1884.] PAEM LABOR IN NEW ENGLAND. 97 



It not only relates to muscle as a force upon the farm, and a 

 prime factor in its cultivation, but it includes also the force which 

 precedes this, and counts the work of the brain of equal import- 

 ance. It treats also of some of the problems, new and old, with 

 which the farmer has to contend, and attempts their solution, and 

 of the principles which underlie both theory and practice in agri- 

 culture. And not only this. It lies at the basis of all men's 

 interests who dwell in these New England homes, because upon 

 the success or failure of our work depends, to a great extent, the 

 reward of labor. Toil binds men together in a common brother- 

 hood, for from the beginning of human history till now the com- 

 mon lot of man has been that of a laborer. 



Mankind as a whole toil in obedience to that great law which 

 we call necessity; or to state the same fact in terms which I think 

 more honorable to man and more just to his Creator, labor has 

 been made one of the prime conditions of human happiness. 

 Idleness is a foe to humanity in every stage of its existence, and 

 in every condition. Ease is a crown to be won by toil, and he 

 who refuses to labor has no riglit to call himself a man; so I shall 

 assume that, since labor of some kind is indispensable to human 

 enjoyment, it is therefore honorable, and that somewhere there is a 

 work for every man to do. Fortunately under our form of civili- 

 zation every one is free to choose his own occupation, subject to 

 the single condition that it shall contribute to the welfare of soci- 

 ety. In all this latitude of choice he may easily find that employ- 

 ment which is best adapted to his capacity and his taste, and no 

 man may undertake to interfere with his choice. Nor has any 

 one a right to disparage the service which he performs, if it be 

 such as society is in need of, no matter whether it be by the pen, 

 the sword, or the plow, in the coal-mine, the manufactory, the 

 counting-house, or the pulpit, at the anvil, or the bar. Muscle and 

 brain are of equal importance in the affairs of men, and the work 

 they do should be equally honorable. But, tell me, are they ? 

 Has not public opinion placed the one under its ban, and exalted 

 the other to the chief seats in its synagogue ? Is fidelity as sure 

 of recognition in the garb of the coal-heaver, or the hod-carrier, 

 as when attired in broadcloth ? To ask such questions is to sug- 

 gest their true answers. 



Agriculture has been in the long past one of those employments 

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