Opposite to exercise is idleness (the badge of gentry) or want of exercise, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, stepmother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, and a sole cause for this an many other maladies, the devil’s cushion, as Gualter calls it, his pillow and chief reposal.

Anatomy of Melancholy