Other related themes at: All In Your Mind 99. Learning; Literacy; Over-anticipation Mr. Langton told us, he was about to establish a school upon his estate, but it had been suggested to him, that it might have a tendency to make the people less industrious. Johnson:"No, Sir. While learning to read and write is a distinction, the few who have that distinction may be the less inclined to work; but when everybody learns to read and write, it is no longer a distinction. A man who has a laced waistcoat is too fine a man to work; but if everybody had laced waistcoats, we should have people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people whatever more industrious, none who work more, than our manufacturers; yet, they have all learned to read and write. Sir, you must not neglect of doing a thing immediately good; from fear of remote evil; — from fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may sit up too late, which he would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of making candles , by which light is continued to us beyond the time that the sun gives us light, is a valuable art, and ought to be preserved." Boswell: Life Link 582. Futurity; Over-Anticipation "An idle and thoughtless resignation to chance, without any struggle against calamity or endeavour after advantage, is indeed below the dignity of a reasonable being, in whose power Providence has put a great part even of his present happiness; but it shows an equal ignorance of our proper sphere, to harass our thoughts with conjectures about things not yet in being. How can we regulate events, of which we yet know not whether they will ever happen? And why should we think, with painful anxiety, about that on which our thoughts can have no influence?" Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750) Link 583. Fear; Melancholy; Over-Anticipation "The concern of things to come that is so justly censured is not the result of those general reflections on the variableness of fortune, the uncertainty of life, and the universal insecurity of all human acquisitions, which must always be suggested by the view of the world; but such a desponding anticipation of misfortune as fixes the mind upon scenes of gloom and melancholy, and makes fear predominate every imagination." Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750) Link 584. Fear; Over-Anticipation "Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with too much dejection." Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750) Link 814. Hope; Over-Anticipation "Being accustomed to give the future full power over my mind, and to start away from the scene before me to some expected enjoyment, I deliver myself up to the tyranny of every desire which fancy suggests, and long for a thousand things which I am unable to procure." Johnson: Rambler #73 (November 27, 1750) — from a fictional correspondent, "Cupidus" Link 1,194. Over-Anticipation; Perfectionism; Vision "He whose penetration extends to remote consequences, and who, whenever he applies his attention to any design, discovers new prospects of advantage and possibilities of improvement, will not easily be persuaded that his project is ripe for execution; but will superadd one contrivance to another, endeavour to unite various purposes in one operation, multiply complications, and refine niceties, till he is entangled in his own scheme, and bewildered in the perplexity of various intentions." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link