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is it, that as the hand is instrument to all other instruments, it is the thumb chiefly, that ministers ability to

the hand.

The thumb points to duty. Its admirable contrivance manifests both the wisdom and the goodness of the contriver. It plainly shows at the same time, that man is destined by his Maker to employments of manual labor; and consequently, that manual labor, so far from being a reproach to him, is one of the essential duties of his nature and condition, and ought rather to be held in honor than disgrace. And if there be some exceptions, they include but a very diminutive proportion of the human family; for, of the whole world, there are not inore perhaps than a hundredth part, who are fairly exempted, by rank, or fortune, or mental occupations, from the necessity of laboring with their hands.

Sucking the thumbs, is a proverbial phrase, denoting a total neglect of employing them in any useful way answerable to the design for which they were made. A great many of this "untoward generation" have the naughty trick of sucking their thumbs ;-a great many too, whose circumstances imperiously demand a better use of them. It is a pitiful practice, whether in man or woman; directly leading to poverty and want, and not unfrequently to the worst of vices. Parents and tutors should keep a sharp look out, lest their boys and girls get into this way, so dangerous to their morals, so deadening to all their faculties, and so destructive to their future prospects in life.

But there is one use of the thumb, that is infinitely worse than not using it at all: it is employing it in spreading abroad falsehood and moral poison, with the pen, and with the type. It were far better to be born without thumbs, than to use them so abominably.

CHAP. XXVII.

Of Idlers.

THERE are multitudes who pass along the stream of life without laboring at the oar, or paying any thing for their passage; so that the charge of their fare falls most unreasonably, upon their fellow passengers. This is an evil of a serious and dangerous nature; for such idlers not only burden community, but corrupt it. To say that it were as well for their country that they had never been born, and that they are unworthy to be numbered in the census of its population; to say this, is saying too little. They not only do no good, but much harm; they not only prey upon the fruits of other men's industry, but deprave public morals. It is in the nature of this kind of gentry to multiply very fast, if they are not checked; for, besides that they commonly bring up their children, if children they have, in their own way of living, they are perpetually making proselytes from the families of their neighbors; leading astray, by their examples and enticements, a great many youths, who, but for them, might have been industrious, and useful to society.

In some countries, the wisdom of legislators has been much employed on this subject, and the arm of executive power has enforced industry as a political duty which every person owed to the state. The Hollanders in particular, in the early age of their republic, considered idle persons as politically criminal, and punished idleness as a crime against the commonwealth. Those who had no visible means of an honest livelihood were called before the magistracy to give an account how they got their living; and if they were unable to render a satisfactory explanation on this point, they were put to labor. Those thrifty Hollanders are said to have employed, also, the following singular expedient. They constructed a kind of box sufficiently large for a man to stand therein upright and exercise his bodily faculties. In the interior of it was a pump. The vagrant or idler was put into this box, which was so

placed, in the liquid element, that the water gushed into it constantly, through apertures in its bottom and sides; so that the lazy culprit had to work at the pump, with all his might, and for several hours together, to keep himself from drowning. The medicine, it is said, was found to be an infallible cure for the disease; insomuch that no person was ever known to work at the pump the second time.

I do by no means recommend those old Dutch Laws and customs for domestic use here. Sacred Liberty! I would not hurt a hair of thy head. Yet every thing ought to be done in this case which can be done, consistently with that personal liberty which our free constitutions of government guarantee to every citizen of the States. How far our laws, in consistency with the rights of citizens, might go towards restraining notorious idleness and dissipation with respect to adults, it is not for me to say. I leave it to men in upper life, and gifted with superior wisdom. Thus far, however, I will venture to affirm, that, as children in some sense or other, do actually belong to the community, so it ought to be in the power, and be made the duty, of the political guardians of the public welfare, to see that they be brought up in such a manner that they may be likely to strengthen and adorn, rather than weaken and deprave society. For which reason, when idle and profligate parents are manifestly leading their children in their own footsteps, they ought to be taken from the dominion of such unworthy parents, and be placed under the care of those who would accustom them to habits of virtuous industry. It would be an act of charity to the children themselves; and would give to the general community a vast number of sound and useful members, who, else, would grow up to prey upon its earnings and poison its morals. If all suitable pains were taken with the rising generation, to induce them to sober and industrious habits, by example, by the incitements of persuasion, and even by reasonable force, whenever force is necessary, the effects would be happy beyond measnre. An infinite mass of mischief and crime would be prevented; the officers of justice would have little to do; our jails would, comparatively, be empty.

I will only add, Public Sentiment, as it now stands, in some, if not in most parts of our country, must needs be rectified; else idleness and dissipation will continue to gather numbers and strength. So long as an idle, worthless fellow-perchance a gambler and sharperby means of a fine coat, a lily hand, and graceful bows, is able to take rank of an industrious, worthy young farmer or mechanic, who gets an honest living by the sweat of his face-it will be in vain to denounce idleness, or to recommend industry. Under such circumstances, young men, whose ambition is more than a match for their moral principle, very naturally turn idlers, or set out to live by their wits; well knowing that if they can only keep up a gentlemanly appearance, by any means, they will be much better received, and rank much higher, than if they were plain, industrious, laboring men.

Lo, a Ball! a splendid ball.-And who enters now? Who is he, that all the gentlemen greet so heartily, and all the ladies notice so readily? It is Mr. Flash, an itinerant, who, without funds, without industry, without any visible means, always dresses in high taste, and has, at his finger's end, every punctilio of fashionable manners-he is quite the gentleman!

CHAP. XXVIII.

Of productive labor, other than that of the hands.

"KNOWLEDGE is power." This was a favorite maxim of Bacon, so eminent in the ranks of philosophy.

The weakness of man is wonderfully strengthened by his knowledge. It is by his superior knowledge that he gains dominion over the various races of animals, of which many are much stronger and swifter; over the stubborn earth, and over the powerful elements, Fire, Air and Water. Naked came he into the world, and naked must he ever have remained, had not the inspiration of the Almighty given him understanding, and furnished him with motives to

employ this noble faculty in an infinite variety of use

ful ways.

Man is feeble of body: his principal strength lies in his mind. Apart from his superior intellectual faculties, he would be one of the most helpless, forlorn, and wretched animals, upon the face of the earth.

The invaluable worth of knowledge, and of education by which it is acquired, has ever been, in all civilized countries, the standing theme of profound discussion, or, more often, of splendid but empty declamation; so that only scanty gleanings are left to the modern pen. There is, however, one respect in which the subject has been neither exhausted nor frequently touched; it is the intimate connection between knowledge and Productive Labor.

Productive Labor, so essential to the sustenance and support of the general community of man, is twofolddirect and indirect.

Direct productive labor consists of that bodily exercise by means of which we are furnished with food and raiment, and with all the various necessaries and elegancies of life. By this it is that life is sustained and decorated; and it is in this way that the great bulk of mankind is necessarily employed. Those who labor with their hands, in husbandry and in the various useful arts, are as it were the strong pillars that support the living world. But, then, they are not entitled to arrogate the honor to themselves exclusively:-"The hand cannot say to the eye, I have no need of thee."

Indirectly, there are, in the common vineyard, productive and efficient laborers, other than those who work with their hands. They are the ones who invent, conceive, plan, guard, and regulate; so that, after all, Mind is an essential and most eminent operator throughout the whole process.

I will barely suggest a few particulars; leaving it to the reader to enlarge upon them, and to combine them with others which are alike obvious.

Very little would it signify, though we had hands to labor, if we knew not how to use them; nor should we knew how to use them skilfully, but for the inven

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