| OCR Text |
Show TUE DISIIONOR OF LABOR. 195 general-in its subtler as well as its grosser formswould be rung. Until that truth shall be thoroughly diJl'used, the cunning and strong will be able to prey upon the simple and feeble, whether the latter be called slaves or something else. The great reform required is not a work of hours nor of days, but of many years. It must first per· vade our literature, and thence our current ideas and conversation, before it can be infused into the common life. Meanwhile, it would be well to remember that- Every man who exchanges business for idleness, not because be bas become too old or infirm to work, but because be has become rich enough to live without work ; Every man who educates his son for a profession, rather than a mechanical or agricultural calling, not because of that son's supposed fitness for the formm4 rather than the latter, but because he imagines Law, Physic or Preaching, a more respectable, genteel voca· tion, than building houses or growing grain ; Every maiden who prefers in marriage a rich suitor of doubtful morals or scanty brains to a poor one, of sound principles, blameless life, good information and sound sense |
