Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-04-16
WORK AND WORKERS.
A Lecture Delivered at West BrattIe-
bOrO, ThuradIay evening, March 10, by
Rpy, q, n, Merrill.

a Lecture Delivered nt West Brattle-
bOrO, Thuraday evening, March 10, by
Rev. q. n. Merrill.
The subject brought to your notice tonight
will admit of little originality Of treatment,
either in statement of truths or in method of
illustration. Literature is saturated with
thoughts relating to the dignity of labor
the lives of men are constantly bearing wit
ness to the same. From the date of those
words recorded in the first Of Genesis to the
issue of the last biography from the press,
the subject has never been allowed, in any
period, to become fresh by what Coleridge
calls the courtesy of oblivion" At the risk
of staleness the changes have been rung
upon it increasingly.
1t is not then with the design of attempt
ing any restatement of old truth, much less
of suggesting anything new. that the subject
is approached to night. But professional ex-
perience has taught that what is needed far
above fresh thought and speculation is living
embodiment of the truths well known, theo-
ries brought to the test of actual experience
Better than Poor Richard maxims flarng
upon the cups from which our children take
their daily milk, is the constant witness in
the household life of a contented industry that
brings "A reward not measured by the dollar
or the cent. 1t is this conviction that has
given me boldness to approach the hoary sub
ject now. My words will not be so much
words of doctrine as of illustration and in
this direction a field is opened up well nigh
unlimited in its range.
The most of my illustrative material is
taken from the class of literary men and
thought of singing them out as preGmnent
among the arUly of workers but rather in
part because the facts are more accessible to
all, in part because personal weakness for
the fascinating pages OF literary gossip and
small talk has brought me into possession of
material gathered through course of some
what miscellaneous reading. The worker
with the pen and pencil is brother with the
worker with the axe and pick. There may
be grades in the brotherhood as Carlyle sug-
gestS. Sweat of the brow and up from that
to sweat of the brain, sweat of the heart, up
to that agony of bloody sweat which men
have called divine" but it is no less true, as
he himself has declared, that IAN true work
is sacred, and in all true work, were it even
hand labor, there is something of divineness.
When then l cite instances of literary men
who have worked for sixteen and eighteen
hours day, do not forget the workers in
field and shop and store who work their ten,
twelve and fourteen hours from years end to
the years end, and take no special credit to
themselves for doing simply what it WAS
their duty to do There il much unrecorded
heroism that is as worthy of praise as any |
may cite tonight. l claim for the men
whose names l mention no distinction other
than that of having done their duty well
They are brothers together with all who wor-
ship at the common shrine of labor.
In speaking in the first place of the habits
of workers, a natural divisionin into night work
ers and workers of the day suggests itself
Pascal, in one of his Provincial Letters, says
that the judges of France in the seventeenth
century were compelled to do their official
work in the morning, that their minds might
be clear aud their decisions in accordance
with equity. All this old fashioned pruden-
tial wisdom, however, has been strangely
modified of late years. Young America now
holds the opinion that the wisdom of the ear
ly bird is largely discounted by the foolish
ness of the early worm and the effect of Dr.
Frankin's old saw, EARLY to bed and early
to rise" has been sadly marred by the new
definition given of an early riser, "a man
who is proud all the morning and cross all
the afternoon" l wish now to cite a few
facts to show that the spirit of this age is not
wholly at fault. There is an eminent litera-
ary man in France, the editor of the great
French Dictionary, E. LittrG, who works with
unfailing regularity from half-pAst six o'clock
in the evening to six in the morning Now,
according to the law cited by Pascal his
judgment ought to be ruled out of any liter
AIRY court, According to DR.. Franklin's prov
erb he ought to be neither healthy, wealthy
nor wise" But as for his wisdom, it may be
suggested that not every fool could edit
standard dictionary as for his wealth, he is
doubtless poor enough, for he is a literary
man as for his health, he is now a hale and
hearty old man, and bids fair to outuumber
the days of Franklin himself. Nor is this a
single instance, to be classed among the ec-
centricites of men of genius, by any means.
The emperors Julian and Justinian, Gibbon
tells us, did their literary work in the small
hours of the night. The poet Schiller, ac-
cording to Carlyle's biography, used to be
seen by his neighbors after midnight, pacing
his little chamber in the suburbs of Jena, now
speaking aloud, now throwing himself into
his chair to write verse, drinking the while
from cup of strong coffee or wine chocolate
which stood near In winter he never came
out of his den till four or five, in summer till
three in the morning He slept till nine or
ten and then was ready for his garden or his
friends during the day. Talyrand, the mon
ster both in person and in intellect, was
night worker of the first class. When minis
ter of foreign affairs, his entire correspond
ence was done between the hours of twelve
and six leaving his days and evenings to the
congenia task of worming state secrets from
his visitors. He lived to be minister to Eng
land at the age of eighty, and then could tire
out every man at the board transacting pub
lie business, Palmerston himself falling asleep
over the papers. Born lame, his legs were
fastened to his body by an iron apparatus,
against which he used to strike his gigantic
cane, rattling himself most horribly, to the
great terror of visitors unaware of his in
trinity. His eyes were sunken and his voice
sepulchral. He ate only one meal day, and