t poor." The myriads
who built the pyramids to be the tombs of the Pharaohs were fed on
garlic, and it may be were not decently buried themselves. The mason who
finishes the cornice of the palace returns at night perchance to a hut
not so good as a wigwam. It is a mistake to suppose that, in a country
where the usual evidences of civilization exist, the condition of a very
large body of the inhabitants may not be as degraded as that of savages.
I refer to the degraded poor, not now to the degraded rich. To know this
I should not need to look farther than to the shanties which everywhere
border our railroads, that last improvement in civilization; where I see
in my daily walks human beings living in sties, and all winter with an
open door, for the sake of light, without any visible, often imaginable,
wood-pile, and the forms of both old and young are permanently
contracted by the long habit of shrinking from cold and misery, and the
development of all their limbs and faculties is checked. It certainly
is fair to look at that class by whose labor the works which distinguish
this generation are accomplished. Such too, to a greater or less extent,
is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England,
which is the great workhouse of the world. Or I could refer you to
Ireland, which is marked as one of the white or enlightened spots on the
map. Contrast the physical condition of the Irish with that of the North
American Indian, or the South Sea Islander, or any other savage race
before it was degraded by contact with the civilized man. Yet I have no
doubt that that people's rulers are as wise as the average of civilized
rulers. Their condition only proves what squalidness may consist with
civilization. I hardly need refer now to the laborers in our Southern
States who produce the staple exports of this country, and are
themselves a staple production of the South. But to confine myself to
those who are said to be in moderate circumstances.

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are
actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that
they must have such a one as their neighbors have. As if one were
to wear any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for him, or,
gradually leaving off palm-leaf hat or cap of woodchuck skin, complain
of hard times because he could not afford to buy him a crown! It is
possible to invent a house still more convenient and luxurious than w