174 



Aaron's sons shalt thou make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, 

 and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and beauty." 



The second King of Israel did not reproach himself that he dwelt in a 

 house of cedar, but rather that the ark of his God abode AviLhin curtains ;; 

 and when the tabernacle was about to be superceded by the more perma- 

 nent and costly structure of the temple, he admonished Solomon his son 

 that " the house that was to be builded for the Lord must be exceedinor 

 magnifical ; of fame and glory througnout all nations ; " and thousands 

 of artisans were employed for twenty years, and wealth equivalent to 

 many millions of our dollars was expended in completing and furnishing" 

 the gorgeous edifice. 



We are not to suppose that the splendors of art displayed in the Jewish 

 temple and worship, could add aught to the grandeur of Him vfho 

 "dwelleth not in temples made with hands ;" " Neither is worshipped 

 with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all 

 life, and breath, and all things;" but rather that they were adapted and 

 intended to produce a salutary impression upon the mind of the beholder, 

 in harmony with the appropriate duties there to be performed. We are 

 not, therefore, at liberty to doubt the moral propriety of cultivating the 

 arts to any imaginable extent which may consist with due attention tO' 

 other duties. 



But how is this to be accomplished without division of labor ? The arts 

 and the sciences upon which they depend, have arrived at their present 

 degree of perfection by slow advances ; no one of either having been 

 matured by any one mind. The limited period of human life and the 

 limited capacities of the human mind, forbid it. The most gifted mind 

 must spend half a life-time in reaching, by a beaten path, a point which 

 others have reached before him, and to be ready to begin where his pre- 

 decessors left off; and then, his progress into the dark unknown, must be 

 extremely slow. Hence it is obvious that no one mind, however gifted 

 it may be, can master all the sciences, nor all the arts, nor any consider- 

 able number of them. The only possibility of perfection or progress in 

 either, is by means of that division of labor between them respectively, 

 and between them collectively and agriculture, whereby each individual 

 is enabled to devote his exclusive attention to some one, or at most, a few 

 such pursuits as his particular taste and genius best qualify him to prose- 

 cute. Even if a more than antediluvian longevity would enable the same 

 individual successively to master every branch of knowledge, both scien- 



