6 



fertile, while the great plains of Kiiropc, Asia, and 

 America, arc for tlie most part productive with a small 

 expenditure of labor. Now if you separate one of 

 these prairies, steppes, or plains from the rest of the 

 world, what inducement to activity beyond the preser- 

 vation of animal life remains ? In mountainous and 

 comparatively sterile regions, so great are the necessi- 

 ties of the inhabitants, that activity and labor are the 

 connuon lot. Tiie necessity for labor is the mother of 

 what we call enterprise. 



Where the necessity for labor does not exist and 

 press as a general rule upon all, enterprise is unknown, 

 or is else transplanted from other less favored regions. 

 How often is it that the children of the rich are lacking 

 in energy and enterprise, while these qualities are quite 

 universal among the properly educated children of less 

 favored classes ? Men will not usually labor when the 

 customary round of wants is supplied ; and this round 

 is more likely to diminish than to increase, when all 

 external stimulus is withdrawn. Now while mountains 

 are favorable to animal life, they are not usually pro- 

 ductive in the means of its support. One alternative 

 only remains : Men must work or starve. Though 

 disposed as our race is to idleness, most of us accept 

 labor when presented on such stern conditions. Yet we 

 often accept it, or flee from it to more favored climes, 

 as though it were always and everywhere a curse ; while 

 in truth there is within us all a principle which renders 

 labor a blessing. I do not, of course, speak of the 

 systems of Europe, or other servile systems, which 

 compel the laborer to delve in ignorance for a bare 

 subsistence. The New England laborer is not subject 

 to nor in danger of any such degradation. When labor 



