And be joyful to think, when by death you're laid low, He's only a pauper, whom nobody owns!" 6. But a truce to this strain; for my soul it is sad, Should make, like the brutes, such a desolate end, Though a pauper, he's one whom his Maker yt owns! THOMAS NOEL. SECTION XXVI. STA I. 121. THE LABORER. TAND up-erect! Thou hast the form Of daily life, a heart as warm 2. What then?-Thou art as true a MAN 3. Who is thine enemy?-the high In station, or in wealth the chief? 4. If true unto thyself thou wast, What were the proud one's scorn to thee? Aside, as idly as the blast The light leaf from the tree. 'Dauntless, (dånt' les), fearless. ? A vert'ed, turned aside, or away. 5. No:-uncurbed passions-low desires- Death, in the breast's consuming fires, 6. These are thine enemies-thy worst ; 7. Thou art thyself thine enemy! The great!—what better they than thou? 8. True, wealth thou hast not-'tis but dust! But that thou hast, which, with thy crust Of both -a noble mind. 9. With this, and passions under ban,' II. WM. D GALLAHER 122. THE TRUE DIGNITY OF LABOR. ROM the foundation of the world, there has been a ten FR dency to look down upon labor, and upon those who live by it, with contempt, as though it were something mean and ignoble. This is one of those vulgar prejudices which have arisen from considering every thing vulgar that was peculiar to the multitude. 1 As pires', longs after; desires eagerly to reach or obtain. ? En dow', bestow; give. . Bǎn, prohibition; restraint. 4 Pēer, equal; a person of the same rank. 'Ig nō' ble, of low birth or family; very mean; degraded. 2. Because the multitude have been suffered to remain tog long rude and ignorant, every thing associated with their condition has been confounded with the circumstances of this condition. The multitude were, in their rudeness and ignorance, mean in the public estimation, and the labor of their hands was held to be mean too. 3. Nay, it has been said that labor is the result of God's primary curse, pronounced on man for his disobedience. But that is a great mistake. God told Adam that the ground was cursed for his sake; but not that his labor was cursed. He told him that in the sweat of his face he should eat his bread till he returned to the ground. But so far from labor partaking of the curse, it was given him as the means of triumphing over the curse. 4. The ground was to produce thorns and thistles, but labor was to extirpate' these thorns and thistles, and to cover the face of the earth with fruit-trees and bounteous harvests. And labor has done this: labor has already converted the earth, so far as its surface is concerned, from a wildernèss into a paradise.' 5. Man eats his bread in the sweat of his face; but is there any bread so sweet as that, when he has only nature to contend with, and not the false arrangements of his fellow men? So far is labor from being a curse-so far is it from being a disgrace -it is the věry principle which, like the winds of the air, or the agitation of the sea, keeps the world in health. It is the very life-blood of society, stirring in all its veins, and diffusing vigor and enjoyment through the whole system. 6. Without man's labor, God had created the world in vain! Without our labor, all life, except that of the rudèst and most savage kind, must perish. Arts, civilization, refinement, and religion must perish. Labor is the grand pedestal of God's blessings upon earth; it is mōre-like man and the world itself -it is the offspring and the work of God. 7. All honor then to labor, the offspring of Deity; the most ancient of ancients, sent forth by the Almighty into these nether* worlds as the most noble of nobles! Honor to that divine prin ciple which has filled the earth with all the comforts, and joys, and af'fluence that it possesses, and is undoubtedly the instrumènt of happiness wherever life is found. 8. Without labor, what is there? Without it, there were no world itself. Whatever we see or perceive-in heaven or on the earth-is the product of labor. The sky above us, the ground beneath us, the air we breathe, the sun, the moon, the stars— what are they? The product of labor. They are the labors of the Omnipotent, and all our labors are but a continuance of His. Our work is a divine work. We carry on what God began. 9. What a glorious spectacle is that of the labor of man upon the earth! It includes everything in it that is glorious. Look round, my friends, and tell me what you see that is worth seeing that is not the work of your hands, and of the hands of your fellows the multitude of all agès ? 10. What is it that felled the ancient forests and cleared vast morasses1 of other ages? That makes green fields smile in the sun, and corn, rustling in the breezes of heaven, whisper of plenty and domestic joy? What raised first the hut, and then the cottage, and then the palace? What filled all these with food and furniture-with food simple and also costly; with furniture of infinite variety, from the three-legged stool to the mōsti magnificent cabinet' and the regal' throne? What made glass, and dyed it with all the hues of rainbows or of summer sunsets? What constructed presses and books, and filled up the walls of libraries, every inch of which contained a mass of latent light. hoarded for the use of ages? 11. What took the hint from the split walnut-shell which some boy floated on the brook, and set on the flood first the boat, and then the ship, and has scattered these glorious children of man, the water-walking ships, over all the oceans of the world, and filled them with the prod'uce of all lands, and the machinery of profoundèst inventions? What has made the wide sea like a great city street, where merchants are going to and fro full of eager thoughts of self-accumulation, but not the less full of international blessings? 1 Mo rǎss' es, marshes; low, wet pieces of ground. 9 Cǎb' in et, a piece of furniture consisting of a chest, drawers, and doors; a private room. 'Regal, belonging to a king; kingly. * International, (in ter nåsh'un al), between nations; relating to two or more nations. 12. What has made the land like one great garden, laid down its roads that run like veins to every portion of the system of life, cut its canals, cast up its lines of railways, and driven alõng them, in fire and vapor, the awful but beneficial dragons of modern enterprise? What has piled up all our cities with their glittering and exhaustlèss wealth, their splendid utensils,' their paintings, their mechanic wonders, all serving domestic life, and its beloved fireside delights. Labor! labor! labor! It is labor, and your labor, men of the multitude, that has done it all! 13. True, the wise ones tell us that it is intellect' that has done it. And all honor to intellect! It is not I nor you, fellowworkers, who will attempt to rob the royal power of intellect of one iota of his renown. Intellect is also a glorious gift of the Divinity-a divine principle in the earth. We set intellect at the head of labor, and bid it lead the way to all wonders and discoveries; but we know that intellect can not go ălōne. Intellect can not separate itself from labor. 14. Intellect has also its labor; and in its most ab'stract* and ethereal' form can not develop itself without the coöperation of its twin-brother labor. When intellect exerts itself—when it thinks, and invents, and discovers-it then labors. Through the medium of labor it does all that it does ; and upon labor it is perfectly dependent to carry out all its mechanical operations. Intellect is the head-labor the right hand. Take away the hand, and the head is a magazine of knowledge and fire that is sealed up in eternal darkness. Such are the relationships of labor and intellect. WILLIAM HOWITT. III. 123. LABOR. ABOR is rest-from the sorrows that greet us; LA Rest from all petty vexations that meet us, 1 U tění sil, any article of which letter; a very small quantity. use is made; tools, etc. 'Abstract, pure; separate; diffi. 2 In' tel lect, the faculty of think- cult. ing; the understanding. Б 'E the' re al, composed of ether; * Iota, (ì ở′ tå), the smallest Greek very thin; heavenly. |