GENERAL PRINCIPLES 13 



Venerable too is the rugged face, all weather-tanned, besoiled, with its rude 

 intelligence; for it is the face of a Man living manlike. O, but the more 

 ve nerable for thy rudeness, and even because we must pity as well as love 

 thee ! Hardly-entreated Brother ! For us was thy back so bent, for us were 

 thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed : thou wert our Conscript, on 

 whom the lot fell, and fighting our battles wert so marred. . . . 



A second man I honor, and still more highly : Him who is seen toiling 

 for the spiritually indispensable; not daily bread, but the bread of Life. 

 Is not he too in his duty ; endeavoring towards inward Harmony ; revealing 

 this, by act or by word, through all his outward endeavors, be they high or 

 low? Highest of all, when his outward and his inward endeavor are one: 

 when we can name him Artist; not earthly Craftsman only, but inspired 

 Thinker, who with heaven-made Implement conquers Heaven for us! If 

 the poor and humble toil that we have Food, must not the high and glorious 

 toil for him in return, that he have Light, have Guidance, Freedom, Immor- 

 ta ity ? These two, in all their degrees, I honor: all else is chaff and 

 dust, which let the wind blow whither it listeth. 



From Sartor Resartus 



II. FARMING AS A WAY OF GETTING A LIVING 



Conditions of agricultural success. Of all the leading occu- 

 pations in a civilized country, there is none in which success 

 depends so little upon social, and so much upon physical, knowl- 

 edge and adaptability as farming. And there is none where 

 life is lived and work is done in such intimate and direct con- 

 tact with nature and so little in contact with other men. One re- 

 sult of this kind of life and work is that the farmer acquires less 

 oi what are sometimes called the social graces, less adroit- 

 ness in the amenities of social intercourse, less expertness in the 

 intricacies of drawing-room etiquette, than the members of 

 almost any other large class. Those who get their living out of 

 other men must of necessity be skillful in the arts of pleasing 

 other men. It is part of their business. But they who get their 

 living out of the soil must concentrate their attention upon the 

 soil and the things pertaining to it ; and the skill and knowledge 

 which they acquire must relate to these things rather than to 



