Literary Criticism: Stevenson on Idleness

Introduction
As the title “An Apology for Idlers” suggest, Stevenson defends the idlers, contrasting the advantages from the idleness to those from the industry. Idleness, which literally means doing nothing, has the same right as industry to have a dignified position. The presence of people who are contented with what they have is considered to be an insult and disenchantment to those who indulge in back-breaking labour. The people engaged in hard work resent the sight of those cool persons who sit and enjoy themselves in the meadows. Alexander-The Great was confused by the indifference of Diogenes to his glory and honour. The barbarians who captured Rome too were surprised at the sight of salient and unmoved Roman Senators. Men who work hard to achieve glory want the world to acknowledge their achievements.
An apology to the apology
Before beginning the apology, Stevenson notes that there is no need of any kind of hesitations in thinking about the positive arguments he deliver. It does not mean to follow it entirely shunning all the arguments in favour of diligence. It also does not mean that the author is against diligence. Any treatment on any topic should be made sincerely. If a person writes a travelogue on Montenegro, it does not mean that he has not been to Richmond.
The idleness in the youth
People shall be a good deal idle in youth. Idleness of a truant will only provide him some intelligence. It must be a foolish person who advised Dr.Johnson to labour hard with his books stating that reading might grow weary as one grows older. For, not only reading but vision as well as physique will also be weak when one grows older. Books are good, but they can never be a substitute for life. Giving too much importance to books is similar to the behaviour of Lady of Shallot (by Tennyson). She had her sight only to her image in the mirror. The realities beside her are neglected and therefore, she did not know what life has. Similarly, if a man read too much, he will have little time to think about the realities in life.
The truant
Stevenson himself was a truant once and he little regret for it. Each minute, the experiences one earns are lessons, according to him. One who sits inside the class can only learn the bloodless theories and proofs. An open street, as in the case of Dickens and Balzac, can teach more values than what could be achieved from books and lectures. If a truant cannot learn anything from the street, that means he has no faculty of learning. A truant need not always wander about the streets. He may go out to the country. “He may pitch on some tuft of lilacs over a burn, and smoke innumerable pipes to the tune of water on the stones.” The birds, the thicket, the nature etc, would teach him to be dynamic in thought.
The conventional diligence and the dynamic idleness
This type of free learning cannot be understood by the industrious fellows whose movements are always for well established conventional sixpenny motifs. Mr. Worldlywiseman is presented as a representative of conventional industriousness. In his opinion, one can be diligent only if he learns mathematics, metaphysics, languages etc. He cannot see anything to learn in the ugliest sloughs and thicket on the road, and the staff etc. However, the truant is able to understand what is peace or contentment from his expedition to the countryside. Without being aware of the depth and value of the knowledge he gains from there, Mr. Worldlywiseman goes away.
Advantages of a truant
Thus scholarships are categorized, as Mr.Worldlywiseman notes. If one’s activity does not fall in one of these classifications, it would fall into an idle action. A fact which does not fall into these scholastic categories will not be a fact, but a gossip. It is not true if one thinks that all knowledge is at the bottom of a well or the far end of a telescope. That is why the old Sainte Beuve, the French critic, regarded all experience as a single great book. A man who keeps his eyes open and his ears attentive can learn more than one who goes strictly by the books. While a laborious student stuffs his mind with new words, a truant learns some really useful art of dealing with the life and people. Due to the wide interpersonal associations, the truant would gain more common reason and more wisdom compared to a diligent learner.
Busy souls
According to Stevenson, extreme business is a symptom of deficient vitality. It would make a person mechanical. If such a group is removed from their regular environment into a country side or onto the board of a ship, they will be totally blank. When they do not require to go to the office, the whole breathing world is a blank to them. In their office, they are just the opposite. They would have good eyesight for a flow in a deed or a small turn in the stock market. If it is in the schools or colleges, their academic interest would only be to achieve the medal. Their all work and no play attitude dwarf their soul. Such a method, Stevenson says, does not appeal to be the success of life.
Bore diligent
Their busy modes may bring troubles to their living environment also. Such a person’s wife, children, friends and even his associate travelers in the bus or train would be suffered out of the busy behaviour. Perpetual involvement in the business will result in the perpetual neglect of his surroundings. His world will be alone for him. But the truth is one can only live his life through inter-relations. In the theatre of life, each and every moment, is inter-related to each other. It extends from the central character to the audience who claps and encourages the play. Smiling and cheerful faces which inspire others are essential in one’s life. Falstaff, even though not so honest, proves to be a better company than the diligent Barabbases. Hazlitt was more obliged to Northcote , a painter, than to the circle of his friends, though he had never done the former anything that can be called service. Hazlitt was allowed to publish some of Northcote’s conversation, which made him to think that a good companion was emphatically the greatest benefactor.
Obligation
Some cannot be grateful to those who have helped them with out any cost or difficulty in the part of helpers. This is a rude nature. Such people should know that pleasures are more beneficial than duties. For, the duty is done out of pressure, and the deed out of pleasure are not a forced one. Duty includes sacrifice of pleasure. “There must be two to kiss, and there may be a score in jest; but” the element of sacrifice is received by any one with confusion. If the running after of a barefooted boy, along the street, for a marble makes many laugh, those who enjoyed it is obliged to the boy. A happy person is better thing to find than a five pound note.
The advantages of Idleness
Thus, if a person cannot be happy without remaining idle, he should remain idle. Even though such an advice feels to be revolutionary, it is one of the most incontestable truths in the “whole Body of Morality”. A person who works too much without considering his idleness is an evil feature in other people’s lives. His environment will be happier, if he is dead. Everything will go the same even in his absence. There is nothing to worry about. Even the renowned Shakespeare is missed from the total history; the flow of life will be the same. The service of no single individual is inevitable. Nothing is stable. The merchants who hoard a lot may end their lives with misery. Fine young men who work themselves into the decline of life are finally carried away in a hearse to graveyard. What anybody aims may not be their destiny. If they reach the target, it won’t meet according to their anticipations. “They and the world they inhabit are so inconsiderable hat the mind freezes at the thought.”