Page images
PDF
EPUB

it, he will have fewer equals in this rank than in that he

may derive from you.

I

"The letter destroys, and the spirit maketh alive. would have him learn a trade, not merely for the sake of knowing how to exercise it, but that he may overcome the prejudices usually conceived against it. You will never be reduced, you say, to work for your bread; so much the worse for you, I say, so much the worse.

"But no matter if you labor not for necessity, do it for reputation. To make fortune subservient to your will you must begin by rendering yourself independent; to triumph in the opinion of the world, you must begin by deserving that opinion.

"Remember, I do not advise you to acquire a talent, but a mechanical art, in the exercise of which the hands are more employed than the head; an art by which you will never get a fortune but may be enabled to live without one. I have observed than in families far enough removed from all appearance of wanting bread, a provident father is very anxious to furnish his children with various kinds of knowledge, that, at all events they might be capacitated to earn a subsistance. In doing this, also, such parents conceived they did a great deal in the way of making provision for their offspring in case of the worst accident.

"In this, however, they did nothing, because the resources with which they thus provided for their children, depended on the fame and good fortune of which they wanted to render themselves independent.

"Let us suppose you may have studied politics, and made yourself perfectly acquainted with the interest of princes, all this is very well; but, what will you do with your knowledge if you do not know how to get access to ministers of State, have no patroness in a woman of quality, no interest with the commissioners of the several departments of the finances, if you have not the art of making yourself agreeable to them, or the baseness to do all the dirty business in which they might find you employment?

"But, you are an architect, or painter, we will say; it is very well, they are noble arts, but you must first make your abilities known to the public. Do you think to carry your point merely by exposing your designs at an

exhibition? No, no, this will not do, you must previously be admitted into the academy, you must be honored by the protection of the great, you must throw aside your pencil and rule, take a coach, and drive about from house to house.

"Are you desirous of teaching any of the arts and sciences you have learned, to be a teacher of geography, of the mathematics, of languages, of music, or design, to do this you must find scholars and, of course, advocates and puffers. I am, therefore, determined my son shall learn a trade, a creditable one to be sure, you will say; is not every employment creditable that is useful? Í I would not have him learn to be an embroiderer, a guilder, or a varnisher, like the fine gentlemen of Mr. Locke, I would have him neither a fiddler, a player, or a pamphleteer, I would confine him to nothing, I should much rather he would be a cobbler than a poet, that he should learn to pave the highway than enamel or paint flowers on china; you will say, spies, bailiffs' followers, and even hangmen, are useful people in their way; that they are so is the fault of the government, which might render them useless; but, to give up this point, I was indeed mistaken, it is not enough to fix on a trade useful to society, it should be such a one as not to require those who exercise it to be possessed of those detestable qualities of minds which are incompatible with humanity."

APPENDIX.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.

WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect of the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

5

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose, obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration thither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment, for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these

states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing there an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example

« PreviousContinue »