晨读英语美文 If I Rest, I Rust

If I Rest, I Rust
[00:06.23]The significant inscription found on an old key
[00:10.44]if I rest, I rust
[00:12.74]would be an excellent motto for those 
[00:15.06]who are afflicted with the slightest bit of idleness. 
[00:19.17]Even the most industrious person might adopt it with advantage 
[00:23.62]to serve as a reminder that, 
[00:25.53]if one allows his faculties to rest, 
[00:29.18]like the iron in the unused key, 
[00:32.06]they will soon show signs of rust and, ultimately, 
[00:36.19]cannot do the work required of them.
[00:39.31]Those who would attain the heights reached and kept 
[00:42.75]by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, 
[00:48.35]so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, 
[00:51.54]the gate that guards the entrances to the professions, 
[00:55.56]to science, art, literature, agriculture
[00:59.45]every department of human endeavor.
[01:02.86]Industry keeps bright the key 
[01:05.35]that opens the treasury of achievement. 
[01:08.02]If Hugh Miller, after toiling all day in a quarry, 
[01:11.85]had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, 
[01:15.79]he would never have become a famous geologist. 
[01:20.20]The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, 
[01:23.66]would never have published a mathematical dictionary, 
[01:27.32]never have found the key to science of mathematics, 
[01:31.79]if he had given his spare moments to idleness, 
[01:36.23]had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, 
[01:39.00]allowed the busy brain to go to sleep 
[01:41.79]while he tended sheep on the hillside 
[01:44.60]instead of calculating the position of the stars 
[01:47.70]by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
[01:54.47]Labor vanquishes all
[01:56.61]not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; 
[02:00.85]but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. 
[02:06.98]Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, 
[02:11.67]so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success. 
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