The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1839-02-05
THE AMERICAN MECHANIC

The above is the title OF book recently pub.
lished, and "Deticaed to the Master workmen,
Journeymen, and Apprentices of America, by
their well wisher, CHARLES QuILL."-A truly
admirable book, and worthy the attention OF those
it honors. ,,,,,,,. ruen or It's
character. The auth or himself processes to he
a Mechanic, and shows himself not a stranger TO
the sources CT Improvement and happiness,
which are afforded 10 the American Lhboier.
Take the beginning of the first chapter:
"Ours is not the country where one may sheer
at the 'Mechanic.' Denngogues know this; ana
the same agitators who would spurn the I'M
washed nrtifces is met in some old iespotlc
realm find 1t to be their true policy to hat!er q
caole him here This is part of my business.
1 respect honest labor, though 1t be the black
man that saws my wood; and SO lar MS can
learn my ancestors have been working men so
long that the memory vi man Rho"e'h ho' 10 '''e
contrary.
Though the motto of William OF Wickham is
no longer good English it is good sense still
MANNERS MAKETH MAN. Whenever the deneanor
and life of man are good, let me get as near 10
him as he will allow, that may take his hand,
though it be as black and hardened as his an
VIII"
81 am ready to maintain that the American
Mechanic has no reasca~ to envy any man on
earth. Happy, happy men!' MS an old poet
says, elf they could appreciate their own iei'c-
i,y."
The Author hapryEdescribes the sources Of
pleasure. They are not in the tipping shop
nor Mt the gamblers table. Far from it. The
cultivation of n taste for music, for reading
for natural history, the improvement Of
the comforts and conveniences within ana win.
out DOORS to social intercourse OF family and
friends, &C., are sources ofthe surest and purest
pleasures.
But the point OH which our Author dwells
with more particularly is tho Mechanics studies
He "lays it down pretty certain that every
Mechanic may attain to an honorable distinction
in the world. Of course he has no sympathy
with those who spend their leisure hours III
illeness;-nor is he fond of what Miss Sinclair
calls '.horse and dog men, Numerous exam
pies are given Of those who have risen from OBJ
security and ignorance, to high distinction
and usefulness. One short abstract most SUIT
fee.
"Linnseus, the founder of the science of bota-
nv, was once seated on the shoemaker's bench.
John Hunter, one of the greatest anatomists OF
our own Or any age, was cabinet makers ap.
prentice, and spent the first twenty years OF
his life without education. At this late period,
he was led. by the failure of his master, TO be-
come an assistant in his brothers dlsse cling
room: and here his genius was aWakened.-lne
great dranatst, Ben Johnson, was working
bricklaver and afterwards q soldier.
The great est OF modern comic writer's, Mol
ere, was fourteen years old before he was adept
in reading and writing. Hans Sacks, an carry
German poet of great fame, and very learned
scholar, was the son Of tailor, and served an
apprenticeship, first to a shoemaker ana an .s
wards to a weaver; and continued to work at the
loom as long as he lived. John Focz, another
German poet, was barber. John Christian
Theden, who to be chief surgeon to the tn,
Russian army, had been tailors apprentice.
Panc,on, an eminent French EinatheniaicIal',
was bred in such poverty that he received
scarcely any education until he reached his lolh
year.
Our own country is by no means wanting IN
examples of this nature. Every one knows, or
ought TO know, of FULTON, of FRANKLIN, OF
SHERMAs, and of BowDIcrH, and the wonder