For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

These lines come from Isaac Watts’s didactic children’s hymn “Against Idleness and Mischief,” first published in his influential collection for young readers. Watts (1674–1748), a Nonconformist minister and major figure in English hymnody, wrote many moral and devotional verses intended for family and school use. The poem urges children to be industrious and useful, contrasting the productive “busy bee” with the dangers of wasting time. The couplet about Satan and “idle hands” reflects a common Protestant moral emphasis of the period: that idleness invites temptation and wrongdoing, and that disciplined labor is a form of virtue and spiritual safeguard.

Watts frames idleness not as neutral rest but as a moral vulnerability: when one’s hands (and by implication, mind and will) are unoccupied, harmful impulses and temptations more easily take hold. By personifying evil as “Satan” actively “finding” work for the idle, the lines dramatize how small lapses—boredom, procrastination, lack of purpose—can become openings for mischief. In the larger poem, this warning supports a positive ethic of purposeful activity: usefulness, steady habits, and self-governance. The couplet’s enduring force lies in its memorable rhythm and its practical moral psychology: attention and effort directed toward good ends reduce the space in which destructive choices flourish.