Farewell to Sloth, Pt. XXXVII

Johnson's reading tables, 1729.

No writing on Thursday or Friday due to meetings with students, lecture, meeting with others, social gatherings, and frequent attacks of Sloth.

This morning I read about an online exhibit of Samuel Johnson memorabilia, including the earliest known letter he wrote, at age 16, looking to his cousin for a teaching job, and the "libellus" (little book) that he started in 1729, aged 19-20, to fight Sloth with a suggestion of the possibilities of reading.

In the table above, we can see him imagining how much he could accomplish over the course of weeks, months and years if only he read 10, 20, 30, etc. lines of Latin per day. I am inspired, and happy to find that in my current state I am thinking much along Johnson's lines when he was a 20-year old. Of course I'm 30, and so a bit slower than Johnson, but then again that's no surprise.