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not by any means lead to the conclusion that labor is 

 better rewarded here than in the West, but that we are, 

 as a people, more industrious. Industry with us is a 

 matter of necessity ; with them it is a matter of conve- 

 nience, or even of pleasure. It is not likely that they 

 have a greater proportion of idlers, but that the mass 

 are not so diligent as are the same classes with us. 

 Men may indeed doubt whether this necessity for labor 

 is a blessing or a curse ; most of us would make the 

 question a personal one. For ourselves, we seek what 

 we call ease, — relief from labor. 



But is this a wise social and national view ? There 

 may be, we know there are, systems of labor so oppres- 

 sive that all manly aspirations and efforts for progress 

 are destroyed. But such is not a necessary result of 

 our New England system. Men may, if they choose, 

 avail themselves of many opportunities for self-improve- 

 ment. Our farmers, our mechanics, our laborers in 

 every department, have leisure. But leisure is nothing 

 without the habit of industry first formed. It is impor- 

 tant to the industrial classes that they have leisure ; but 

 without the habit of industry, the love of labor, leisure 

 becomes a mere name for idleness. A lover of idleness 

 has not the first manly quality in him. Variety in labor, 

 recreation, are necessary ; but positive and systematic 

 idleness, is a degrading vice. Now ought any man to 

 flee from New England, that he may be idle elsewhere ? 

 Admit what is probably true, that the inhabitants of the 

 West perform less labor than the inhabitants of the 

 East, — does it by any means follow that we are more 

 burdened than they ? The burden of labor is not de- 

 termined by the amount of work performed, but by the 

 measure of strength of body, buoyancy of spirit, and 

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