NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY. 189 



AN ADDRESS 



Delivered before the North Kennebec Society, at Waterville, October 8, 1856, by 



Rev. H. C. Leonakd. 



Gentlemen : — You come together here to honor and dignify 

 labor, and to show your regard for some of the great interests 

 of the world. Your presence here upon these grounds, with 

 this display of handicraft, cattle and horses, and the produc- 

 tions of your gardens, orchards and fields, is an evidence that 

 you recognize the nobility of work, that you appreciate the 

 value of your goodly heritage, and that you aim in your employ- 

 ment to present the union and harmony of utility and beauty 

 in your results. 



These characteristics which you manifest here, are eminently 

 •worthy. The first one, the disposition to honor labor, is one 

 of the primal roots of greatness. Success, wealth, independ- 

 ence, spring mainly from this disposition, as the apple-tree 

 grows and draws nourishment from the tap-root running deep 

 into the ground. It is the foundation of a good man's charac- 

 ter; it is the cause of his prosperity; it is the basis and the 

 support of the thinking community, or the flourishing State. 



There are many places in the world where you may see the 

 distinct line between the thrift and respectability of labor, on 

 the one hand ; and the decay and degradation of false pride and 

 indolence, on the other. Here, is the man who feels that he 

 has a part to perform in life's great drama, that it is his duty 

 to do something in the realm of work, that it is wise and hon- 

 orable to employ his wits and his hands in some one of the 

 useful callings of the world. He walks among his fellow men 

 upright and fair in his nobleness and integrity. By the effort 

 of his brain, and by the sweat of his brow, he earns his right 

 to live among respectable men, and to take the good of life in 

 places of trust and honor. There, is the njan who thinks that 

 labor is not honorable, is only the part of menials or slaves, 



