Year: 1866

BEGINNING to break. On all hands there is a
lin foreboding that the whole country is on
he verge of a great commercial reyulsion. A
multitude of reasons. having more or less
soree, may be assigned for the apprehension.
A great variety of causes may contribute to
produce and aggravate the DR. eaded evil, But
we doubt not that thorough analysis of the |
situation would reveal that the chief cause of
all in producing or in aggrayating the evil is
the disturbance of the healthy relation be-
tween productive work and toe recognized |
needs of civilized life. Men have been too
prone to pursue all kinds of avocatioEs ex-
cept those which create material value in the
nature of products which serve to give men
food and drink, clothing and shelter,
in accordance with then wants and aecus
toned enjoyments, as constituents ofcivilized
society. Communities and indiy iduals have
violated and insulted the central law of the
sity of productive work as the condition of
existence, and they may well quail before the
imminent penalty. It may be too late to
avoid the consequences of this course; but it
is net too late to mitigate them by at once
adopting and diligently praetieing the most


rigid principles of economy and thrift But


there is only one way TO be insured against


the evil in future, and that is, to cut it up by


the roots. To do this is simple enough. The


main elements of the problem are but two


nature and civilized humanity Productive


work as the relation between these is the sole


secret Of happy solution, from which may


issue all the material needs, comforts,


pleasures, retinements and embellishments of


life Here is the key to the material restora-


ton Of the South Here is the "open


sesame to vast stores Of riches almost be-


yond the reach Of dreams. No where on the face


Of earth are the clements Of agriculture and Of


what are commonly called manufactures, more


abundantly present or more felieitously dis


tributed and combined But all these must


be as idle as the visions Of dream, if the


population before which they lie turn to every


means and method of life and livelihood in


preference to productive work, 1t would be


wise, benefcent, an honorable, a


patriotic rule, if every youth in the
South should hereafter, before thinking O


professional, clerical, mercantile or any other


of those enployments which do not pertain


to the immediate sphere Of productive indus


try, acquire some practical knowledge-sucl


as would last, like the art of swimming once
Ilearned-of agriculture, Of miscellaneous


farming, of gardening, or of at least one o
the leading manufactures and trades Mel
who are not too old to learn could not dt
better than to turn the same rule to instan
: account for their own advantage and that o
the community. In this there would be the
sure foundation Of personal independence
: Of national wealth, and Of prosperous
civilization.


Peter the Great, Of Russia, did not
exaggerate the national Importance of me


chanical labor when he worked with his owl
J hands as a ship carpenter The most eIo
quent and illust1ious of the apostles showed
; how well handicraft comported Will
Christian character and could be made tt
forward one of the highest and holiest Of mis-
) sions. As tent-maker he wrought, in order


that he might be independent Of secular


charity while he preached the beauty anC
Isublimity of that other charity as no man has
ever preached them since. ''These hands, ht


says. s'have ministered to my necessities oni


to them that were with me-" Every man, i
he choose, may possess the means Of bein}
as independent as st, Paul, and the mert
? sense of this independence is 10 small ste
towards the nobility Of that great apos
ties character and the purity of his life
: Bank vaults will not always save one
g money. Public stocks may shrink to non
: entity in national overthrow or insolvency
: lands, houses merchandise may be swep
! away by political prescription or commercio
misehance and disaster; but trade canno
be taken away, and will abide as cash in han
J as long as life and limb remain.