rated, and send down its undying strains
into the future, without steady and painstaking labour. No great work
has ever been done "at a heat." It is the result of repeated efforts,
and often of many failures. One generation begins, and another
continues--the present co-operating with the past. Thus, the Parthenon
began with a mud-hut; the Last Judgment with a few scratches on the
sand. It is the same with individuals of the race; they begin with
abortive efforts, which, by means of perseverance, lead to successful
issues.

The history of industry is uniform in the character of its
illustrations. Industry enables the poorest man to achieve honour, if
not distinction. The greatest names in the history of art, literature,
and science, are those of labouring men. A working instrument-maker gave
us the steam-engine; a barber, the spinning-machine; a weaver, the mule;
a pitman perfected the locomotive;--and working men of all grades have,
one after another, added to the triumphs of mechanical skill.

By the working man, we do not mean merely the man who labours with his
muscles and sinews. A horse can do this. But _he_ is pre-eminently the
working man who works with his brain also, and whose whole physical
system is under the influence of his higher faculties. The man who
paints a picture, who writes a book, who makes a law, who creates a
poem, is a working man of the highest order,--not so necessary to the
physical sustainment of the community as the ploughman or the shepherd;
but not less important as providing for society its highest intellectual
nourishment.

Having said so much of the importance and the necessity of industry, let
us see what uses are made of the advantages derivable from it. It is
clear that man would have continued uncivilized but for the
accumulations of savings made by his forefathers,--the savings of skill,
of art, of invention, and of intellectual culture.

It is the savings of the world that have made the civilization of the
world. Savings are the result of labour; and it is only when labourers
begin to save, that the results of civilization accumulate. We have said
that thrift began with civilization: we might almost have said that
thrift produced civilization. Thrift produces capital; and capital is
the conserved result of labour. The capitalist is merely a man who does
not spend all that is earned by work.

But thrift is not a natural instinct. It is an acquired principle of
conduct. It in