Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1866-10-10
Workers and Thinkers
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LABOR.
An Address delivered before the Inmoi,,. Corr,
~ Agricultural Society, at MorrisyilIe,
Vermont, September 90, 1866.
BY II. HENRY POWERS

The festa' days of the ancien.. Greeks
were chiefly spent in witnessing the vsri %
Gus strifes of Their ath,etos and tbo hot
ana ier'id ClyTpics, so consouaut with
V"'' ouGyant taste and SO prolific to their
dlSordered ambition-and having wreath.
ed with laurel the successful winner in
these manly sports the people, assembled
about the rostrum, listened with rapturous
delight to their orators who spoke and
their poets who sang the praises of the
victors i'll the just ended contests. The
Greek mind lived and fed upon hero-wor.
ship, and he who had won race or lifted
the heaviest weight. was more honored
than Homer for his Epics or Demosthencs
for his Ph'hpptcs.
To us of the 10th century, who pay tri-
butte to ideas and not men, it is surprising
that mind so orderly, creative and com.
prehensivc as that of the Greeks, and of
such an open sense to all the influences of
nature-with wonderful adaptation to
Arms, Art and Philosophy, could feast
upon such delights, which were predicated
of nougbt but muscle, and taught them
naught of head or heart But theirs was
a civilization Of passion, ours of a6ec
tiow they paid homage to mere force,
we to the idea which impels and directs
force
have said that this is an age of ideas
and you to day are attesting the truth
of the statement. Why are met here the
farmer and the merchant, the mcchao-
ic. and the artisan, but to demonstrate
the strength of competitive skill, and il.
lustrate by actual tests the power of SCI
.ence and superior intellectual force, as
we'll in superior horsemanship and we'll
developed fruits and grains, as in the del
icate inter. weavings of a lamp.mat or the
artistic combinations ofa bouquet. AHthese
thirgs, this annually recurring festi, al
brings forth as the offerings OF intelligent
industry.
The occasion then which calls yon to-
gether, ftly suggests subject for discus
sion which is, WORKERS AND thinkers,
BY work is meant any process by which
the human body compels outward objects
to profitable uses, and not confcundine
mere hand,work, with thought or brain
; work. Hand workers are quite apt to envy
+ and be jealous of brain workers, and BRAIN
> workers are equally inclined to despise
and override ha"d-workers, and yet each
is essential to the other and both are nee:
= cessary to the great aims and end of so.
ciety. All the long, weary day the NOW
er swings his scythe and'at night shows
= you his tons of hay; while the thinker
with equally steady toll, can show you
J.. nothing that he has donc-and yet We
e all know that brain-work is harder and
: bette, paid than hand work-the one pro.
. duces dyspepsia, the other cures it. Work,
!. mental and manual. is a condition of lite
:, and he that neglects it, violates one of the
fundamental laws Of nature, 'Tis not al!
: of life simply to be, and to hUe---it is more
of life to pork-and. whoever works most
i and hardest, enjoys most aud lives most
D of life. All the enjoyments and pleasures
|, of our existence, have their market value
which rises and falls in proportion as they
/ cost us toll and anxiety, and there is quite
/ as much need Of we'll regulated tariff il
the moral and social. as in the CONNER
cial world. That there is dividing linC
between manual workers and brain work
ers Al, history attests;-ever since Adam
|. and Eve bc,,,nQca to the respectable
+ class" in the Garden .. f"eh. oo~n V
4 our own time, there has existed b.. G"pc'
: and lower class in society,-each with
a it's own peculiar hopes and aspirations
Q and each to certain extent antagonistit
: and hostile to the other; ono has been va
! riously called pleie'ns, commons, serfs
nloves and the working class the other
:, aristocrats and moneycrats leach clas
g has had its own standard of judgment b.
n which is tested itself and the other class
T. The laboriug classes taking all period
rs of history into consideration, have beef
uuiustly esteemed lower order of creation
(, IL is true, some humane consideration
r. have been extended to them, but for tn
rs rs most part it has been the same humanlt
in that has been shown to the horse and tn
OK. While they we're content to delve an
" die within their own orbit and showed n
50 purpose of stepping beyond that, the
- have been recognized as part of the h'
-, man family and reckoned as marg'n'
~ note al least, on the great page OF IN
"a worlds history. But any ambition
lis work out u civilization for themselves, an
nretence to rights. especially politics
n n. tights. has been a fire bell of alarm, az
for for a 6uqle.note to oppression and to butcher
Even in our own generation, we have sec
- the attempt to found an empire upon
N. corner stone of slavery; as II, forsoot
me me upon the same continent could thrive
republic based upon the degradation
= labor by the side of one whose very glo
q, ,, was its elevation.
ne e The great upheavings and commotio
1re that chiefly make up the history OF