Work.
Food, clothes, shelter, and all the necessities of life are the products
of labor. Even the simplest food, such as fruit and berries, must be
picked before it can be eaten: the coarsest garment of skins must be
stripped from the animal before it can be worn: the rudest shelter of
rock or cave must be seized and defended against intruders before it can
become one's own. And as civilization advances, the element of labor
involved in the production of goods steadily increases. The universal
necessity of human labor to convert the raw materials given us by nature
into articles serviceable to life and enjoyment renders work a
fundamental branch of human conduct. Regular meals, comfortable homes,
knowledge, civilization, all are the fruits of work. And unless we
contribute our part to the production of these goods, we have no moral
right to be partakers of the fruits. "If any will not work, neither let
him eat." "All work," says Thomas Carlyle, "is noble: work alone is
noble. Blessed is he that has found his work; let him ask no other
blessedness. Two men I honor, and no third. First, the toilworn
craftsman who with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the Earth,
and makes her man's. A second man I honor, and still more highly: him
who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable; not daily bread,
but the bread of life. These two in all their degrees I honor; all else
is chaff and dust, which let the wind blow whither it listeth. We must
all toil, or steal (howsoever we name our stealing), which is worse."
THE DUTY.
+Every man lives either upon the fruit of his own work, or upon the
fruit of the work of others.+--In childhood it is right for us to live
upon the fruits of the toil of our parents and friends. But to continue
this life of dependence on the work of others after one has become an
able-bodied man or woman is to live the life of a perpetual baby. No
life so little justifies itself as that of the idle rich. The idle poor
man suffers the penalty of idleness in his own person. He gives little
to the world; and he gets little in return. The idle rich man gives
nothing, and gets much in return. And while he lives, someone has to
work the harder for his being in the world; and when he dies the world
is left poorer than it would have been had he never been born. He has
simply consumed a portion of the savings of his ancestors, and balanced
the energy and honor of their lives by his own life of worthlessness and
shame. Inherited wealth should bring with it a life of greater
responsibility and harder toil; for the rich man is morally bound to
use his wealth for the common good. And that is a much harder task than
merely to earn one's own living. An able-bodied man who does not
contribute to the world at least as much as he takes out of it is a
beggar and a thief; whether he shirks the duty of work under the pretext
of poverty or riches.
+Every boy and girl should be taught some trade, business, art, or
profession.+--To neglect this duty is to run the risk of enforced
dependence upon others, than which nothing can be more destructive of
integrity and self-respect. The increasing avenues open to women, and
the fact that a woman is liable at any time to have herself and her
children to support, make it as important for women as for men to have
the ability to earn an honest living.
+Woman's sphere is chiefly in the home and the social circle.+--Provided
she is able to earn her living whenever it becomes necessary, and in
case her parents are able and willing to support her, a young woman is
justified in remaining in the home until her marriage. Her assistance to
her mother in the domestic and social duties of the home, and her
preparation for similar duties in her own future home, is often the most
valuable service she can render during the years between school and
marriage. In order, however, for such a life to be morally justified she
must realize that it is her duty to do all in her power to help her
mother; to make home more pleasant; and to take part in those forms of
social and philanthropic work which only those who have leisure can
undertake.
The son or daughter who is to inherit wealth, should be trained in some
line of political, scientific, artistic, charitable, or philanthropic
work, whereby he may use his wealth and leisure in the service of the
public, and justify his existence by rendering to society some
equivalent for that security and enjoyment of wealth which society
permits him to possess without the trouble of earning it.
All honest work, manual, mental, social, domestic, political and
philanthropic, scientific and literary, is honorable. Any form of life
without hard work of either hand or brain is shameful and disgraceful.
The idler is of necessity a debtor to society; though there are forms of
idleness to which, for reasons of its own, society never presents its
bill.
THE VIRTUE.
+Industry conquers the world.+--Industry is a virtue, because it asserts
this fundamental interest of self-support in opposition to the
solicitations of idleness and ease. Industry masters the world, and
makes it man's servant and slave. The industrious man too is master of
his own feelings; and compels the weaker and baser impulses of his
nature to stand back and give the higher interests room. The industrious
man will do thorough work, and produce a good article, cost what it may.
He will not suffer his arm to rest until it has done his bidding; nor
will he let nature go until her resources and forces have been made to
serve his purpose. This mastery over ourselves and over nature is the
mark of virtue and manliness always and everywhere.
THE REWARD.
+Industry works; and the fruit of work is wealth.+--The industrious man
may or may not have great riches. That depends on his talents,
opportunities, and character. Great riches are neither to be sought nor
shunned. With them or without them the highest life is possible; and on
the whole it is easier without than with great riches. A moderate amount
of wealth, however, is essential to the fullest development of one's
powers and the freest enjoyment of life. Of such a moderate competence
the industrious man is assured.
THE TEMPTATION.
+Soft places and easy kinds of work to be avoided.+--Work costs pain and
effort. Men naturally love ease. Hence arises the temptation to put ease
above self-support. This temptation in its extreme form, if yielded to,
makes a man a beggar and a tramp. More frequently the temptation is to
take an easy kind of work, rather than harder work; or to do our work
shiftlessly rather than thoroughly.
Young men are tempted to take clerkships where they can dress well and
do light work, instead of learning a trade which requires a long
apprenticeship, and calls for rough, hard work. The result is that the
clerk remains a clerk all his life on low wages, and open to the
competition of everybody who can read and write and cipher. While the
man who has taken time to learn a trade, and has taken off his coat and
accustomed himself to good hard work, has an assured livelihood; and
only the few who have taken the same time to learn the trade, and are as
little afraid of hard work as himself, can compete with him. This
temptation to seek a "soft berth," where the only work required is
sitting in an office, or talking, or writing, or riding around, is the
form of sloth which is taking the strength and independence and
manliness out of young men to-day faster than anything else. It is only
one degree above the loafer and the tramp. The young man who starts in
life by seeking an easy place will never be a success either in business
or in character.
THE VICE OF DEFECT.
+The slavery of laziness.+--Laziness is a vice because it sacrifices the
permanent interest of self-support to the temporary inclination to
indolence and ease. The lazy man is the slave of his own feelings. His
body is his master; not his servant. He is the slave of circumstances.
What he does depends not on what he knows it is best to do, but on how
he happens to feel. If the work is hard; if it is cold or rainy; if
something breaks; or things do not go to suit him, he gives up and
leaves the work undone. He is always waiting for something to turn up;
and since nothing turns up for our benefit except what we turn up
ourselves, he never finds the opportunity that suits him; he fails in
whatever he undertakes: and accomplishes nothing. Laziness is weakness,
submission, defeat, slavery to feeling and circumstance; and these are
the universal characteristics of vice.
THE VICE OF EXCESS.
+The folly of overwork.+--Work has for its end self-support. Work wisely
directed makes leisure possible. Overwork is work for its own sake; work
for false and unreal ends; work that exhausts the physical powers.
Overwork makes a man a slave to his work, as laziness makes him a slave
to his ease. The man who makes haste to be rich; who works from morning
until night "on the clean jump"; who drives his business with the fierce
determination to get ahead of his competitors at all hazards, misses the
quiet joys of life to which the wealth he pursues in such hot haste is
merely the means, breaks down in early or middle life, and destroys the
physical basis on which both work and enjoyment depend. To undertake
more than we can do without excessive wear and tear and without
permanent injury to health and strength is wrong. Laziness is the more
ignoble vice; but the folly of overwork is equally apparent, and its
results are equally disastrous. Laziness is a rot that consumes the base
elements of society. Overwork is a tempest that strikes down the bravest
and best. That work alone is wrought in virtue which keeps the powers up
to their normal and healthful activity, and is subordinated to the end
of self-support and harmonious self-development. The ideal attitude
toward work is beautifully presented in Matthew Arnold's sonnet on
"Quiet Work":
One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee,
One lesson which in every wind is blown;
One lesson of two duties kept at one
Though the loud world proclaim their enmity--
Of toil unsevered from tranquillity;
Of labor, that in lasting fruit outgrows
Far noisier schemes, accomplished in repose,
Too great for haste, too high for rivalry.
THE PENALTY.
+Laziness leads to poverty.+--The lazy man does nothing to produce
wealth. The only way in which he can get it is by inheritance, or by
gift, or by theft. Money received by inheritance does not last long. The
man who is too lazy to earn money, is generally too weak to use it
wisely; and it soon slips through his fingers. When a man's laziness is
once found out people refuse to give to him. And the thief cannot steal
many times without being caught. Industry is the only sure and permanent
title to wealth; and where industry is wanting, there, soon or late,
poverty must come.