EAST AND WEST. 379 



means of its support; One alternative only remains ; Men 

 must work or starve. Though disposed as our race is to idle- 

 ness, most of us accept labor when presented on such stern con- 

 ditions. Yet we often accept it, or flee from it to more favored 

 climes, as though it were always and everywhere a curse ; while 

 in truth there is within us all a principle which renders labor a 

 blessing. I do not, of course, speak of the systems of Europe, 

 or other servile systems, which compel the laborer to delve in 

 ignorance for a bare subsistence. The New England laborer is 

 not subject to nor in danger of any such degradation. When 

 labor is regarded merely as a means of supporting life or of 

 accumulating wealth, then it is a curse ; but it becomes a bless- 

 ing when viewed as a process by which we achieve a victory 

 over the resisting forces of nature or art. It is not the glory 

 of Christ or of Christianity that its founder was without temp- 

 tation, but that being tempted he was without sin. Virtue, 

 genius, plain intellect, manual labor, respects itself and is 

 respected in proportion to the obstacles it overcomes. Marshal 

 de St. Arnaud and Lord Raglan, though unsuccessful in the 

 Crimea, are, after all, more distinguished than they would have 

 been had the Russians fled precipitately beyond the isthmus of 

 Perekop. Labor, labor of the hands merely and for a subsist- 

 ence only, is and ever must be menial ; but it is dignified and 

 ennobled, when, guided by the intellect, it "overcomes the obsta- 

 cles which lie in every man's path. Labor is a blessing just in 

 proportion as it is an achievement. 



A life which accomplishes nothing is nothing to the world. 

 The labor which such a liver is obliged to perform seemsjustly 

 enough to him to be a curse. But do you not think that the 

 labor of the astronomer, the chemist, the mathematician, the 

 poet, is a blessing ? Lideed it is ; and his labor is as severe as 

 any manual labor can possibly be. Why then, thou mere deni- 

 zen of earth, is labor to him a blessing and to you a curse ? 

 Plainly because you accept labor as a yoke upon your own neck, 

 instead of seizing it as an instrument in your hands, by whose 

 agency you will achieve a victory over the obstacles in your 

 way. Labor, to be sure, is an instrument by whicli we acquire 

 a subsistence and accumulate wealth ; but an instrument, too, 

 by which we demonstrate the supremacy of an intellect over the 

 inanimate creation. Now this highest form of labor can exist 



