The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-22 00:00:00

WHAT DO WE WORK FOR?

The question we desire briefly to discuss is not " Why
do we work ?" but "What do wo work for?" Some may
answer at onw, "For money—wages or salaries." Wo do
not think this a full and correct reply to the question. Labour
may be the Adamite curse, but, if so, the innate desires of
I man and his restlessness and ambition for improvement
have changed the curse to a positive blessing, and made
the earth—thorn and thistle cursed—to bloom and blossom
I like the rose. We work partly because we need it. We
need it for health of mind as well as of body. Idleness
leads to decay, and decay to death. Ito who through years
of active exertion leaves his employment and " retires
from business" usually signs his death-warrant. Re vege-
tates for a while in idleness and dies, nnloss he has sense
enough to discover his mistake in time and return to thle
e
paths of active usefulness. There are
few more pitiab
iv -
objects than the man who after many years of acte ser
vice in business is deluded into a belief that happiness and
a reward for his labours are to be found in withdrawing
from all participation in tho loss of life. Old ago is au
excuse for idleness, latt the pession of money is not.
We do not work for money almari. The mechanic who
would be content to do the work of an apprentice merely
because he could earn more wages would
wbo hardly worth
the name of a mechanic. The amount of ages or salary
is a recognition of ability and a standard of value for ser-
vices performed, but not the only incentive to exertion. A
workman feels a pride in his work, in the results of his
skill, entirely unconnected with the amount of money re-
ceived for it. If ho did not, ono very strong motive for
improvement would be lacking. Almost every mechanic
will agree with us that ho has done jobs which afforded
him more gratification in their success than he derived
from the possession of the pecuniary compensation there-
for. flow often a man will undertake a job which he
knows beforehand will not "pay" in cash, what it costs,
but mainly for the pride of performing successfully. It is
true that "the labourer is worthy of his hire," but to ngrco
that the hire is the only, or even the principal, incentive
is unreasonable, not sustained by facts, and derogatory to
the "dignity of labour," a phrase often misused, but a per-
fectly correct one. To be sure, if the efforts of the work-
man—and by this term wo moan all who do —are not ap-
preciated by adequate compensation ho seeks other
employers who have a proper appreciation of his value.
Wo work for progress ; for progress individually aid for
the progress of the race. One means to that progress is
the payment for services rendered, as it will enable the
skilful workman and the ins/ ntivo mechanic to carry fur-
' ward their plans of improvement iu manual labour or in
labour-saving machines. We work for the godlike pride
of creation. The machine which is an offspring of the
brain of the mechanic is as much, and more, his than that
of his loins. If he is ill paid for his labour, mental or
physical, ho has the compensation of a satisfaction in his
success which cannot t o assured by money only, but which
must be felt in the knowledge that he hai sneceeded whore
others failed, and has secured an impregnable position as
one of the pioneers in the grand march of improvement.
There are few pursuits
taiwich demandmechanic. more hard
In wono
rk
—work of the brain—than at of tho
sense can he be considered an
exemplar of Bunyan,B
" Muckrake." He must live in order to work, but Ito does
not wo,ik merely that ho may live. Ile is always striving
,
to mount the next step on the ladder, and never does he
mount but that be carries With him the living, moving
world. It is his pride to excel : never satisfied witliinay
bme-
diocrity, but always striving for superiority.. From the
we_ork;
be—yet
a u
nott
beyond
o t h
h
inventorispowers if
lie employsut as step--a a long
step it
them
pro-
perly; and the inventor, not a mechanic is often depend-
ent on the mechanic for the success of his improvement,—
S'ciestife American.