Every human being born into the world will find that happiness mainly
depends upon the work that he does and the manner in which it is done.
Those who imagine that the necessity for labour is only an evil must be
either grossly ignorant or wilfully wicked.
Whoever wastes his life in idleness, either because he need not work in
order to live, or because he will not live to work, will be a wretched
creature, and at the close of a listless existence will regret the loss
of precious gifts and the neglect of great opportunities.
Our daily work, however common or humble it may seem, is our daily duty,
and by doing it well we may even make it a part of our daily worship.
For these reasons the choice of a trade is a most important event in
every boy’s life, and it is no less difficult than important, because
when a boy has just left school he seldom knows much about the operations
of any trade, and cannot be expected to express any preference for
one more than another. Whether this book will be of any use in this
respect, by directing attention to some of the principal industries of
the country in which we live, must after all depend upon the tastes of
each particular reader; but it may at all events claim to be useful in
making known what are the operations necessary to some of our great
manufactures, and in explaining the method of using the tools employed by
those engaged in them.
A volume like the present can scarcely be said to have an Author, since
much of its contents must necessarily be the work of the compiler, who
condenses the valuable material supplied by other writers, and adapts
it to his purpose. It is impossible that any great part of the _matter_
can be original; and in some parts of the following pages the writer has
found it altogether inexpedient to change even the _manner_ of those who
are regarded as the principal authorities on scientific subjects. He
believes, however, that even where he has borrowed, he has borrowed with
some discretion. Whether he has succeeded in explaining and simplifying
the reader will be able to judge.