this point, because I am persuaded that the morals,
manners, decencies, self-respect, and intellectual improvement, as well
as the health and physical comforts of a people, depend on no outward
circumstances more than on the quality of the houses in which they
live. The remedy of the grievance now stated lies with the people
themselves. The laboring people must require that the health of the
city shall be a leading object of the municipal administration, and in
so doing they will protect at once the body and the mind.

I will mention one more cause of the depressed condition of many
laborers, and that is, sloth, "the sin which doth most easily beset
us." How many are there who, working languidly and reluctantly, bring
little to pass, spread the work of one hour over many, shrink from
difficulties which ought to excite them, keep themselves poor, and thus
doom their families to ignorance as well as to want!

In these remarks I have endeavored to show that the great obstacles to
the improvement of the laboring classes are in themselves, and may
therefore be overcome. They want nothing but the will. Outward
difficulty will shrink and vanish before them, just as far as they are
bent on progress, just as far as the great idea of their own elevation
shall take possession of their minds. I know that many will smile at
the suggestion, that the laborer may be brought to practise thrift and
self-denial, for the purpose of becoming a nobler being. But such
sceptics, having never experienced the power of a grand thought or
generous purpose, are no judges of others. They may be assured,
however, that enthusiasm is not wholly a dream, and that it is not
wholly unnatural for individuals or bodies to get the idea of something
higher and more inspiring than their past attainments.

III. Having now treated of the elevation of the laborer, and examined
the objections to it, I proceed, in the last place, to consider some of
the circumstances of the times which encourage hopes of the progress of
the mass of the people. My limits oblige me to confine myself to very
few.--And, first, it is an encouraging circumstance, that the respect
for labor is increasing, or rather that the old prejudices against
manual toil, as degrading a man or putting him in a lower sphere, are
wearing away; and the cause of this change is full of promise; for it
is to be found in the progress of intelligence, Christianity, and
freedom, all of which cry al