Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-09-07
BRATTLEBORO LOCAL.
1.-THE MAN WITH THE HOE"
Extracts from Dr. nruce's Preface ia
His Forthcoming Volume, In Answer
to mRrkham's Poem.

Extracts from Dr. Gruce's Preface TO
hts Forthcoming Volume, In Answer
to markhnm's Poem.
We are in the field together, here to do
the work together; neither of us can do it
alone
One guides the pillow, another sows the
Seed another reaps, another binds; but
all have contributed to the harvest. Shall
he who has ploughed the furrow say, The
harvest Is mine? Shall he who has bound
the sheaf claim the harvest as his? Can
the hands on the dial say, l am the clock?
Can the handspring say to the cogs and
wheels, have no need of you?
We are all what we are born and the
opportunities which have been ours to de-
velop, plus how we have made use of those
opportunities.
Everyone has the right to straighten
himself up and stand as tall as he can in
his own stature, but no right to bend the
shoulders or PROSTATE the form of another
so he may stand the higher upon him.
How matters it what work we do, in
what sphere our activity finds employment,
so long as it benefits me and you and the
field. If do the work at my hand accord
ing to my opportunity and ability, am as
honorable as you in other work, with other
opportunity and ability. God ordained
that the great badge of kingship of earth
should be StceGt, and it matters not If 1t be
of the brow or of the brain. He who
works is king, and no kind of work can
make man more than king-there are no
degrees in kingship.
How shallow, how foolish, how un-
worthy of man, is pretension. Who shall
say to his neighbor, / am worthier than
thou? Man may justly rejoice in what he
has accomplished with his opportunities,
environment and birth; but can he justly
feel pride-a pride which is contemptu-
GUS of others? He should remember that
he has not made his surroundings or OPP
portunities irrespective of and unaided by
others. Other lives made the opportuni
ties possible He is entitled to no credit
for his birth. What blame to one who is
born with dark skin? What credit to
one who is born with pleasing features?
What credit or blame TO either that they
were born at all? The rose may rejoice in
| its perfume. The morning-gory may re-
| joice in its climbing tendrils and flowers of
| beauty. But what credit to them because
they are not the poisonous herb or the OBJ
noxious weed? Man may feel pride just
to that extent wherein his own free will in
selections has been exercised, and no
| further. No thanks to him that he wasn't
| born fool with no power of selection.
Many another man whom he now looks
down upon, given his birth and environ
ment, would be fully his equal in all things
| Who is entitled to the most credit that
the house stands completed and tangible
! idea? Is the man who nails board to its
| place more deserving of thanks than he
who sawed it from the log, or he who
felled the tree, or he who fashioned the
axe and saw and hammer with which the
different stages of the work was done, or
he who mined from the earth the iron
from which was made the implements OF
labor and the nails which hold the board
in place?
If you and l fully realized that the
greatest good to either one of us was to be
found in the greatest good to us both to-
gether-that the highest possible good was
in the greatest good to all how like a
Garden of Eden this field would become.
But we are too much like the beasts of the
forest where proves, force, intimidation
and cunning are the ethics of action, and
the one that devours the most game and
gathers the biggest pile of bones is mon
arch. The industrial and economic con-
ditions are such, in this field where you
and / are, that it seems like a vast arena
of awful contention for self, and the devil
take the hindermost. There is apprehen-
sion, broken hope, Encouragement and
despair enough to sap the force and eff.
ficiency from any character. 1t ought to
be, and might be, more like a prosperous
and happy homestead where each one is
glad and ambitious to do what he can to
give comfort and joy and growth to all.
The same beneicent sunlight shines up.
on the grain and is absorbed into food, up
on the hanging dewdrop and is refracted
into thousand irridescent sparkles. Some
men are practical, and see nothing desir.
able in any thought unless il will produce
a dollar Other men are ideal, and see
nothing desirable in any dollar unless II
will produce a thought. Still other me1
rate both the thought and the dollar at rel.
alive value. Everyone according to hi.
ability. The eagle is strong, but he can
not sing the liquid notes of the bobolink.
Some people will be poor and in straits
no matter what opportunities and advan.
tages have been and are theirs. Lazy and
thriftless, no outlook for the flood of the
tide, no hosting of the sails to catch the
breeze, no sense of relative proportions
not the first elements of economy, theil
wants as likely to be gagged by envy as by
actually, never doing anything with any
definite purpose of combination, they car
never be otherwise than in the trough
of the sea unless the divine order of thing:
is changed-the laws of buoyancy and
gravity modified. So they must continue
to drift until they have learned by expert
ence the elements of navigation. But We
have no right to huff their breeze. 1t il
our duty to signal them when and how tC
tack, and even if they ignore our advice
and we see them going down, it is yet oul
duty to throw them the life line. They
may do better next trial. This should moi
be a competition of personal craft, but q
sailing of the combined feet. The slooI
that goes down may be the one on which
is our most valuable chart or store of pro