The Portland daily press., 1868-01-16

weeks A
BEEcHER's LEcrURE.-The advent of Henry
Ward Beeeher into a place no larger than
Portland, albeit such advent has ceased to be
a novelty, always occasions perceptible quick
ening Of the public pulse. He brings as much
electricity with him as a good-sized and good
natured thunder storm in summer The per-
sonal magnetism of the man, arising in part
from the wonderful vitality OF his organization
and in part from his more than national repu-
tation, ensures him ever hearty welcome and
an attentive hearing. His subject last night
was one which required greatdelicacy of treat
ment, and one which few men in America
might safely venture to treat with no more del
icacy than Mr.. Beecher treated it. The thor
oughness of modern democracy is such that
it will not suffer the line that divides the artist
from the artisan to be too rudely pointed out,
if indeed the universally of modern culture
and the uniting of different pursuits in the
same persons do not render it impracticabe to
trace it. We do not venture to decide that
there is any defect in Mr.. Beecher's philoso-
ply, but it certainly CRATES little harshly on
ears more accustomed to listen to defamation
upon the dignity of manual labor.
Mr.. Beecher's subject was announced as
brains and Hands," that is to say, head work
and hand work. The pain and difficulty of
the former were generally moderated by those
who practised ON the latter. Men who labored
ten hours day with their hands could not
well see how a man who sat in a chair for half
as many hours without moving could be IA
tigued at night. And yet experience shows
that brain work tries more and is more ex-
hausting than mere manual labor And be-
sides, hard bodily exertion tends to produce
sound sleep and easy digestion, while mental
labor has the opposite effect
But on the whole, Mr.. Boecher said manual
labor had had a hard time of it in history,
Many nations-indeed almost all-regarded it
as despicable. Greece, for example, at one
time had a law which required ten years of
probation in a tradesnlan before he could hold
office. In our time and country, however, the
speaker thought We should be more likely to
require ten gears quarantine Of one acho had
held office before admitting him back to the or
binary pursuits OF civil life.
After dwelling at some length upon the OBJ
solete or obsolescent idea of the degradation of
labor, Mr.. Beecher came to the discussion of
the principle by which the rank of different
occupations was settled in all nations and at
all epochs. 1t was evident that such distinc-
tons were necessary, just as necessary as up
per and lower branches to tree, and if they
were obliterated in one generation they would
re-appear in the next. Indeed such distinc-
tons were preserved among laborng men in
the same walk in lfe The master mechanic
feels himself always the superior of the jour.
neyman This notion of grades in labor then
was a true one, and not superannuated theo-
ry of remote antiquity; or of the middle ages,
period to which Mr.. Beeeher said, we were
in the babit'of referring all the evil that we
could not trace to the Garden of Eden
The law determining the value OF products
was this: that which has the most brain in it
brings the highest price; and occupations are
graded according to their capacity for produc-
ing high priced articles Mere physical power
is the lowest and cheapest form of power. The
man who offers merely pair of hands, offers
hardly more than the ass or OK, and is paid ac-
cordingly. But here is man with a pair of
hands "achose thumbs Think" he will get better
paid than the former. Better yet will he be
paid who has thumb and finger that think.
And the man whose whole hand is alive with