Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-10-13
MECHANICS.
BY MRS. Nj. A. DENISON.

BY MRS. NJ A. DENlSON
There are yet those, we are sorry 10 say
who have so little appreciation of what is real.
ly great and imperishable-for the architect
lives forever i'm the creation of Gods own hand
that they imagine the world would jog on
very well if there was no such thing as a trade
and no such laborer as mechanic.
But wait--the end is not yet. Education
not money, is the principle to be used in the
enfranchisement Of the working man, the lever
that is yet to raise him above every other class
in point of nobility of mind, intellect and per-
son.
There is great force of character displayed
in our sturdy "bone and sinew;" )" for the me-
chanic, in his rudest estate, is still a powerful
example Of what gigantic effort in the calling
to which he has devoted his life may do, in sug-
gesting thoughts, and fixing principles, that are
too often found wanting in the student and
the scholar
Take one department of his labor--go TO the
ship-yard--let your eye rove from keel to mast
head, of the gigantic vessel soon to battle for
supremacy with the deep. Is it not a mighty
exhibition Of the power of man! There is
something, nay, there is sublimity in the thot
that man has the faculty. God given, to set in
motion so many springs Of the human mind
for mind is to labor what the pen is to the
thought.
Count the boards in her huge frame--you
h.
the ground. Ifyou would feel your littleness,
lift your hand to her towering sides if you
would feel your greatness, think how it has
been fashioned by labor Do you believe the
mechanic, as he treads the glistening deck after
the work is all accomplished, sees nothing here
but planks, rivets, nails, pitch, masts, blocks,
and sails!
No-though he be not fully conscious Of it
he beholds the working out of a great idea
day by day as he prosecuted his task, step by
step as he approached heaven with his instru-
ments of skill, has his intellect acquired new
strength.
He may not arrange and class his thoughts
with grammatical accuracy-he may bring them
out with the force and resonance with which he
welds his own sledge-hammer, but they tell
they drive conviction to the mind of the listen
er, and clinch it there.
Ignorant of conventionalites the mechanic
may be, and unwarrantably so we see no rea-
son why he should not be the polished gentle
man as well as the accomplished artisan-but
who has not been astonished at the brilliant
metaphors, the quick, keen repartee, the apt
simile, thrown forth with so little studied effort,
by the unlearned aborer.
The union of mental harmony with physical
and condensation of vital and spiritual force,
and vigorous, compactly knit frame, and the
cultivated mind, must make greatness to which
none earthly can approach. If you scan the
in our churches, you will notice
mechanics invariably from a large proportion of
the hearers They want no weak arguments,
they are able to cope with weghty reasons, they
understand when the man who speaks of their
relations to God and eternity, is one worthy to
instruct immortal souls. They may not be
to dissect his language, to tell which
work was proper and which was not, but they
analyze his sermon in such direct, forcibe terms
that one would wish that many minister pos
sessed their ready, natural power, set off with
the adornment of education, and where would
you find their superiors
We would see our mechanics where we are
sure they will one day stand-on the first round
of the ladder of society-not to displace any
class, but to share rewards and triumphs with
the most exalted We would see them throw
aside habits which mar them as men, and make
them unworthy their great calling.
Not that we wish them TO display hands
white and graceful-we love to grasp the rough
palm of the worker-it has toiled for the good