224 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



life; and man rarely voluntarily labors but for this purpose. 

 Abundance is the object of life, abundance of the good things 

 of this world ; and labor the means which the Creator has 

 vouchsafed to us, painful and irksome indeed, to obtain that 

 abundance. We all practically look upon labor as an evil, and 

 we are always contriving means by which to avoid it. For this 

 object, we avail ourselves of the natural forces to avoid it. 

 For this object we avail ourselves of the natural forces of the 

 elements, of the fructifying influence of climate. The intellect 

 is racked in contriving and constructing curious machines to ena- 

 ble us to reach the largest reward for the least labor — which 

 shall give the greatest result with the least effort. 



Steam, that grand and wonderful discovery of modern times, 

 that mighty power both on the land and on the wave, is made 

 eminently effective for this purpose ; and should human intellect, 

 should man's mind enable him — as perhaps in time it may — to 

 subdue and control the elastic gases, for labor-saving purposes, 

 as he has subdued and controlled steam, that power will rise as 

 superior to steam, as steam is superior to mere animal power. 

 The saving of labor in the cost of transportation, and the 

 saving of time, a part of that cost, on the land and on the ocean, 

 on the rivers and on the roads, by the application of steam, 

 great as they are known to be, fall short of the saving of labor 

 by this power in other departments of human industry. Steam 

 drives our factories, saws our timber, drains our mines, raises 

 the coal and minerals, shapes the iron ; in fine, it relieves man, 

 in a great degree, to a good extent, from a portion of the evils 

 of labor, and enables him to reach more readily and rapidly the 

 goal he has in view — abundance, with little effort. All the in- 

 ventions, all the labor-saving machines, ever contrived by the 

 art of man, have had this sole purpose in view — to obtain abun- 

 dance with little labor. 



With the like design, man uses the gifts of the Creator. The 

 rushing waterfall, and the balmy breeze, are made to diminish 

 his toil ; and climate, the variety of climate with which a be- 

 neficent Deity has diversified the earth, from the torrid to the 

 frigid zone, is made subservient to this purpose, both directly 

 and through the medium of exchange. If, then, abundance be 



