HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 217 



in our inquiry, we were restricted to one interrogatory, what 

 would that one be ? We think it would be — " Are they indus- 

 trious, or are they idle ?" 



Industry is the parent of virtue, idleness, is the progenitor of 

 vice ; and in proportion as the one or the other, is the character- 

 istic feature of a people, will its moral position be high or low. 

 It is no unmerited eulogium on New England, to affirm, that 

 her prominent characteristic is industry ; and although it is 

 to be feared that she may include among her sons, some 

 who deserve the unenviable epithet of loafers^ this is but the 

 exception that proves the rule, and that, as a general thing, 

 the sons and daughters of a New England household, all do 

 something to enrich the family store, and make up the aggre- 

 gate of domestic abundance which is so largely enjoyed. 



The characteristic industry of the New England population, 

 may trace its paternal and maternal descent to the first puritan 

 settlers ; of whose divine guidance in the conception and prose- 

 cution of their arduous, but successful enterprise, it is a signal 

 proof, that they were destined to land on a barren and inhospita- 

 ble shore, where all their energies were required, in order to pro- 

 cure the bare necessaries of life. And when we reflect on the 

 unparalleled difficulties they had to encounter, and the wonders 

 they were enabled to achieve ; when we call to mind their " day 

 of small things," and the mighty results that have succeeded it, 

 we are insensibly reminded of the lines of Cowper : — 



" Behind a frowning Providence, 

 He hides a smiling face." 



Had the early settlers found themselves in a land where little 

 toil or personal exertion was necessary, in order to secure the 

 comforts, or even luxuries of life, it is but too probable, they 

 would speedily have lost all traces of those peculiar virtues, 

 which their descendants in this State, hold in such affec- 

 tionate veneration, as to devote one day in every year to their 

 especial contemplation ; and those descendants would, conse- 

 sequently, have been a people among whom it would have 

 been in vain to have looked for such exhibitions as our eyes 

 have feasted on to-day. 

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