INDUSTRY

A very important principle in the business of money-getting, is, Industry—persevering indefatigable attention to business. Persevering diligence is the Philosopher’s stone, which turns everything to gold. Constant, regular, habitual, and systematic application to business must, in time, if properly directed, produce great results. It must lead to wealth, with the same certainty that poverty follows in the train of idleness and inattention. It has been truly remarked that lie who follows his amusements instead of his business, will, in a short time, have no business to follow.

It has been said that the best cure for hard times is to cheat the doctor by being temperate; the lawyer, by keeping out of debt; the demagogue, by voting for honest men; and poverty, by being industrious.

To industry, guided by reasonable intelligence and economy, every people can look with certainty as an unfailing source of temporal prosperity. Whatever is useful or beautiful in art, science, or other human attainment, has come from industry. In the humblest pursuits, industry may be accompanied by the noblest intelligence, so that respect, place and power are open to its humblest honest practicer. Let no man spurn industry as his temporal shield; it is the safest and surest he can buckle to his arm, and with it he may defy the want and poverty which, more than everything else, destroy the independence of man.

In a collection of obituary notices for the year 1799, we find recorded the deaths of two persons, whose circumstances are extraordinary examples of the reverses of fortune, and afford striking proofs of the superiority of honest industry to wild speculation. The first was Mr. James Calvert, who in February died in indigence, having been the sole proprietor of the first ticket that ever drew so high a prize as one hundred thousand dollars in the English lottery; and in a subsequent lottery he gained twenty-five thousand dollars: he was originally a capital vinegar-merchant, at the corner of Old-street, in the City Road. In the following month died Mr. Abraham Newman, who was one of the richest citizens of London, and a happy instance of the powers of accumulation by the steady pursuit of honorable industry. Without speculation or adventure, he acquired three million dollars, as a grocer: he retired from trade about four years before his death, but so forcible was his habit, that he came every day to the shop, and ate his mutton at two o’clock, the good old city hour, with his successors. Verily, it is the hand of the diligent that waxeth rich.

Honorable industry always travels the same road with enjoyment nd duty; and progress is altogether impossible without it. The idle pass through life leaving as little trace of their existence as foam upon the water, or smoke upon the air whereas the industrious stamp their character upon their age, and influence not only their own but all succeeding generations. Labor is the best test of the energies of men, and furnishes an admirable training for practical wisdom. A life of manual toil is not incompatible with even the highest culture. Hugh Miller, than whom none knew better the strength and the weakness belonging to the lot of labor, stated the result of his experience to be, that work, even the hardest, is full of pleasure and materials for self-improvement. He held honest labor to be the best of teachers, and that the school of toil is the noblest of schools,—save only the Christian one,—that it is a school in which the ability of being useful is imparted, the spirit of independence is learned, and habit of persevering effort is acquired. He was even of opinion that the training of the mechanic, by the exercise which it gives to his observant faculties, from his daily dealing with things actual and practical, and the close experience of life which he acquires, better fits him for picking his way through the journey of life, and is more favorable to his growth as a Man, emphatically speaking, than the training afforded by any other condition of life.

It is related of James Watt, the inventor of the steam-engine, that he was one of the most industrious of men. Whatever subject came under his notice in the course of his business, immediately became to him an object of study; and the story of his life proves, what all experience confirms, that it is not the man of the greatest natural vigor and capacity who achieves the highest results, but he who employs his powers with the greatest industry and the most carefully disciplined skill,—the skill that comes by labor, application, and experience. Many men in his time knew far more than Watt, but none abored so assiduously as he did to turn all that he did know to useful practical purposes.

Michael Angelo was a great believer in the force of labor; and he held that there was nothing which the imagination conceived, that could not be embodied in marble, if the hand were made vigorously to obey the mind. He was himself one of the most indefatigable of workers; and he attributed his power of studying for a greater number of hours than most of his contemporaries, to his spare habits of living. A little bread and wine was all he required for the chief part of the day when employed at his work; and very frequently he rose in the middle of the night to resume his labors. On these occasions, it was his practice to fix the candle, by the light of which he worked, on the summit of a pasteboard cap which he wore. Sometime he was too wearied to undress; and he slept in his clothes, ready to spring to his work so soon as refreshed by sleep.

Titian, also, was an indefatigable worker. His celebrated “Pietro Iartyre” was eight years in hand, and his “Last Supper” seven. In his letter to Charles V. he said, “I send your majesty the ‘Last Supper’ after working at it almost daily for seven years.” Few think of the patient labor and long training involved in the greatest works  of the artist. They seem easily and quickly accomplished, yet with how great difficulty has this ease been acquired. “You charge me fifty sequins” said the Venetian nobleman to the sculptor, “for a bust that cost you only ten days’ labor.” “You forget,” said the artist, “that I have been thirty years learning to make that bust in ten days.”

Thomas Scott was employed upon his Commentary for thirty-three years. The marginal references alone cost him seven years of severe labor. For nearly forty-six years he was employed eight, ten, and sometimes fourteen hours in a day in his study. Of his Commentaries on the Scriptures, not less than thirty-five thousand copies have been sold in the United States alone, at a sum of at least, seven hundred thousand dollars.

Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success. It carries a man onward and upward, brings out his individual character, and powerfully stimulates the action of others. All may not rise equally, yet each, on the whole, very much according to his deserts. “Though all cannot live on the piazza,” as the Tuscan proverb has it, “every one may feel the sun.”

The history of Disraeli affords a beautiful example of the power of industry and application in working out an eminent public career. His first achievements were in literature; and he reached success only through a succession of failures. As an orator, too, his first appearance was a failure. It was spoken of as “more screaming than an Adeiphi farce.” Though composed in a grand and ambitious strain, every sentence was hailed with “loud laughter.” But he con eluded with a sentence which embodied a prophesy. Writhing under the laughter with which his studied eloquence had been received, he exclaimed, “I have begun several times many things, and have succeeded in them at last. I shall sit down now but the time will come when you will hear me.” The time did come; and how Disraeli succeeded in at length commanding the attention, the rapt attention of the British House of Commons, affords a striking illustration of what determination and energy will do; for Disraeli earned his position by dint of patient industry. He did not as many young men do, having once failed, retire dejected, to mope and whine in a corner, but pluckily set himself to work. He carefully unlearned his faults, studied the character of his audience, practiced sedulously the art of speech, and industriously filled his mind with the elements of parliamentary knowledge. He worked patiently for success; and it came, but slowly; then the house laughed with him, instead of at him. The recollection of his early failure was effaced, and by general consent he was at length admitted to be one of the most finished and effective of parliamentary speakers.

It ought to be constantly inculcated on the young that industrious habits are essential to success. Industry, honesty, and temperance are essential to health. He who is a stranger to industry may possess, but he cannot enjoy. Peace rears her olive for industrious brows. Industry, and not mean savings, produces wealth. Regular industry is the parent of sobriety. Heat gotten by degrees, with motion and exercise, is more natural, and stays longer by one than what is gotten all at once by coming to the fire—so wealth acquired by industry proves commonly more lasting than that which descends from our ancestors.

Count that day lost whose descending sun
Views from thy hand no worthy action done.

An hour’s industry will do more to produce cheerfulness, suppress evil humors and retrieve your affairs than a month’s moaning. Redeem misspent time by industry. Few things are impossible to industry, temperance and skill. Whatever other qualities he may have, be sure of this: the most successful man is the most industrious. The sound of your hammer, says Franklin, at five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the gaming table, or hears your voice at the tavern when you should be at work, he sends for his money next day.

I have been taught
The world is nothing but a mass of means,—
We have but what we make; that every good
Is locked by nature in a granite hand,
Sheer labor must unclench.