oud against the old barriers created
between the different classes, and challenge especial sympathy and
regard for those who bear the heaviest burdens, and create most of the
comforts of social life. The contempt of labor of which I have spoken
is a relic of the old aristocratic prejudices which formerly proscribed
trade as unworthy of a gentleman, and must die out with other
prejudices of the same low origin. And the results must be happy. It
is hard for a class of men to respect themselves who are denied respect
by all around them. A vocation looked on as degrading will have a
tendency to degrade those who follow it. Away, then, with the idea of
something low in manual labor. There is something shocking to a
religious man in the thought that the employment which God has ordained
for the vast majority of the human race should be unworthy of any man,
even to the highest. If, indeed, there were an employment which could
not be dispensed with, and which yet tended to degrade such as might be
devoted to it, I should say that it ought to be shared by the whole
race, and thus neutralized by extreme division, instead of being laid,
as the sole vocation, on one man or a few. Let no human being be
broken in spirit or trodden under foot for the outward prosperity of
the State. So far is manual labor from meriting contempt or slight,
that it will probably be found, when united with true means of
spiritual culture, to foster a sounder judgment, a keener observation,
a more creative imagination, and a purer taste, than any other
vocation. Man thinks of the few, God of the many; and the many will be
found at length to have within their reach the most effectual means of
progress.

Another encouraging circumstance of the times is the creation of a
popular literature, which puts within the reach of the laboring class
the means of knowledge in whatever branch they wish to cultivate.
Amidst the worthless volumes which are every day sent from the press
for mere amusement, there are books of great value in all departments,
published for the benefit of the mass of readers. Mines of inestimable
truth are thus open to all who are resolved to think and learn.
Literature is now adapting itself to all wants; and I have little doubt
that a new form of it will soon appear for the special benefit of the
laboring classes. This will have for its object to show the progress
of the various useful arts, and to preserve the memory of their
f