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added to the consumption of a your would
produce a famine i it nearly every country
in the world, and the cessation of labor
for tlve years would leave the world in
bankruptcy and want. Industrial labor
is the only safe Kgrarian law of society ; it
is ever elevating the lower classes and re
ducing the idle; it fixes a period to all
monopolies, and places salutary checks
upon them in partial and limited opera
tion Labor then becomes a universal dm
ty; to reject or neglect which is incontro
vertible evidence of imbecility. Mine,
I)e Slael once answered a gentleman call
cr, who found her surrounded by proof
sheets, music, musical inslru.ncnts and
the like, and who said, "How is it possible
to attend to all these at once?" "Oh, these
are not what I am proud of, any lady can
do these, but what I do value myself for
is that I have no less than seventeen diller
ent trades by any one of which I could
earn my living by my hands, if neces
sary." How much more honorable is such
i boast than that of a great many young
mie.) who are proud of their ignorance
of the simplest household duties, ami who
in unfortunate emergencies would be
obliged to go hungry in the midst of plen
ty for tin; want of requisite knowledge.
So marked are the evil effects of idleness,
that many saying1- illustrating its injur
iousness have been promulgated, ami their
authenticity so fully established that they
will continue through lime, always con
hidered the quintessence of wisdom.
Among the ninny, we notice
"Idleness is the burial of the living
num."
"idle men are the devil's playfellows."
"An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
"A want of occupation is not rest,"
"A mind quite vacant is a mind ds-
tressed."
On the other hand we find such as
these:
"Business is the salt of life."
"Constant occupation prevents temptation."
"The Lord helps those who help them
selves." As a means of achievement it stands
alone. "What is your secret?" asked a
lady of Turner, the distinguished artist.
He replied, "I have no secret, madam,
but hard work." Says Dr. Arnold, "The
difference between one man and another
is not so niu.'li talent as energy." "Noth
ing," says II -ynolds, is denied well direc
ted labor, and nothing is to be obtained
without it." "Excellence in any depart
ment," says Johnson, "can now be oh
taiued by the labor of a lifetime, but is
not to be purchased at a lesser price."
Sa3's Sidney Smith, "There is but one
method, and that is hard labor; and a
man who will not pa that price for dis
tinction had better at once dedicate him
self to the pursuit of the fox." "Step by
step," reads the French proverb, "one goes
very far." "Nothing," sas Mirabcau,
"is impossible to the man who can will.
This is the only law of success." "Have
you ever entered a cottage, ever travelled
on a coach, ever talked with a peasant in
the field, or loitered with a mechanic at
the loom," asked Sir Edward Bulwer Lyt.
ton, "and not found that each .had a talent
you bad not, knew something you knew
not ? The most useless creature who
yawns in her parlor or who idles in nigs
beneath a tropical sun, has no excuse for
want of intellect. What men want i.-, not
talent but purpose, not the power to
achieve, but the will to labor."
Work is of all tilings the mnt honora
ble, and perhaps the great bane of the
world is that it is not so considered. It
was honorable in the putriarehual ages
it was honorable in the pure ages of
Greece and Homo. But in the feudal
ages, by associating labor with the en
slaved condition of vassals and the want
of occupation with the independence of
tyrant lords, a leaven of false aristocracy
was infused into Europe, and has reached
the New World. Hut the prejudice is an
aspersion upon Divine Providence, hurtful
to its victims, and disastrous in its effects.
