is regarded merely as a means of su{)porting life or of 

 acciiiiiulatiiig wealth, then it is a curse ; but it becomes 

 a blessing wlicn viewed as a process by wbicii we 

 achieve a victory over the resisting forces of nature or 

 art. It is not the glory of Christ or of Christianity that 

 its founder was without temptation ; but that being 

 tempted he was without sin. Virtue, genius, })laiu 

 intellect, manual labor, respects itself and is respected 

 in proportion to the obstacles it overcomes. Marshal 

 de St. iVrnaud and Lord Raglan, though unsuccessful 

 in the Crimea, are, after all, more distinguished than 

 they would have been had the Russians tied precipi- 

 tately beyond the isthmus of Ferekop. Labor, labor ot 

 the hands merely and for a subsistence only, is and ever 

 must be menial ; but it is dignified and ennobled, when, 

 guided by the intellect, it overcomes the obstacles which 

 he in every man's path. Labor is a blessing just in 

 proportion as it is an achievement. 



A life which accomplishes nothing is nothing to the 

 world. The labor which such a liver is obliged to per- 

 form, seems justly enough to him to be a curse. But 

 do you not think that the labor of the astronomer, the 

 chemist, the mathematician, the poet, is a blessing ? 

 Indeed it is; and his labor is as severe as any manual 

 labor can possibly be. Why then, thou mere denizen 

 of earth, is labor to him a blessing and to you a curse r 

 Plainly because you accept labor as a yoke upon your 

 own neck, instead of seizing it as an instrument in your 

 hands, by whose agency you will achieve a victory over 

 the obstacles in your way. Labor, to be sure, is an 

 instrument by which we acquire a subsistence and accu- 

 mulate wealth ; but an instrument, too, by which we 

 demonstrate the supremacy of the intellect over the in- 



