40 OBJECTS, ADVANTAGES, AND 



that is, in moderation for our own sakes, and in harmlessness towards 

 our neighbours, we fulfil rather than thwart the purposes of our being. 

 But the same bountiful Providence has endowed us with the higher 

 nature also with understandings as well as with senses with facul- 

 ties that are of a more exalted nature, and admit of more refined en- 

 joyments, than any the bodily frame can bestow ; and by pursuing 

 such gratifications rather than those of mere sense, we fulfil the highest 

 ends of our creation, and obtain both a present and a future reward. 

 These things are often said, but they are not therefore the less true, or 

 the less worthy of deep attention. Let us mark their practical appli- 

 cation to the occupations and enjoyments of all branches of society, be- 

 ginning with those who form the great bulk of every community, the 

 working' classes, by what names soever their vocations may be called 

 professions, arts, trades, handicrafts, or common labour. 



The first object of every man who has to depend upon his own ex- 

 ertions must needs be to provide for his daily wants. This is a high 

 and important office ; it deserves his utmost attention ; it includes 

 some of his most important duties, both to himself, his kindred, and 

 his country ; and although in performing this office he is only influ- 

 enced by his own interest, or by his necessities, yet it is one which 

 renders him truly the best, benefactor of the community to which he 

 belongs. All other pursuits must give way to this ; the hours which he 

 gives to learning must be after he has clone his work ; his independ- 

 ence, without which he is not worthy to be called a man, requires first 

 of all that he should have ensured for himself, and those dependent on 

 him, a comfortable subsistence before he can have a right to taste any 

 indulgence, either of his senses or of his mind ; and the more he 

 learns the greater progress he makes in the sciences the more will 

 he value that independence, and the more will he prize the industry, 

 the habits of regular labour, whereby he is enabled to secure so prime 

 a blessing. 



In one view, it is true, the progress which he makes in science may 

 help his ordinary exertions, the main business of every man's life. 

 There is hardly any trade or occupation in which useful lessons may 

 not be learnt by studying one science or another. The necessity of 

 science to the more liberal professions is self-evident ; little less mani- 

 fest is the use to their members of extending their knowledge beyond 

 the branches of study, with which their several pursuits are more pe- 

 culiarly conversant. But the other departments of industry derive 

 hardly less benefit from the same source. To how many kinds of 

 workmen must a knowledge of Mechanical Philosophy prove useful ! 

 To how many others does Chemistry prove almost necessary ! Every 

 one must with a glance perceive that to engineers, watch-makers, in- 

 strument-makers, bleachers, and dyers, those sciences are most useful, 

 if not necessary. But carpenters and masons are surely likely to do 

 their work better for knowing how to measure, which Practical Ma- 

 thematics teaches them, and how to estimate the strength of timber, 

 of walls, and of arches, which they learn from Practical Mechanics ; 

 and they who work in various metals are certain to be the more skilful 

 in their trades for knowing the nature of those substances, and their 

 relations to both heat and other metals, and to the airs and liquids they 



