New-York daily tribune., 1854-05-13
LABOR-ITs ASPIRATIONS.

The Courier and Enquirer ls one oil the lew journals
with which to be fortune never to be able
10 agree We had long since become resigned to this
dispensstion so as to be fully able to bear it unnur
murpgy; and we shall not easily be drawn into dis
cusson with our Wall-st contemporary. When the
render Of that journal finds its columns devoted to
comments on the manner in which ours arc filed, we
beg them to remember that The COnrierS views differ
no more widely from ours than ours do from Tie
Couriers and that usually refrain from controversy
with that journal simply because between the par
ties further controversy must be lrutless. Yet Tie
Courier 80 pOintedly challenges discussion with ref
spect to the remarks of Of the conductors Of this
journal at the opening Of the Crystal Palace, that
are moved to respond The grounds taken in those
remorks were substantially follows:
l. Labor whether of the head or hands, is dignfed
or degraded by its ruling impulse or m0ce. If that
be sordid and selfish then the work debases rather
than exats if it be lofty and generous then the work
ennobes no matter how rugged repulsiye in ITSELF
g. Whatever tends to elevate the artisan labOrers
impuse-to impel him to work for an end external to
and above his own sustenance or gratfcation-tends
TO dignity Labor and render it truly hOnored and hon
orable.
g. The Crystal Palace ought therefore to be so
filed and conducted to draw thither the LabOrng
Glass familiarize them, by observation and COMPARE
son. with the nOblest achievements in their own and
kindred arts suggest further improvement and in
spire the votaries of Toll with ambition to achieve
some triumph in Invention or Discovery useful to
their craft and beneficial to mankind Such is brief
outline of the remarks which provoked the strict
ures of our spacious contemporary. Let us consider
them. Says The Courier 0ad Enquirer
The intellectual history and the moral constitution of
both show that there motive so inpe1g to inc
production of great works well as to the industrious
pursuit Of calling that sort of selsiness which con-
sists in desire to comfortable subsistence What
folly 20 talk about the necessity OF eeyatng the aim OF
labor beyond this with the hope of thereby creating greater
artists more thorough and accomplished artisans Look al
the records of the arts, OF mechamcs-here hardy
great work existing which not produced with sole
eve TO the direct indirect recOmpense which II would
bring the creator or inventor That dramatic poetry
which is the wonder of the world was written to bring the
yroats and the shings into SHAKSPEREs thcaer; the
Madonna Sisia0 would not have won the reverenta ad
miraon of the world but for the scad' which RfALL re-
eeyed for it, and Don G0rdani written because MO-
FART wanted kroR=cs to pay the baker and the bntcner
II this be the case Art l more is 1t true IN Mechanics
The printing press the engine and the eectc tee
graph are the fruits OF invention taxed for no higher ann
than to bring the inventor the large remuneration Whoh
was inevitably to be his who succeeded IN producing e
They have proved invstimabe benefits 10 mankind, ana
the inventors doubtless found in Their convcohs OF oPo
that they would be additional Zest lor ther aooI
but these not the inspiring motives the! "Vrkeu % & M
bread or oomnetence or wealth. Necessity - truly the
mother Of invention,-not only the necessity ior e III
yention. but the necessities OF tnc lhNeht"i'
1t tispossibe-though we confess it does not seem
10 ma credible-that Hamlet and Macbeth were writ
ten under the ignoble inspiration of hankerng for
ueroats and shillings;" and that Mozart produced
his most admired work solely or mainly because nc
wanted kreutzers to pay the baker and the butcher
\, That Raphael would never have painted has Madonna
,but for the scud he received for II" we cannot De-
lieve; nor that Milton wrote Paradise Lost under any
such inspiration Nay we believe the great invent
prs-Jacquard Palsy Watt Fulton, Whitney, Whit
temore &c.-whle they doubtless willingly accepted
pecuniary recsmpense for their labor or Its produce
were not mainly impeed to their protracted BRAIN
fhroes by the desire of personal gain. Edward
Everett has ayerred that, as a safe general rule,
most good books have been written by men who
had no design of book-niakiDg, and that whenever
man sits down to write very clever book, he is
almost certain to turn out bad one. Necessity is
"upon me" says the great Apostle to the Gentiles;
but we are very he did not refer to the necessity
of eating and drinking; and the same, in modified,
accommodated sense, we confident is thecase with
nearly all those who have done anything decidedly
beneficial TO their kind. And whenever the laboring
class generally shall be animated by spirit akin to
that which impelled Burns to hope that he might
make some useful book song for the honor OF his
dear native land shall doubtless invent machinery
improve processes and save muscular exertlon to an
extent aud with rapdity for which the past has no
parallel And every step in this direction tends to
enoble labor by blending intellectual with physical
effort and rendering its processes displays OF lnei-
gence rather than exertons of brute force.
The Courier proceeds TO assert that our National in
ferorty to Italy aud other lands in Architecture is
caused solely by the preference given by our capital
lists TO cheap and totterng structures over solid and
durable ones because Of the superior cost of the lat
ter. The relative ignorance of our architects and
artisans il afrms has nothing to do with the matter
Our crashing edfces were built in this day OF Peo-
ples Colleges [as yet only talked about not III ope
ration Crystal Palaces &C., and not III 'he soou oia
times of contented ignorance, when no mecAalc pre-
sumed to aspire to any thing beyond his wages ana his
grub. Says our cotemporary
let the statement of this truth not be iAiiaceus! w
sophscaliy perverted to attack upon VIC u-- \; ~.
education; its object is merely to show ll"' 49, -,
necessarily any connection between the ~ 49,
men and the aainmen; of great ends IN Ar Oh "a IL
les The human mind yet 50 poor as ot 70
equal TO any dsmand uon Il, mankind never yet had any
great need which there not men born 10 suppy %
they suppes the means Of earning IlNchioouV " o
quiug wealth. And this object of labo. docs give IT,
xpecabiy and dignity Let man who ous IN any Msy
for the present Subsistence OF himself anu so
who dependent on him. think that he VIII eleVae h
self his labor by taking his hours of relaxation from me
enjoymens of his -cnjoyments which are dutesor
of the social circle, from innocent amusenen 10 give
item m 10 labor in another shape. His work acquire
no honor whcit has already THERE'S dignity because