He proposed to himself the life of an idle man with a moderate income,--a life which should be luxurious, refined, and graceful, but to which should be attached the burden of no necessary occupation.

His small estate gave him but little to do, as he would not farm any portion of his own acres.

He became a magistrate in his county; but he would not interest himself with the price of a good yoke of bullocks, as did Mr.Justice Shallow,--nor did he ever care how a score of ewes went at any fair.

There is no harder life than this.

Here and there we may find a man who has so trained himself that day after day he can devote his mind without compulsion to healthy pursuits, who can induce himself to work, though work be not required from him for any ostensible object, who can save himself from the curse of misusing his time, though he has for it no defined and necessary use; but such men are few, and are made of better metal than was Mr.Maule.He became an idler, a man of luxury, and then a spendthrift.