PRACTICAL PAPERS . 
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of human industry to the materials which God has spread about 
us. But mind-work is no less essential than that of the body. 
Its grand office is to direct and economize physical effort. 
All industry has been roughly, though not inappropriately 
classified under three general heads — Discovery, Invention and 
Operation — and to designate employments falling in one of these 
divisions as productive, and those falling in another as unproduc¬ 
tive, is unscientific to sav the least. If we confine our attention 
to material products only, most we can say is, that some employ¬ 
ments are directly, and others indirectly productive. Material 
production is simply imparting to natural objects qualities which 
fit them to satisfy human desire — bringing them into shape or 
position suited to serve a purpose. 
Utility is the thing produced—not matter. Man is incapable 
of producing or annihilating a single particle of matter. All that 
he can do is to effect change in what already exists. This change 
may be of three kinds — change in elemental form, change in ag¬ 
gregate form, or change of place. To transmute, to transform, or 
to transport, is the business of all who are engaged in material 
production; and all man can do in any case is to supply the con¬ 
ditions, while the properties of matter and the forces of nature 
complete the work. 
The agriculturist effects changes of the first kind mainly. 
Availing himself of the chemical agencies of earth and air and 
sunlight, he changes the seed into a new harvest of grains and 
fruits and vegetables, and these grains, through the aid of animal 
organisms, into beef, milk, hides, &c. The mechanic and manu¬ 
facturer effect changes of the second — change in aggregate form. 
It is their business to shape and fashion the raw material so as to 
suit and satisfy a thousand purposes and desires. The merchant 
and the multitude of common carriers, by whatever name or title 
we designate them, are busied in effecting change of place. 
Thus we have the three great departments of industry engaged 
in material production — the agricultural — the mechanical — and 
the commercial. To classify labor in one of these departments as 
productive, and in another as unproductive, is to lose sight of the 
very nature of production, and of the thing produced. He who 
transports wheat from Wisconsin, where the desire for it is estim- 
