STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 35 



The moment work becomes master we are no longer freemen, but slaves 

 to a calling. Being such, the man develops monstrously in one direction, 

 but is dwarfed in other directions. They make not whole men, but frac- 

 tional men, and die at last ; and often for lack of worthy deeds following, 

 receive burial "too protbund for resurrection." 



The impression prevails that the working class, in the trades and in 

 agricultural pursuits, must need lead very simple lives. lyittle knowledge 

 will serve them, it is thought. The story of the youngster who emigrated 

 West illustrates. He wrote back to the "old man," as he called his 

 father, persuading him to follow, saying, "Mighty small men get office 

 out here." 



The further impression has gone forth that young men who have not 

 brains enough to make lawyers, nor piety enough to make preachers, will 

 yet make very good farmers. The fact is, every department of labor is 

 calling for men, and the greater their attainments, the greater will be 

 their achievements ; and the greater their achievements, the greater the 

 possibility of further achieving, till, at last, the master-workman dies, 

 " capable of a greater deed than he has ever yet performed." And so 

 work comes lo mean achievement and good will to men. 



In its reflex influence work is discipline. It has training power, 

 and helps, almost omnipotently, in the production of true Christian 

 manhood. 



There is, in the untamed and untutored young life, abundant re- 

 sources. These will surely be expended in some direction. If not in the 

 regal services of work and duty, yet in some service. It is important to 

 control the impulses of young life in healthful and useful directions — 

 and that is the mission of work. So that the reward of work is not only 

 a livelihood, but a manhood. 



All recognize the necessity of labor. If there was no necessity men 

 would not work. "Who lays stone fence for the fun of it?" Men are 

 continually shying work. There is special aversion to physical effort. 

 What means this overcrowding of the professions, when the demand for 

 productive labor is not supplied? Why arfe our cities overrun with appli- 

 cants for clerkships and office work, when the farm and workshop call in 

 vain, " Come over and help us?" What means this "quadrennial tramp 

 to Washington?" I have heard it said that "something less than one 

 hundred thousand able-bodied men make a pilgrimage to the national 

 capital every four years." What do they want? You know what they 

 want. They want "statesmanship !" a "collectorship !" a "post-office- 

 ship!" any sort of a ship that will float them, and save them from the 

 necessity of manual labor. The periodic panics that afflict our country 

 have the same meaning. They mean that somebody is trying to live 

 without producing anything. It has been pretty correctly estimated that 

 the whole productive wealth of the country, if divided by the amount of 

 population, would not exceed thirty-one cents each. Now, this is a sig- 

 nificant figure. What does it mean? It means there are more Rip Van 

 Winkles than one. It means there are more men who are "averse to all 

 kinds of profitable labor" than is good for the country. And yet, on the 



