EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
717 
Consider tlie works of men upon the materials furnished by 
nature from her surface or her depths—mineral, animal, 
vegetable—the whole sum of human manufactures. Think 
of the labours of mankind in the fine arts, in architecture, 
sculpture, painting, and music; the unspeakable sum of 
human endeavours in literature; and lastly, the untold 
amount of work expended on government, legislation, and 
war.” Taken in the aggregate, all this is truly stupendous; 
yet it lias been accomplished by individual and collective 
exertion—man having been by his Creator endowed with 
powers fitted for this purpose, and unless he rightly employ 
these he does not answer the end of his existence on earth. 
Labour, therefore, to be useful, remembering that temper¬ 
ance, self-control, and earnestness will yield their practical 
results, while the work of the slothful and careless hand 
always betrays its origin. “ The soul of the sluggard 
desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent 
shall be made fat.” Shakspere says, “ Increase of appetite 
grows by what it feeds on;” and there is this broad dis¬ 
tinction between animal and intellectual pleasures—while 
the one wearies to satiety, the other will grow and increase, 
and the longer they are followed the greater becomes the 
amount of satisfaction and profit derived from them. De¬ 
pend upon it there is nothing more healthful for the mind 
or body than well-directed labour; to have the hand on the 
plough, and the feet in the furrow. Wonderful and beautiful 
as the structure of the body of man unquestionably is, the 
mind is nobler still: they are as the casket and the jewel. 
“I think,” says a modern writer, “the happiest ideas which 
are suggested by an examination of the human body are its 
union with the soul, and the mutual dependence of its 
various parts. We may admire the ease and grace of 
motion, the beauty of form and feature, the exquisite chisel¬ 
ling of the structure; but our highest conceptions and our 
best emotions are awakened when we view the body as the 
home of a thinking principle, and mark how harmoniously 
all its powers work together, each aiding the others, and 
thus serving the end to which they were ordained.” 
The poet has truly said, 
“ The mind’s the stature of the man.” 
