198 [Assembly 



laap of the world. The first step towards this is to give him 

 emplayment. Idleness is our worst foe. Surton tells us, in his 

 A'natonry of Melancholy, " Idleness is for the wisej" but there 

 are rery few in our day wise enough to bcaf idleness. Without 

 labor, there can be no manly strength in any conimunity. It was 

 to insure the results that would follow from labor, that the earth 

 was made to bring forth tliorns and briers spontaneously, while 

 the food of man must be extorted by ceaseless industry from its 

 Tuawilling soil. The primeval curse has thus become one of our 

 riclaest blessings. Shall labor be confined to one occupation, or 

 sliall it choose from manyl 



Consider the difference between ;i people devoted to one pur- 

 suit, and a community skilled in a diversity of employments. In 

 1^ pastoral state every man is a shepherd ; in the savage, a 

 limiter. Ignorant of every thing but their own employment, a 

 nation confined to one occupation is only one step from total 

 igaorauce. What interchange can liere be of ideas ? IIow can 

 knowledge be imparted from one to another 1 But let employ- 

 ment be diversifitd, and now a e<-)mmerce of ideas commences. 

 New thoughts, though rare as comets, may then be elicited, and 

 give birth to new things. An 1 so we find in all history, that any 

 nation devoted to a limited rasge of pursuits, has been weak, 

 dependent, spiritless. The universal voice of inankind has de- 

 oideil agriculture to l)e the noblest, as it is the most necessary of 

 empl')ymdnts. But what could be more unwise than for a fhole 

 people to be devoted to this pui^suit ! Admit, if you pleff.c, that 

 in a wciiniary point of view, this might be for some nations the 

 most profitable occupation. Suppose that the soil of tliis entire 

 Union ^w^re adapted to the growth of cotton, and that by no other 

 busiae.-s could so much money be realized by the nation, as by 

 the growth of tJiis st;n)le for the supply of the world. What 

 would be the result of tJie abandonment of every other leading occu- 

 pation, and the devotion of all the energies of our people to thisi 

 Instead of tlie strength of mind and body which we now witness, 

 we should behold a weak, narrow-minded, and unskilled race. 

 There would be no action and reactioa — no collision of ideas — 

 m.o emulation — no improvement on old modes — no scientific ad- 

 Tan ee ; but the minds of men would stagnate like a motionless 



