11 



faculties, in the sublime destiny -which awaits him, is Man. " For 

 thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast 

 crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have 

 dominion over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things un- 

 der his feet." 



Man's moral and intellectual greatness consists rather in what 

 he is capable of becoming, than what he really is. Hence he is 

 under that " law of progress," which so vividly marks his career 

 through all ages and nations, and which Grod seems to have 

 stamped upon his being. Physical laws of climate may control 

 some of his peculiarities, may create some idyosyncracies, and 

 direct some of his tendencies, but without the active force of ano- 

 ther law, which is that of labor, man would remain in his normal 

 condition. Progress, then, is the compensatory reward of labor ; 

 and just in proportion to the directness, intensity and intelligence 

 of that labor, will all progress become intrinsically valuable to so- 

 ciety, and priceless to the individual. Therefore we deduce the 

 truth that labor is the great primary law of man's nature, under- 

 lying and paramount to the law of progress. Hence labor is no 

 curse, but one of the divlnest blessings, and every effort to get rid 

 of honest industry is a violation of our integrity to the law of God, 

 and we become his unfaithful representatives on the earth. 



" There is," says Carlyle, " a perennial nobleness and even 

 sacredness in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of 

 his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and 

 earnestly works ; in idleness alone is there perpetual despair." By 

 work, I do not mean mere manual labor only, but every effort of 

 the mind as well as of the body. I embrace all men in that great 

 brotherhood of laborers ; he who plies the shuttle at Lowell, works 

 the steel at Sheffield, stands swart and grim, amidst the fiery 

 forges at Pittsburg, or whose scythe sings in the falling grass. 

 These are not one jot the better laborers than a Kane, penetrating 

 those Arctic realms, on his errand of mercy, and planting his 

 country's flag on the topmost hill that overlooks that great un- 

 known Northern sea : than Wellington at Waterloo, or Napoleon 

 at Autcrlitz, or Washington in mid-winter crossing the Delaware, 

 or our own Fisher, transferring nature to his canvass, or a Thor- 

 waldscn, or a Greenough, carving the sohd marble into imperial 

 life, or ]Milton, with a throbbing brain, defending English liberty, 



