VII.

The Dignity of Labor.

THERE
ПHERE is dignity in toll-in toil of the hand as well

as toil of the head-in toil to provide for the bodily wants of an individual life, as well as in toil to promote some enterprise of world-wide fame. All labor that tends to supply man's wants, to increase man's happiness, to elevate man's nature-in a word, all labor that is honest, is honorable too.

This may be thought a truth so obvious as to render argument unnecessary; so trite as to make further comment tedious. Yet, though admitted in theory, it is often repudiated in practice. Too many persons are always to be found who, while by no means indifferent to other honorable distinctions, evidently shrink from all claim to this; and who, while verbally assenting to our theme, act as if indolence were the principal privilege and charm of life. Still more numerous is the class of those who restrict dignity to certain kinds of labor on which the stamp of nobility is too prominently fixed, not to command universal homage, while for labor itself, for "toils obscure," they have little respect. Some occupations may be acknowledged to be more honorable than absolute indolence, and yet indolence itself is often regarded as more respectable than some descriptions of

industry. Many persons may be found who would consider themselves and their friends far less degraded by a sluggard's life, or one of even entire dependence, than by any connection with employments to which the fashionable world has refused the privilege of its entree. It can not be denied, that to be the mere consumer is often esteemed a higher distinction than to be the producer, to eat the corn than to grow it, to wear the raiment than to weave it, to dwell in the house than to build it.

If some families are rightly considered to be "good," which can boast of great achievements, are not others to be found for which this distinction is claimed, not on account of any services rendered to society, but solely because, through many generations, their escutcheon has not been touched by the soiled finger of trade and toil? Brilliant injustice at the base of the ancestral column may pass unchallenged, but if the first founder of the fortunes of his house has won distinction by honest labor, working his way upward from the toiling multitude to be the owner of large estates, is not he, and is not his origin, often overlooked in the superior glory of the son who perhaps inherited, not his father's industry, but only his father's gold? I do not depreciate wealth; I say not one word to detract from the special honor due to those who with gold inherit goodness, enabling them rightly to dispense it; but is it not a fact that, apart from any personal excellence, the mere possession of wealth is often thought a higher honor than the ability to produce it? Thus, what is so beautiful in the vegetable world has been transferred to the social world, and those have been the objects of admiration and envy of whom it could be said, "Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin !"

And not only so. For the world has honored not merely the indolent possessor, but the busy destroyer.

Applauses have been heaped on the ambitious usurper; the violent aggressor, whose path of glory has been marked by desolated cornfields and smoldering villages, and whose activity, being that of slaughter, was a far greater curse than absolute idleness. Thus, in the estimation of multitudes, he who successfully wields the sword of ambitious and unjust war, is more esteemed than he who plies the hammer and who drives the plow. Great must be the injury done by such a false estimate of the claims of labor, in the discouragement of those toils on which the welfare of the human family depends, and in the engendering undesirable sentiments in that great majority of every nation, whose contented and cheerful industry in obscure stations is so essential to their own happiness and virtue, and to the peace, prosperity, and permanent existence of the commonwealth.

I shall therefore endeavor, not in depreciation of social rank, still less with any desire to level all departments of industry, but in opposition to that erroneous sentiment which refuses to recognize the nobility inherent in every description of useful toil, and which would scornfully regard as low and degrading any activities, however humble, which tend to promote the general welfare of the great human family-I shall now endeavor to bring before you, as the subject of this evening's lecture, the DIGNITY OF LABOR.

Labor is the great law of the universe. Every atom and every world alike proclaim it. It is whispered by every breeze, and reflected from every star. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." Below, around, above, all things are in motion. The swarming insects of an hour's sunshine murmur in their mazy flight what the bright seraphim before God's throne proclaim in their unwearied worship. Even the inanimate ultimate elements of which organ

ized substances are composed, never rest. Animal and vegetable life depend on the unceasing changes going on in the structure of the living thing, which, as soon as it ceases to be active, dies. Its constituent parts rest not even then, but, liberated by decomposition, go forth to other toils elsewhere. Without noise or disorder, each knowing its appointed place and labor, the busy atoms of which all material things are composed ever go hither and thither, in varying but perfectly-adjusted combinations, constructing, uprearing, repairing, cleansing, beautifying, and, when their purpose has been accomplished, gently removing the various parts which compose the great machine of our universe. Were the powers of nature to become torpid for one short day, or were our globe to pause one instant on its axis, desolation and death would be its only tenants. Rest would be ruin. The same law of industry prevails beyond our narrow limits. The entire planetary system, and, for aught we know, all the stars of the firmament, are upheld by it. Were the sun to relax those invisible but potent chains by which he binds the planets to their center-were these rolling orbs to abate their speed, or once to loiter in their majestic career—their ancient sovereignty would again be assumed by chaos and old night.

Emphatically is labor the law of humanity. The structure of our body, as a whole, and of every separate organ in it, shows that we were designed for activity. Who can study the formation of the foot but must be convinced that it was made for motion; or of the hand, without the certainty that it was contrived for toil? Why was the ear so skillfully constructed for the conveyance of sound, but that it might listen; and why was the eye placed aloft, but that, as a watchful sentinel, it might faithfully guard the citadel, and promptly report all outward things to the busy spirit which sits enthroned within?