near as to be weighed and measured with an unerring exactness; and atoms, which had escaped all detection from minuteness, reveal a world of wonder and beauty in themselves. Labor, laughing at difficulties, spans majestic rivers, carries viaducts' over marshy swamps, suspends aërial bridges above deep ravines, pierces the solid mountain with its dark, undeviating tunnel,- blasting rocks and filling hollows; and, while linking together with its iron but loving grasp all nations of the earth, verifying, in a literal sense, the ancient prophecy, "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low."* 7. Labor draws forth its delicate iron thread, and, stretching it from city to city, from province to province, through mountains, and beneath the sea, realizes more than fancy ever fabled, while it constructs a chariot on which speech may outstrip the wind, compete with the lightning, and fly as rapidly as thought itself. Labor seizes the thoughts of Genius, the discoveries of Science, the admonitions of Piety, and, with its magic types impressing the vacant page, renders it pregnant with life and power, perpetuating truth to distant ages, and diffusing it to all mankind. Labor sits enthroned in Palaces of Crystal, whose high-arched roofs proudly sparkle in the sunshine which delighteth to honor it, and whose ample courts are crowded with the trophies of its victories in every country, and in every age. 8. Labor, a mighty Magician, walks forth into a region uninhabited and waste: he looks earnestly at the scene, so quiet in its desolation; then, waving his wonder-working wand,† those dreary valleys smile with golden harvests; * Isa., 40th chap., 4th verse. † In the phrase, "Waving his wonder-working wand," the reader will notice a beautiful example of alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter at the commencement of two or more words, immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals. those barren mountain slopes are clothed with foliage; the furnace blazes; the anvil rings; the busy wheels whirl round; the town appears, the mart of Commerce, the hall of Science, the temple of Religion, rear high their lofty fronts; a forest of masts, gay with varied pennons, rises from the harbor; the wharves are crowded with commercial spoils, the peaceful spoils which enrich both him who receives and him who yields. 9. Representatives of far-off regions make it their resort Science enlists the elements of earth and heaven in its service; Art, awaking, clothes its strength with beauty; Literature, newborn, redoubles and perpetuates its praise; Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity rejoices; Piety exults, for the voice of Industry and Gladness is heard on every hand. And who, contemplating such achievements, will deny that there is DIGNITY IN LABOR? LESSON II 1 TEL' e scope, (TELE, far off; SCOPE, view or sight,) an instrument to view things far off. 2 MI' CRO SCOPE, (MICRO, small; SCOPE, view or sight,) an instrument to view things minute or small. * TEL' E GRAPH, (TELE, far off; GRAPH, writing or marking,) a machine to convey news far off. See SANDERS' UNION SPELLER, pages 146, 147. IN POWERS OF THE HAND, DR. GEORGE WILSON. N many respects, the organ of touch, as embodied in the hand, is the most wonderful of the senses. The organs of the other senses are passive: the organ of touch alone is active. The eye, the ear, and the nostril, stand simply open: light, sound, and fragrance enter, and we are compelled to see, to hear, and to smell; but the hand selects what it shall touch, and touches what it pleases. It puts away from it the things which it hates, and beckons toward it the things which it desires; unlike the eye, which must often gaze transfixed at horrible sights from which it can not turn; and the ear, which can nor escape from the torture of discordant sounds; and the nostril, which can not protect itself from unpleasant odors 2. Moreover, the hand cares not only for its own wants, but, when the other organs of the senses are rendered useless, takes their duties upon it. The hand of the blind man goes with him as an eye through the streets, and safely threads for him all the devious way. It looks for him at the faces of his friends, and tells him whose kindly features are gazing on him. It peruses books for him, and quickens the long and tedious hours by its silent readings. It ministers as willingly to the deaf; and when the tongue is dumb, and the ear stopped, its fingers speak eloquently to the eye, and enable it to discharge the unwonted office of a listener. 3. The organs of all the other senses, also, even in their greatest perfection, are beholden to the hand for the enhancement and the exaltation of their powers. It constructs for the eye a copy of itself, and thus gives it a telescope1 with which to range among the stars; and by another copy on a slightly different plan, furnishes it with a microscope, and introduces it into a new world of wonders. It constructs for the ear the instruments by which it is educated, and sounds them in its hearing till its powers are trained to the full. It plucks for the nostril the flower whose odors it delights to inhale, and distills for it the fragrance which it covets. 4. As for the tongue, if it had not the hand to serve it, it might abdicate its throne as the lord of Taste. In short, the organ of touch is the minister of its sister senses, and is the handmaid of them all. And, if the hand thus less amply does it give munificently serves the body, not expression to the genius and the wit, the courage and the affection, the will and the power, of man. Put a sword into it, and it will fight for him; put a plow into it, and it will till for him; put a harp into it, and it will play for him; put a pencil into it, and it will paint for him; put a pen into it, and it will speak for him, plead for him, pray for him. What will it not do? What has it not done? 5. A steam-engine is but a larger hand, made to extend its powers by the little hand of man! An electric telegraph is but a long pen for that little hand to write with! All our huge cannons and other weapons of war, with which we conquer our enemies, are but the productions of the wonder-working hand! What, moreover, is a ship, a railway, a lighthouse, or a palace, — what, indeed, is a whole city, a whole continent of cities, all the cities of the globe, nay, the very globe itself, in so far as man has changed it, but the work of that giant hand, with which the human race, acting as one mighty man, has executed its will! 6. When I think of all that man and woman's hand has wrought, from the day when Eve put forth her erring hand to pluck the fruit of the forbidden tree, to that dark hour when the pierced hands of the Savior of the world were nailed to the predicted tree of shame, and of all that human hands have done of good and evil since, I lift up my hand, and gaze upon it with wonder and awe. What an instrument for good it is! What an instrument for evil! and all the day long it is never idle. There is no implement which it can not wield, and it should never, in working hours, be without one. 7. We unwisely restrict the term handicraftsman, or hand-worker, to the more laborious callings; but it belongs to all honest, earnest men and women, and is a title which each should covet. For the queen's hand there is the scepter, and for the soldier's hand the sword; for the carpenter's hand the saw, and for the smith's hand the hammer; for the farmer's hand the plow; for the miner's hand the spade; for the sailor's hand the oar; for the painter's hand the brush; for the sculptor's hand the chisel; for the poet's hand the pen; and for woman's hand the needle. But for all there is the command, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” THE ANON. 1. THE blackbird early leaves its rest And gather fragments for its nest, 'Mid sweets of varied hue, 2. The cowslip and the spreading vine, * Eccl., 9th chap., 10th verse. |