Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1910-12-16
FROM THE GOLDEN BOOKS.
The Gospel Of Work.

THOMAS Carlyle: Past and Present
There is perennial nobleness and even
sacredness in Work; were he never 50 be-
nighted, fOrgetful of his high calling,
there is always hope in a man that ac-
tually and earnestly works; in idleness
alone is there perpetual despair. Work,
never 50 mammonish, mean. is in COM
munication with Nature; the real desire
TO get work done will itself lead one more
and more to truth, to Natures appoint
ments 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 tor
mented thee; thou wilt never get to know
it, / believe. Think it not thy business,
this of knowing myself; thou art an un-
movable individual: know what thou
canst work at, and work at it like Her
cules! That will be thy best plan.
1t has been written, An endless sig
nificance lies in work. a man perfects
himself by working. Foul jungles are
cleared away, fair seed fields rise instead,
and stately cities; and withal the man
himself first ceases to be jungle and foul
unWhOlesomeness desst thereby. Con-
slider how even in the meanest sort 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 it
self, all these like hell-dogs lie beleaguer-
ing the soul Of the poor day-Worker, as of
every man; but he bends himself with
free valor against his task, and all these
are stilled, all these shrink murmuring
far off into their caves. The man is now
a man. The blessed glow of labor in him
Is ii not as purifying fire, wherein all
poison is burnt up, and Of surer smoke
itself there is made bright blessed flame
Destiny, on the whole, has no other way
of cultivating us. a formloss chaos, once
set ii revolving, grows round and ever
rounder; ranges itself by mere force of
gravity into strata spherical crosses; is
no longer a chaos, but a round compacted
mold. What would become of the earth
did she cease to revolve? In the poor
| old earth, SO long as she rcvolves, all in
CAPABILITIES, Irregularities, dispense them
selves; all Irregularities are necessarily
becoming regular. Hast thou looked on
the potters wheel-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 whrl-
| ing, into beautiful circular dishes And
/ fancy the most assiduous potter but
! without his wheel, reduced to make dish
/ es, or rather amorphous botches, by mere
| kneading and baking. Since such a pot
| ter were destiny with human soul that
/ would rest and lie at ease, that would
not work and spin. OF an idle unrevolv-
! ing man the kindest Destiny, like the
| most aSSluuOuS potter without Wneel, can
! bake and knead nothing other than
botch; let her spend on him what expen-
sive coloring, what gliding and enamel
! ing she will, he is but a botch. Not
| dish; no, a bulging, crooked stumbling,
| squint-cornered, amorphorus botch-a
mere enameled vessel of dshonor. Let
the idle think OF this.
Blessed is he who has found his work
| let him ask no other blessedness. He has
! a work. a life purpose; he has found It
and will follow 1t. How, as a free-howing
| channel dug and torn by noble force
through the sour mud-swamp OF exist
ence, like an ever deepening river there
It runs and fiows-draining OF the soon
fostering water gradually from the root
OF the remotest grass blade; making in
stead of pestilential swamp, a green, fruit
full 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 all noble
ness-to all knowledge, self-knowledge
and mucl was; so soon as work fifty be-
gins, Ki fire e! The knowledge that
will hold gooo vorking-cleave thou to
that; for Natur 'rself accredits that,
says yea to that. nerly thou hast no
| other knowledge but , thou hast got
by working; the rest is yrC all hypothe-
sis of knowledge; a thing to be argued OF
in schools, a thing floating in the clouds,
! i'm endless logic-vortices, till we try It
and fix IT, Doubt, OF whatever kind, can
be ended by action alone.