I have ease, if it may not rather be called
indolence. --Bp. Hough.
2. The quality or condition of being indolent; inaction, or
want of exertion of body or mind, proceeding from love of
ease or aversion to toil; habitual idleness; indisposition
to labor; laziness; sloth; inactivity.
Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad.
--Cowper.
As there is a great truth wrapped up in
``diligence,'' what a lie, on the other hand, lurks
at the root of our present use of the word
``indolence''! This is from ``in'' and ``doleo,''
not to grieve; and indolence is thus a state in
which we have no grief or pain; so that the word, as
we now employ it, seems to affirm that indulgence in
sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us
the absence of all pain. --Trench.