eved by
machinery are the common talk of every circle; but I confess that, to me,
this gathering of mechanics' apprentices, whose chief bond of union is a
library, and who come together weekly to refresh and improve themselves
by the best instruction which the state of society places within their
reach, is more encouraging than all the miracles of the machinist. In
this meeting I see, what I desire most to see, that the mass of the
people are beginning to comprehend themselves and their true happiness,
that they are catching glimpses of the great work and vocation of human
beings, and are rising to their true place in the social state. The
present meeting indicates a far more radical, more important change in
the world than the steam-engine, or the navigation of the Atlantic in a
fortnight. That members of the laboring class, at the close of a day's
work, should assemble in such a hall as this, to hear lectures on
science, history, ethics, and the most stirring topics of the day, from
men whose education is thought to fit them for the highest offices, is a
proof of a social revolution to which no bounds can be set, and from
which too much cannot be hoped. I see in it a repeal of the sentence of
degradation passed by ages on the mass of mankind. I see in it the dawn
of a new era, in which it will be understood that the first object of
society is to give incitements and means of progress to all its members.
I see in it the sign of the approaching triumph of men's spiritual over
their outward and material interests. In the hunger and thirst for
knowledge and for refined pleasures which this course of lectures
indicates in those who labor, I see that the spirit of man is not always
to be weighed down by toils for animal life and by the appetite for
animal indulgences. I do attach great importance to this meeting, not
for its own sake or its immediate benefits, but as a token and pledge of
a new impulse given to society through all its conditions. On this
account, I take more pleasure in speaking here than I should feel in
being summoned to pronounce a show-oration before all the kings and
nobles on earth. In truth, it is time to have done with shows. The age
is too stirring, we are pressed on by too solemn interests, to be
justified in making speeches for self-display or mere amusement. He who
cannot say something in sympathy with, or in aid of, the great movements
of humanity, might as well hold his peace.

With