Year: 1873

=


To say that it was heartily enjoyed and


thoroughly appreciated, is but to repeat


the generally expressed opinion of all.


We are aware that in the following alb


stract full justice is not done to the lecture


or lecturer. The beauty of diction, the


felicity of expression, the frequent


burst of eloquence and the manner of


the orator had charm all their own and


which cannot be reproduced in con-


densed report. All that we have endeav-


ored to do is to present the warp, we
could not undertake the filling. In


speaking of


ORDERS OF NOBILITY


he said that he should not occupy the
| time in refuting the conventional notions


of aristocracy. One, in passing through


gallery of ancestral portraits, might


stop before that, perhaps, of the foun-


der of his family and the fountain of his


honor. Perchance it was bedecked with


orders of nobility, and its original might
| have been called noble, but after all he
could only have been noble from what
he was and what he did, and could not
confer nobility on his descendants
| What right, therefore, has he to pass by
others who have worked out their own
position from nothing Let him be
mindful that nothing stands long that
stands upon falsehood. Social forms,
sometimes when looked back upon, seem
empty, but they once had their use, and
symbolic, perhaps, some great achieve
ment, and represent natural and divine
orders of nobility. True nobility may be
divided into three orders, characterized
by achievement, disposition of mind and
the union of both. In other words:


work, thought, life.


The first order of nobility is to recog-
nize your work and do it, and consists
of cheerful acceptance and perform
ance of duty. Without a cheerful per
fOrmance Of the work, there is no nobil-
ity. 1t is not the work, but the way it
is done If the work is well and honest
ly performed it places the doer in the
primitive order of aristOcracy. There
are more evils growing out of a distase
for labor than we dream of, and one of
the worst things that can happen to an
individual is to be ashamed of honest la
Dor. Many men will eulogize work
without doing it. Many associate the
idea of labor with degradation, but it is
more noble and honorable to he a dill
gent boot black than a lazy gentleman.
This mistaken idea that labor is degra-
ding, tends to ovcrcrowd the profess
sions-not that professional work is not
honorable and noble. Brain work is not
easy No labor is more arduous. Many
a brain worker, compelled as he is to
work day and night, whether in sickness
or in health, in pain, anguish, agony and
trouble. envies the laborer with tools
aside his work and give it no more
thought till the morrow. | mean not
these professional workers that do their
work we'll but those that crowd them
selves into places they cannot fill, be-
cause they consider it a degradation to
do that which they can do well 1t is
these men that crowd the professional
spheres. 1t is this mean conception of
labor that Grams the gateways' of fraud
and corruption. The harms overcome
the foOlishness of American aristocracy.
The only difference between the one
class and the other is that one has stop
ped and the other hasn't. Glass and class
distinctions always have existed and al
ways must exist. 1t is only the right to
choose your own companions. The re-
fined need not associate with the boOr,
nor the educated with the ignorant. We
have either the form or substance of an
aristocracy Wealth, which any one
may acquire, is the form, but the nobil-
ity of labor is the substance. The de-
gree of the nobility of labor is in the
spirit with which it is performed. The
law classes are the lower classes. Me
chanics are the builders of this civilized
w0rld-men who have changed the des-
TIMES of civilization and moved the lev
ers of the world. Witness Stephenson,
Fulton, and countless others.


The spring of all nobleness is in the
mind Higher than work is the nobility
of thought. Work done in mean spir-
it of thought is mean work. If shorter
hours of labor, which we hear talked of
so much, means more time for study and
Improvement and for elevation of
thought, it is well. But if it means ad-
ditional hours for idleness and dissipa-
ton it is all wrong. Men value works
of thought more than of the hands. But
this nobility of thought consists Of ac-
quiring only as one can assimilate and
reproduce truth. Noble thought is right,
true, pure thought. There is test of
baseness and nobility, and it consists in
the fountain head, that is the thought.
Put no trust in those who say they have
no faith in man or woman, because they |
must, necessarily, have no faith in them
selves. They belong to the vulgar class,
because their thoughts are vulgar. We |
strike streams of pure thought in every
place-in the workshop, at the plow, in
the office and palace, and they all belong



tions in nobility of thought save in the
tenacity with which one holds to truth.
An essential quality of nobility of
thought is seriousness or gravity. Truth
cannot be held in a frivolous heart. We
are dwelling in comic dlspensation,
wherein funny books, papers, etc,
abound. Fun is all well enough in its
place, but it is apt to slide out of its
place. Gloom is not necessary the day
has gone by when we cannot enjoy and
worship God, and be joyful and happy
at the same time. But there is serious
as well as a gay side to human life. A
free people cannot be funny people,
because they have too much to think OF
and to do. There must be in this order
of nobility readiness of mind, but we
,,ouot rid ourselves of all cOnceit of