This lesson may be learned by
the farmer in the wonderful growth of vegetation; by the artist, in the
powers of invention and taste of the human mind and soul; by the man of
science, in the beauty of an insect or the order of a universe. The
vision of the idle is limited. The ability to see may be improved by
education as much as the ability to read, remember, or converse. With
many people, not seeing is a habit. Near-sighted persons are generally
those who declined to look at distant objects; and so nature, true to
the most perfect rules of economy, refused to keep in order faculties
that were entirely neglected. The laborer's recompense is not money, nor
the accumulation of worldly goods chiefly; but it is in his increased
ability to observe, appreciate, and enjoy the world, with its beauties
and blessings. Nor is labor, the penalty for sin, a punishment merely,
but a divine means of reformation. It is, therefore, a moral discipline
that all should submit to; and especially is it a means by which the
youth here are to be prepared for the duties of life. But industry is
not only near to all the virtues; it is itself a virtue, as idleness is
a vice. The word _labor_ is, of course, used in the broadest
signification. Labor is any honest employment, or use of the head or
hands, which brings good to ourselves, and consequently, though
indirectly, brings good to our fellow-men.
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