344 [Assembly 



clianic. If eny avocation demands the complete development of 

 all the powers which constitute and designate the Man, it is the Me- 

 chanic's. What is your fantastically dressed and gaily caparisoned 

 apology for a human being 3 with hands too delicate to come in con- 

 tact with any thing pertaining to the rough world, and limbs too nice- 

 ly strung to sustain his enervated frame, whose muscles, for Avant of 

 exercise, are without strength to perform the office for which they are 

 designed — whose brairns is as barren and unproductive as his life is 

 devoid of value or irttere?t— what is such a poor semblance of hu- 

 manity — and this only in outv,ard form — compared with the hardy, 

 industrious Mechanic, the pride and ornament of his race, and nature's 

 nobleman ? Your purse-proud, fashionable, vacant, almost idiot, 

 may, it is true, pass him by with neglect, or, it may be, sometimes 

 deign to bestow upon him a nod of recognition ; but in that unpre- 

 tending, humble son of toil, dwells a spirit which can wing its up- 

 ward flight amid regions of thought, and traverse at pleasure unex- 

 plored worlds, in search after knowledge 5 whilst the gaudy, giddy 

 trlfler must forever remain buzzing about his ephemeral, transient plea- 

 sures, incapable of raising his ideas above the objects that impress or 

 gratify his senses. It is exercise and energy, the employment and 

 constant use of the powers of the mind and body, that can alone pro- 

 duce their ample and full development, and for this end, the avoca- 

 tions of the thinking and working Mechanic are admirably adapted. 



Persuaded, my friends, that you will agree with me in ihese con- 

 siderations of the high character and exalted rank of those who by 

 their efforts of mind, and practical application of the principles of 

 science, contribute beyond the rest of mankind, to swell the amount 

 of human happiness, you may be assured, that it is with no incon- 

 siderable degree, both of pride and pleasure, I shall dwell this even- 

 ing on a subject in which we, with them, are all most deeply inter- 

 ested. It might not be amiss here to confess the sense of my incom- 

 petency to perform this duty in any measure adequate to its great im- 

 portance ; but this would be only saying what it is usual for all to say 

 under similar circumstances, and which all may say in strict adhe- 

 rence with truth. For if there be any subject that will t:ix the hu- 

 man powers to their full extent, it is that of man's past doings, his 

 present operations, and his prospective ability, and all these naturallv 



