Now, a capital like that, would enable you as a class to purchase mills and warehouses, and manufacture and sell on your own account, if you deem that a desirable thing.

But now let me take higher ground. Man does not live by bread alone. Eating and drinking is not the great end of life. Man has a mind to be fed, as well as a body. And I have not much faith in any reforms that do not spring from within. One of our best poets, when debating with a man who thought to elevate the working-classes simply by changing their circumstances, has said,

"A starved man

Fxceeds a fat beast: we'll not barter, sir,
The beautiful for barley. And even so,
1 hold you will not compass your poor ends
Of barley-feeding and material ease,
Without a poet's individualism

To work your universal. It takes a soul
To move a body: it takes a high-souled man

To move the masses, even to a cleaner stye!

It takes your ideal to blow a hair's-breadth off
The dust of the actual. Ah! your Fouriers failed
Because not poets enough to understand

That life developes from within."

Now, I most firmly believe in the trutn of that remark. I believe the cultivation of your intellect has much to do with your material improvement. Knowledge is power; the greater your knowledge, the greater your power; the greater your power, the higher your wages. Why does the joiner receive higher wages than the scavenger? He knows more. Why does the surgeon get better paid than the joiner? Because he knows more;—and knowledge is power. Go into that printing-office, and ask why the compositor receives a higher wage than the man who only cleans the machinery, and sweeps out the room? He knows more. Why does the corrector of the press receive more than the compositor? He knows more. Why does the man who writes leading articles for the newspaper receive more than the

He knows more.

You see

corrector of the press? the workings of this principle in every factory and mill,-and indeed, in nearly all branches of industry. And be you assured of this, that a well-informed mind has a good deal to do in improving your temporal position.

But it is on higher grounds, that I would urge you, working men, to read, and think, and cultivate your intellect. I have no sympathy with that utilitarian spirit, that measures everything by a mere money standard. And when hearing persons ask"Of what use is it?" I am often reminded of a quaint saying of Emerson-"Is it for use! Nature is debased, as if one looking at the ocean can remember only the price of fish!" Now, doubtless the ocean is very useful in supplying us with fish, but that is not its highest use. And just so I would say of increased knowledge, it will advance your wages, but it will do something more important than that; -it will make the mechanic a better man, which is far more important than making the man a better mechanic.

Let us take two working men,-hard handed mechanics, working in the same factory, receiving equal wages and surrounded by similar circumstances. One of them, by diligently embracing the advantages of a Mechanics' Institution, has acquired a taste for books; and a love of the beautiful has been developed in his soul. The other has neglected his mind, and possesses no such taste. Now look at the difference. The uncultivated man never reads, seldom thinks, and spends his leisure time at the public-house. He knows nothing about science, cares nothing about it. His soul is never stirred with poetry-never fascinated with a healthy work of fiction. He is unacquainted with the doings of the past, and is never inspired with hopes for the future. The world of beauty is a blank to him; no matter that the stars come out night after night,

shewing the power and wisdom of God. No matter how the firmament, in full diapason, may roll out His praise. He has no vision to decipher the handwriting of the stars; no fine ear to catch the music of the spheres. No matter how the sweet flowers may beautify the earth, or how the tinkling brook may unite with the warbling songsters in praising God. He neither sees, nor hears, nor feels anything at all about it:

"A primrose by a river's brim,

A yellow primrose (is) to him,
And it (is) nothing more."

Let us now look at the other man. After his daily toil is done, instead of resorting to the publicnouse to drown his reason with beer, he retires home, and takes down from the shelf a book. And while communing with the mighty dead of the olden times, he is elevated above the cares and trials of his daily life. He takes up the page of history, and reads of the doings of a Wallace or a Bruce, of a Tell or a Washington, of a Luther or a Cromwell; men who stood strong in the cause of truth and liberty. Or he takes up the creations of our great poets, and under the witchery of their enchantment he forgets all his toils and troubles. Or he takes up a work on science-say, on astronomy or chemistry-and he feels his mind enlarged. And through the knowledge thus gained, he walks the earth with a more thoughtful brow and loving heart. Look at him at holiday times-or see him as he spends his Saturday afternoons. He leaves the din and dust of the crowded city, and takes a long walk into the country. He looks with an intelligent eye upon the various objects around. The fields and woods are a mighty lesson book. "All things talk thoughts to him." See him after one of his rambles returning home on an autumn evening, by the banks of that stream which wells its way through weeds and flowers in sounds most musical. Behind him is the wood; the

west is open to the sky. The birds are chanting their vesper hymn; and tiniest insects buzz through the air, dancing with enjoyment. At length, the sun has run his race; and sinking behind the hills, tinges with gold the fleecy clouds. The busy hum of day is hushed. The flowers have closed their petals, and are fast asleep. The birds are gone to roost, with no anxious thoughts of to-morrow's food. The moon is gently rising in all her queen-like beauty. No sounds are heard save the echo of the distant reapers, merrily shouting "Harvest Home." The stars, one by one, come blushing forth; and family by family they are gathering "with still and holy air into the house of God," and seem to be breathing benedictions upon sin-stained man. Oh! "the music of that stillness!"-night's tingling silence, which speaks more eloquently than any words of the goodness of that God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy.

Now, this man I am speaking of, has an eye to see, and a heart to feel all this beauty. He can find spiritual meanings in everything around. In the language of our great dramatic bard, he

"Finds tongues in trees,-books in the running brooks,——— Sermons in stones,--and good in everything."

Therefore I would urge you, working-men, not to neglect the cultivation of your intellect. There never was a day in the world's history when workingmen had such facilities for acquiring knowledge as the present. There are Mechanics' Institutions, People's Colleges, Working-men's Colleges, and Free Libraries, on every hand. Don't tell me that you are too poor-that you cannot buy books, and have not the means for acquiring knowledge. I know better. You may get all Cowper's poems for 9d., Bacon's Essays for 10d. All Milton's Poems for 15d.; indeed you may purchase most of the great books England has produced, for less money than

you spend in beer and tobacco in one year. What you want is a fixed determination to leave off going to the public-house, and to spend your leisure time in the improvement of your inind. You must in this department be working-men. Remember, there are no royal roads to learning. In the sweat of your brain you must eat intellectual bread. No pains, no gains; no sweat, no sweet; no mill, no meal. Then, I conjure you to buy up your leisure moments, in order to develope, and to strengthen, and improve that mind which God has given to you.

But now let me take higher ground still. Man has a higher life than either of those we have mentioned; that is, a spiritual life. He is destined for immortality. And we are placed in this world by the Almighty, to be educated for another world. This life is our seed-time for eternity. And as it needs energy and determination for a man to make advancement materially and intellectually,-so also it does for a man to advance spiritually. We have to work out our own salvation;-to work while it is day,—for the night is coming on when we cannot work. Now, I tell you, working-men, that this is the hardest work of all. The Christian race is not to be run by men half-asleep. The fight of faith will only be successfully fought by men who are thoroughly in earnest.

But probably, I have many before me who stand aloof from religious teaching and influences. You seldom or never attend a place of worship. You have but a poor opinion of men of the class to which I belong. And many of you indulge, more or less, in a loose scepticism. Suffer me to say a word to you. I know too much about doubt myself, to indulge in the language of scorn or reproach when addressing sincere doubters. I can still look upon the scars of wounds received when wrestling with the demon of doubt. I am not unacquainted with the difficulties that perplex your mind. But I ask