I well believe such glowing zeal They say that thou art crude, And wishing all renewed. Would I surrender thee ! My own age! my own age! And shall I tell thee why? And therefore, though each age before Oh, not for all its precious store From "Politics for the People," No. 2. XXIX. THE WEAVER'S SONG. "THERE is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness in work. Were he ever so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works; in idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Doubt, desire, sorrow, remorse, indignation, despair itself all these, like hell-dogs, lie beleaguering the souls of the poor day-workers as of every man; but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stifled-all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves."— Carlyle. WEAVE, brothers, weave!-Swiftly throw And show us how brightly your flowers grow Sing, sing, brothers! weave and sing, "Tis better to sing than grieve. Tending. Assoil. WORK. Weave, brothers, weave!-Weave and bid Let your skein be long, and your silk be fine, Weave, brothers, weave!-Toil is ours; One gathers the fruit, one gathers the flowers, There is not a creature, from England's king So, sing, brothers, &c. Reign. XXX. WORK. "FOR rational occupation, which is, in other words, for the very material of contented existence, there would be no place left, if either the things with which we had to do were absolutely impracticable to our endeavours, or if they were too obedient to our uses. A world, furnished with advantages on one side, and beset with difficulties, wants, and inconveniences on the other, is the proper abode of free, rational, and active natures, being the fittest to stimulate and exercise their faculties. The very refractoriness of the objects they have to deal with contributes to this purpose. A world in which nothing depended upon ourselves, however it might have suited an imaginary race of beings, would not have suited mankind. Their skill, prudence, industry; their various arts and their best attainments, from the application of which they draw, if not their highest, their most permanent gratifications, would be insignificant, if things could be either moulded by our volitions, or of their accord, conformed them selves to our views and wishes."-Paley. Derivations. Etymology. Set. BARRY CORNWALL. Wrestle. Crystallines. 135 Syntax. What, 1. 1. Tears. WHAT are we set on earth for? Say1 to toil- God did anoint thee with his odorous oil, Take patience, labour, to their heart and hands, 3 1. Give the full meaning of say, as used here? BARRETT. 2. In what sense is brimming used? 3. Another what? XXXI. SONG AFTER LABOUR. "MAN goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening. Let us sing some songs together, No desponding, no repining! Leisure must by toil be bought; Framed the air, the stars, the sun, BARRY CORNWALL. XXXII. THE BUILDERS. "NATURE is not fixed, but fluid. Spirit alters, moulds, makes it. The immobility or bruteness is the absence of spirit; to pure spirit, it is fluid, it is volatile, it is obedient. Every spirit builds itself a house; and, beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know, then, that the world exists for you; for you is the phenomenon perfect. What we are, that only can we see. All that Adam had, all that Cæsar could, you have, and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Cæsar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours a cobbler's trade, a hundred acres of ploughed land, or a scholar's garret. Yet, line for line, and point for point, your dominion is as great as theirs, though without fine names. Build, therefore, your THE BUILDERS. 137 own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions."-R. W. Emerson. ALL are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Each thing in its place is best; Strengthens and supports the rest. Time is with materials filled; Are the blocks with which we build. Leave no yawning gaps between : Such things will remain unseen. Builders wrought with greatest care For the gods are everywhere. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen; Else our lives are incomplete, Standing in these walls of time; Stumble as they seek to climb. Shall to-morrow find its place. To those turrets, where the eye And one boundless reach of sky. LONGFELLOW. XXXIII. THE LABOURER. "IT is an encouraging circumstance that the respect for labour 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 aloud 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 labour 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 labour. 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 of 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 labour 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."- Channing. STAND up-erect! Thou hast the form, What then?-Thou art as true a man As any of the throng. Who is thine enemy? the high In station, or in wealth the chief? |