The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-04-21
l. A b o n

Thomas Carlysle, in his writings, says
of labor:
For there is a perennial nobeness, and even
sacredness, in Werk. Were he never SO be-
nighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is
nestly works: in idleness alone is there per-
petual despair. Work, never so Mammonish,
mean, is in communication with Nature; the
real desire to get work done, will itself lead
one more and more to truth, to Natures ap-
pointments and regulations, which are truth.
The latest Gospel in this world is, Know thy
work and do it. "Know thyself;" long enough
has that poor "self'' OF thine tcrmenteo .nee
thou wilt never get to "know' II, believe
Think it not thy business, this Of knowing thy
self; thou art an unknowable individual
know what thou canst work at; and work at
it, like Hercules That will be thy better
plan.
1t has been written, Gan endless significance
lies in Work." man perfects himself by
working. Foul jungles are cleared away lar
seedfelds rise instead, and stately cities; and
withal the man himself first ceases to be Jun
gle and foul unwholesome desert thereby
Consider how, even in the meanest sorts OF La
Dor, the whole soul of man is composed into
a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets
himself to work. Doubt, Desire, Sorrow,
Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these
ike nelt-uOBs lle uelehRuotihB eho eV"i " 49,
poor day-worker, as of every man: but ne
bends himself with free valor against his task,
and all these are stilled, all these shrink MUIR
muring far off into their caves. The man is
now man. The blessed glow of Labor in
him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all
poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself
there is made bright blessed famel
Destiny, on the whole, has no other way of
cultivating US. formless Chaos, once set it
revolving, grows round and even rounder;
ranges itself, by mere force of gravity, into
strata, spherical courses is no longer Chaos,
but round compacted World. What would
become of the Earth, did she cease to revolve?
In the poor old Earth, so long as she revolves,
all inequalities, ire gularities disperse them
selves; all Irregularities are necessarily be-
coming regular. Hast thou looked on the
Potter's whee-one of the venerablest objects;
old as the Prophet Ezekiel and far older
Rude Jumps Of clay, how they spin themselves
up, by mere quick whirling, into beautiful cir
cular dishes. And fancy the most assiduous
Potter. but without his wheel; reduced to
make dishes, or rather amorphous botohes, by
mere kneading and baking! Even such Pot
ter were Destiny, with human soul that
would rest and lie at ease, that would not
work and spin Of an idle unrevolving man
the kindest Destiny, like the most assiduous
Potter without wheel, can bake and knead
nothing other than botch let her spend on
Htm Wudt expensive COloEiukJ Whht CHUNG
and enamelling she will, he is but q botch.--
Not a dish no, a bullying, .kneaded, crooked,
shambling, squirt cornered, amorphous botch
"a mere enamelled vessel of dishonor Let
the idle think of this. m
Blessed is he who has found his work; let
him ask no other blessedness. He has work,
life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow
it'll How, as free.fowing channel, dug and
torn by noble force through the Sour mud
swamp of ones existence, like.an ever-deepening
river there, it runs and flows; draining off the
sour fostering water, gradually from the root
of the remotest grass-blade; making, instead
of pestilential swamp, green fruitful meadow
with its clear. flowing stream. How blessed
for the meadow itself, let the stream and its
value be great or small! Labor is Life: from
the Utmost heart of the Worker rises his god
given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence
breathed into him by Almighty God from his
Utmost heart awakens him to all nobleness,-
to all knowledge, "self- acknowledge" and much
else, SO soon as Work fifty begins. Know
ledger The knowledge that will hold good
in working, cleave thou to that; for Nature
herself accredits that, says Yea to that. Pro-
perly thou hast no other knowledge but what
thou hast got by working the rest is yet all
hypothesis of knowledge; a thing to be ar-
gd6d in schools, thing floating in the clouds,
in endless logic-vortices, till we try and fix it.
"Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by
Action alone"