abit of thought, a man works more like a brute or
machine than like a man. With it, his soul is kept alive amidst his
toils. He learns to fix an observing eye on the processes of his trade,
catches hints which abridge labor, gets glimpses of important
discoveries, and is sometimes able to perfect his art. Even now, after
all the miracles of invention which honor our age, we little suspect what
improvements of machinery are to spring from spreading intelligence and
natural science among workmen.

But I do not stop here. Nature is to engage our force of thought, not
simply for the aid which the knowledge of it gives in working, but for a
higher end. Nature should be studied for its own sake, because so
wonderful a work of God, because impressed with his perfection, because
radiant with beauty, and grandeur, and wisdom, and beneficence. A
laborer, like every other man, is to be liberally educated, that is, he
is to get knowledge, not only for his bodily subsistence, but for the
life, and growth, and elevation of his mind. Am I asked, whether I
expect the laborer to traverse the whole circle of the physical sciences?
Certainly not; nor do I expect the merchant, or the lawyer, or preacher
to do it. Nor is this at all necessary to elevation of soul. The truths
of physical science, which give greatest dignity to the mind, are those
general laws of the creation which it has required ages to unfold, but
which an active mind, bent on self-enlargement, may so far study and
comprehend, as to interpret the changes of nature perpetually taking
place around us, as to see in all the forces of the universe the workings
of one Infinite Power, and in all its arrangements the manifestation of
one unsearchable wisdom.

And this leads me to observe the second great object on which force of
thought is to be exerted, and that is mind, spirit, comprehending under
this word God and all his intelligent offspring. This is the subject of
what are called the metaphysical and moral sciences. This is the grand
field for thought; for the outward, material world is the shadow of the
spiritual, and made to minister to it. This study is of vast extent. It
comprehends theology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, political science,
history, literature. This is a formidable list, and it may seem to
include a vast amount of knowledge which is necessarily placed beyond the
reach of the laborer. But it is an interesting thought, that the key to
thes