endless romances of an
undisciplined mind;

And find no end, in wandering mazes lost.

But all men, alike the busy of constitution and the idle, would desire
to follow the impulses of their own minds, unbroken in upon by harsh
necessity, or the imperious commands of their fellows.

We cannot however, by the resistless law of our existence, live, except
the few who by the accident of their birth are privileged to draw
their supplies from the labour of others, without exerting ourselves to
procure by our efforts or ingenuity the necessaries of food, lodging and
attire. He that would obtain them for himself in an uninhabited island,
would find that this amounted to a severe tax upon that freedom of
motion and thought which would otherwise be his inheritance. And he who
has his lot cast in a populous community, exists in a condition somewhat
analogous to that of a negro slave, except that he may to a limited
extent select the occupation to which he shall addict himself, or may at
least starve, in part or in whole, uncontroled, and at his choice. Such
is, as it were, the universal lot.

'Tis destiny unshunnable like death:
Even then this dire necessity falls on us,
When we do quicken.

I go forth in the streets, and observe the occupations of other men.
I remark the shops that on every side beset my path. It is curious and
striking, how vast are the ingenuity and contrivance of human beings, to
wring from their fellow-creatures, "from the hard hands of peasants"
and artisans, a part of their earnings, that they also may live. We
soon become feelingly convinced, that we also must enter into the vast
procession of industry, upon pain that otherwise,

Like to an entered tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost: there you lie,
For pavement to the abject rear, o'errun
And trampled on.

It is through the effect of this necessity, that civilised communities
become what they are. We all fall into our ranks. Each one is member of
a certain company or squadron. We know our respective places, and are
marshaled and disciplined with an exactness scarcely less than that of
the individuals of a mighty army. We are therefore little disposed to
interrupt the occupations of each other. We are intent upon the peculiar
employment to which we have become devoted. We "rise up early, and lie
down late," and have no leisure to trouble ourselves with the pursuits
of others. Hence of nece