1853] WRITINGS OP JOSEPH HENRY. 323 



analogous effect is produced on the whole human family 

 during the successive ages of its existence. 



By these remarks we do not wish to draw upon ourselves 

 the imputation of advocating tlie inevitable progress of the 

 human race. The world is subject to evil impressions as well 

 as good, and whatever advance is made in the line of true 

 progress will not be the result of a blind law of necessity, 

 but of a providential design through human agency and 

 properly-directed human labor. Without labor nothing of 

 value can be accomplished. It is the essential pre-requisite 

 of well-being, the original curse which proves a blessing in 

 disguise. The remark has been properly made that could 

 all the wants of man be supplied without labor there would 

 be reason to fear that he would become a brute for the want 

 of something to do, rather than a philosopher from an abun- 

 dance of leisure. In all countries where nature does the 

 most, man does the least. The sterile soil and the inclement, 

 sky seem to be the stimulants to mental and physical exer- 

 tion, when once the necessary impulse has been given. True 

 progress does not consist in obviating the necessity of labor, 

 but in changing, b}' means of improvements in the arts, its 

 character in rendering it more conducive to the supply of the 

 wants and comforts of man, and to the development of his 

 mental and moral nature. 



We have received from the past a rich treasure of knowl- 

 edge, the product of the body and mind, gathered under 

 difficulties and danger, and improved by the thought and 

 the experience of years. Our great object should be to purify 

 this knowledge from error, to reduce it to its essential and 

 simple elements, and to transmit it with the greatest amount 

 of new truth to our successors. We should however recollect 

 that accumulated knowledge, like accumulated capital, in- 

 creases at compound interest, and that therefore each gen- 

 eration is bound to add much more largely to the common 

 stock than that which immediately preceded it. It is the- 

 high privilege, as well as the sacred duty, of every one of us- 

 to labor for the improvement of ourselves and our fellow- 

 men, and to endeavor to the utmost of our ability to leave; 



