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LABOUR ESSENTIAL TO HAPPINESS.

greedy love of gain with which society has been so grievously infected, and partly, we believe, from sheer thoughtlessness.

Happily, we are awake to the evil now. It has attracted attention, remedies have been suggested and employed, and, God helping us, we may hope, ere long, to root it out of the land.

Labour, whether with brain or hand, is essential to our happiness. The daily worker for God, for his family, for his country, finds an exquisite delight in his toil, if it be not too protracted. He does not require to dream over an idea of life; from active, conscientious, persistent work he acquires the most practical lessons of life's value and purport. Work is not worship, but the true worshipper is ever the true worker. Never will he suffer the weapons God has given him to rust unused: he will go forth with a brave heart to fight life's battle, remembering that the eye of the "Great Taskmaster" is upon him, and conscious of a hidden strength which can alike stimulate and sustain. But for work to prove a blessing to the worker, it must have a due limitation, as well

as a defined purpose. "Work without hope," says

Coleridge, "draws nectar in a sieve;" and work which might have hope in it, becomes at length hopeless and heartless, when, from lack of recreation, the pressure falls too heavily on mind and body.

Over-work is one of the most pregnant evils of the present day. It destroys health, weakens the intel

IF TOO PROLONGED, AN EVIL.

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lect, produces a re-action in favour of vicious pleasures, and often upsets altogether the mental equilibrium. When its results are less obviously injurious, it proves an invincible barrier to intellectual or spiritual growth, and obstructs the calm enjoyment of domestic life. Perhaps, in the majority of instances, the work itself, however indispensable, is too monotonous to create a healthy activity of thought, or to require much beyond a certain system of official routine. In such cases the burden is felt still more acutely when the labour is spread over many hours in each day. Habit inures a man to the monotony of his toil, and a sense of duty will enable him to fulfil it worthily; but neither duty nor habit can crush down the desires and aspirations which, for wise purposes, are implanted in his nature, and which urge him to mental improvement and physical recreation. The end of life is not to get money, although too many, alas! act as if it were. Apart from the greatest and noblest end of all, there are social duties to be performed; the mind requires to be fed as well as the body, and the body-a machine of the most exquisite and delicate workmanship has its own large demands upon the attention and time, which can never be slighted with impunity. And beyond this still, does not nature, with her thousand voices, call to us to explore her secrets, to rifle her sweets, to revel in her beauty? The sea, with wistful ripple, or surging foam, allures us with its sweet music, and

awes us with its thunder; the forest-trees stretch out their branches towards us and tempt us beneath their shade; the everlasting hills lift our thoughts to Him who girded them with strength; the stream, bounding with exultant joy towards its ocean home, teaches a noble lesson, and inspires us with kindred mirth ; and every tiny flower that blossoms on the hill-side, or, by clustering with its fellows, throws a perfume across the valley, asks us for our love, and will awaken in return

"Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”

There is nothing fanciful in all this, for even the man who prides himself on being the most practical and matter-of-fact, will sometimes receive a faint intimation of the glory of those out-lying regions which are beyond his sphere, and into which he has never penetrated. Better, truly, would it be for man were "he and nature more familiar friends;" better for his natural as well as spiritual life, in lifting him out of the common circle of his daily cares and thoughts. Those of us who feel how much of our life is linked on to the pure relish for God's works, how much finds its most invigorating aliment from books and the society of friends, will sympathize with the many daily workers whose unremitting toil seldom, if ever, allows them to participate in such pleasures. But something more than sympathy is demanded each one of us may give his aid towards lightening the burden, if not by individual effort, yet

PRACTICAL SYMPATHY.

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by that combination through which some of our highest boons have been obtained in England. This is one of the great benefits of our freedom. We can call together vast assemblies, we can organize societies, we can spread our principles far and wide through the pulpit, the press, and the platform, we can reply to opponents, we can encourage friends, and, by these means, if the object sought be legitimate, public opinion is almost certain to declare in its favour, and then the victory is ours. To prove this, it is not necessary to diverge from the special topic of this Essay. The wonderful success which has been granted to the labours of the "Early Closing Association," which is now in the seventeenth year of its existence, proves the strength of a well-directed combination, and how possible it is to effect, by the suasion of earnest and truthful argument, the moral sense of the country. This noble Association has proved itself the fruitful parent of kindred societies, some of which, if not directly fostered by itself, have, as it were, sprung naturally from the soil which was thus prepared for them.

One of the most notable and useful movements which has been thus set on foot is the Saturday Halfholiday; and it will be our object in this Essay to parry the objections which have been raised against it, to examine its claims, to urge its value, to prove the importance of that kindred topic, "The Early Payment of Wages," and to discuss both subjects in relation to

petty details, as well as to broad and general principles.

In doing this, it will be scarcely possible to avoid the utterance of many palpable truisms; but it is only by the reiteration of trite remarks that they become translated into action, for many a truth may be tacitly acknowledged, may even have passed into a proverb, while it still lies "bedridden in the dormitory of the soul"-wasting instead of exercising its strength.

Nothing can be more obvious," some of our readers may say, "than that a half-holiday is a good thing we do not want to hear any arguments in proof of its value;" while others may go a step further, and exclaim, "We do not question-no sensible person can question-either the advantage of such a boon, or the perfect impunity with which it may be granted by employers. To attempt to convince us of its value, is about as idle as to prove the worth of sleep, or the necessity for food."

We reply: "If the advantage of a Saturday Halfholiday be so patent, and if it is so obvious that it can be granted without any prejudice to the interests of employers, how comes it that this simple truth has only been acknowledged, or at all events acted upon, within the last few years? how is it that in London alone there are still thousands of young men, aye, and women too, labouring from week to week, not only without the benefit of this Half