from break of day. It is, you will
exclaim, a strange way to make them happy!
What more could be done to make them miserable?
--Indeed! what could be done? We should only have
to relieve them from all these cares; for then they
would see themselves: they would reflect on what they are,
whence they came, whither they go, and thus we cannot employ
and divert them too much.
And this is why, after having given them so much
business, we advise them, if they have some time for
relaxation, to employ it in amusement, in play,
and to be always fully occupied.</code></pre>