The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-03-10


men, through difficulty, sacrifice and pain. un
swervingly close to the duties and responsbtie.
OF social and domestic lifeI still can but reparC
the absorbing labor, which makes the sum total o.
most mems existence, vast pool of Lethe
INTO which high faculties, and generous feelings
joyous susceptibilities and graceful tastes ant
priceless hours, and noble and gentle aspirations
go dOwn-and are drowned out of hone and memo
ry forever! L make exclusion of anv calling
whatever, in this respect. | mean none. One may
be more intellectual than another One NAV give
play to higher intelligence than another One NAV
develop more of the purer and better nature than
another. But mean to say, that the tendency o
any exclusive calling profession which a man
pursues for his bread-or Tor money after he has
bread enough-an occupation in which he merges
himself and his thoughts-whch dawns on him with
| the morrow's daylight it folded its raven wings
above him, when he sank to his needfu rests a
plague and a scourge to hm-hs descended share
OF the hereditary blight of his race-bear it with
what resignation and cheerful ness he may. And
when hear men peddling rhetoric about its dig
nifty and its nobility, am lost in surprise that
the patience of the world should abide such
inhnlte imposition. l wonder how they
bear to be taught, as philosophers the econ
| omv OF individual and national life-that their
noblest earthly purpose and occupation is to il
up weary hill, from which, when they reach the
summit, they see nothing but descent-perhaps
preclpitOus and sudden-on the other sidel nd
yet there is small cause for wonder at such
patience, when we look around and see and feel
that the doctrines. thus promulgated and applaud.
ed, are the law which governs you, and me and all
Ot us, and that the whole mass of the soc;etv in
which we live, and the nation of which we are cit
zens, are moving onward to the quickstep of that
false and fatal music. Who that is well thought of
OF desires TO be- can afford to pause in the mighty
| onward movement of labor, and as we call it.
| progress? Who is allowed to stop? A man who
VIII not mount the hurryng train is left behind in
desplsed and disparaging isolation. He who
ia mas 30 once mounted, let him grow ever weary,
or be ever so content with travel and anxious for
repose, hnds no resting point at which to leave it,
and cannot leap from it without peril of destruc.
ton. Onward, forward, like Mazeppa:
so fast they Hy-away-away-
That they can neither sigh nor prayn
Can this be life the life of men and nations +bo
intended orbit OF world which rolled into existence
amid the songs of the morning stars and arcbed
over whose advancing pathway is the beauty of the
DOW OF promise? 1t cannot be- We are living un-
der false philosophy, and begued by a fal lse
science and by specious but empty words The
theory OF our social progress, in its relation to in
divlduals, is a mere deluSon. We have taken
fever for high health, and intoxicaton for banni.
ness. We are sacrificing ourselves to our work.
we are bartering life for the appliances of living
I'VE are pulling down houses" as has been
sald, 'to build our monuments" We have begun.
socially and nationally, to feel the consequences
Can we not tear ourselves awhile from the idoatrv
OF labor and stand still to consider its effect upon
ourselves, the human creatures who are the labor
ers? ~
There is nothing stranger, in the multitude of hu
between the ideal of life which men form to them
selves, and the reality into which they are content
to shape their actual existence and its prac-
tlcai ends and aims. Every one, who looks
TO tne future at all, sees before him-when
ne enters upon his career, be it high or
humble-some fancied haven, into which he
prays for favorable winds to carry him. and
where he Is quite resolved, in advance if luck
serves MIN, TO drop his anchor, and furl his Sails
ploughing the troubled no more. 1t NAV be
some reasonable competence of fortune-some mn
derate and attainable qualification of ambition
some realization of a definite and cherished hone
put, stlll every man starts life with it, and there
are few who would not be more than satisfied to
compromise with their destiny, offhand and treat
the laoorlous purposes of existence as answered
could they lay their hands upon the prize at once
without the dust and the toll the rivalry and strife
OF the race. Some restless and troubled spirits of
course, there are, to whom the struggle of the
arena is worth more than the crown of the victor
put there are few who commence life with such
feelings 1t is the strife itself, for the most part
which kindles the hot blood 1t is the continued
deoauch, which creates the growing and Unsuitable
thirst-the excitement, which makes excitement
itself its own reward. Nor is it merely in LAYING
out the map of our own lives, that we fix upon
some green and pleasant spot where we would sit
down and enjoy the shade. Not a novel-not A
comedy-will win reader or an audience twice.
unless 1t gathers, at the end all the good people
with whose perpleXites it has delighted us, under
those vines and fig trees, which grow To sncb
luxuriance nowhere, as in the sunshine Of
fiction or the glow of the foot-liphts. And. recol
iectlng this, how odd it is, that when men come to
work out, with their own hands, the problem of
their destiny, there should be so few before whom
the goal of their youths aspirations and hopes does
not recede, as the horizon-sO few who are willing
to say to themselves, awe have travelled as far as
we need; let us pitch our tents and be glad!" [
speak not, of course, Of those--unhappily too
many-to whom life is of necessity perpetual
struggle, and who must fight its battles, or sleep
on the battlefield. speak of those who have won
victory or compelled truce, or have met no enc
my-upon whom the gods have smiled. How few of
such are willing to themselves to the re-
pose which is the reward, and, one would think,
should be the object of the struggle! Doubtless
the phenomenon, strange as it is, has its place in
the economy of Providence. Quaint, pious and
pedantical George Herbert has his solution of the
mystery The blessing of repose, he tells us, was
the only gift withheld from man by his Creator,
when he gave to him all good things else
Let him keep the reSt"-he said
But keep them with repinng restlessnesse-
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least
II goodnesse lead him not yet we earipesse
May tosse him to my breast"
IL Is, OF course, not my business or purpose to
deal with the question in this point of view.
wise ana true philosopher-One of the most able
and enlightened thinkers and writers of the century
NJ. Sismondi-has left, among his various and ad-
mlrable works, some most attractive ESSAYS upon
Political Economy. When | say they are attrac-
i've, 1t Will be readily understood that they do not
belong to the Adam Smith school, which perhans
accounts for their not having been translated ex
cept partially, into language This is to be re-
GREETED, certainly, there are none who need the
lessons which they teach, half much as those
who speak the English tongue know no writinUs
which develop, with anything like the simplicity.
wisdom and beauty of these essays the rational phil
osophy of what Political Economy should be. if II
aspres to rise above the level of merely abstract
science. The fundamental principle upon which
they rest is thisthat the human creatures who are
assembled in society are all alike, the objects and
the true and only objects, of any economical science
which deserves the name-that Political Economy,
IN the ordinary acceptatiOn of the term is but the
science of accumulating wealth. while Political
Economy, as it should be, is the science of so accu
mulating and distributing it, as best to promote the
happiness and comfort of the men and women who
produce it. The one is system as abstract as the
mathematics, the other is the philosophy of individ
ual and social happiness. The one deals with the
producer as a machine, as a unit in calculation
The other regards him creature ofhesh and blood
-of hopes, desires and capabilities-to whom there
Is future well as a present-for whose endowment
and development society instituted The OBJ
Ject OF the one Is to cheaper the market-the object
OF the other is to economize human suffering and
toll - "AN
And it is no superficial intelligence-po wild and
5 heming sentimentali' i'm-by which this nober
theory OF economical science is built up Its au-
thor was, in his practical politics. conservative
Moeral-ln his theories, philosophical republican
lie mad no leaning to socalstic vagaries-no hunger
or thirst after novelties Surpassed by no man
of his generation, in the depth and comprehensive
ness OF his historical researches and knowedge-he
has this popularity, in the essays to which refer
that instead of reasoning from abstract principles
to abstract conclusions, and dealing with men, like
the quantities in an algebraic equation-he POUNDS
every step of his logic on SOME recorded exne-
rience of mankind, and illustrates the fallacy of ey
cry error which he assas, by some historical de-
veiopment OF its consequences. What therefore
IN the hands of other is but barren theory
OF balancing and compensating conflicting laws
is with him the science of practical humanitv-of
grand and true and systematzed philanthropy-
In such view statistical details and the phenome-
ma OF acquisition and production are ennobled by
their relation to human development. Political
economy rises from the field of toll to the laborers
who plough its burrows and reap its haryests-from
things material to higher thngs-from territorial
and commercial wealth, TO the ease and endowment
OF the millions that dig its Mines So regarded
1t enters into the wide range of human relations
OF men as between themselves-of the rich to the
rlch-the poor to the poor-and the rich and the
poor TO each other. 1t goes into mems houses like
blessed charity, to kinde their hearth-fires and
feed and cothe their children. 1t sweetens toll
and nurses weakness. 1t comforts desttution and
mas the OIL and the wine of the Samaritan for the
wayiarer, whom the Scotch philosophers would
leave, to be stripped of his raiment. according IN
rule, by the thieves among whom he falls. 1t thus
becomes not science merely, but a living loving,
human thing. And more especialy-and in this il
comes within the range of our discussion to-nipht
docs 1T investigate the relation of man to his al
lotted labor-not as enquiring of how much labor
each man may be capable, so as to swell an agpre
gate result for the community at large-but as de.
terminlng the extent of the labor which il is neces
sary Tor each man to undergo so as to provide for
his wants and the fulflment of his duties and res
ponsiollitles, and yet leave him something of time
and Its precious and manifold uses to himself
Humanity speaking-and outside of those duties