12 



been given to their keeping unnumbered ages ago, and in toil and 

 sorrow, and gladness and deep exultation, he read there the 

 •wondrous story of the rocks, the marvellous annals of Creation. 



Think of this for a moment, as it reveals itself to us in the prac- 

 cal form of one fundamental law of life — the great law of " No 

 work, no wages !" 



We sometimes hear the complaint, " Oh, I have no luck ; every 

 thing you do seems to prosper, but all I do, goes wrong!" Not 

 so ; the law is, you must work if you wish for wages. Life is not 

 to be trifled with, it deals in no chances, no good luck, but in 

 certainties only. The great wheels revolve invisibly, slowly, but 

 just as surely, just as inevitably as machinery. The laws of 

 nature, the sure sunrise, the sure sunset, winter and summer 

 are not more unchanging than the great laws of life, which, whoso 

 will, can read. Life deals with certainties only : and the harvest 

 doth not roll its great golden waves in the West winds of Autumn, 

 unless the seed Avere sown months ago in the Spring, 



Li the city this is not so : there are more fluctuating Avaves in 

 the current of life. Men grow suddenly rich, or poor ; property 

 doubles in value, or it becomes worthless. A prosperous adven- 

 ture, a bold speculation— Lord Timothy Dexter's " warming-pan 

 voyage to the West Indies," a rise in stocks — all these may bring 

 fortune, as well as a life of prudent industry ; and, although my 

 settled conviction is that all these even are the results of invaria- 

 ble laws, not of what we without reflection call chance or luck, yet 

 the proofs are not so obvious, the great chain and sequence of 

 cause and effect is not so easy to understand as here in the 

 country. 



On the contrary, how intelligible are the lessons of prudence, 

 of foresight, of thoughtfulness, which the farmer's life teaches him. 

 No day but brings its duty, no season but brings its necessary 

 labor. The farmer does not talk of luck or chance, or believe 

 that a fortunate rise in stocks will fill his barns. The seed must 

 be sown — but that is not all ; nature never gambles ; she has 

 taught him that she never deals in chances ; the seed muBt be 

 good — the ground must be ploughed. He may manure his land 

 well or ill, but he knows there is no chance about it ; — unless he 

 manures his fields, they tell him Ave have no good luck for you ; 

 real estate may rise Avithont manure, but corn will not. 



