ounders, and of men who have laid the world under obligation by great
inventions. Every trade has distinguished names in its history. Some
trades can number, among those who have followed them, philosophers,
poets, men of true genius. I would suggest to the members of this
Association whether a course of lectures, intended to illustrate the
history of the more important trades, and of the great blessings they
have conferred on society, and of the eminent individuals who have
practised them, might not do much to instruct, and, at the same time,
to elevate them. Such a course would carry them far into the past,
would open to them much interesting information, and at the same time
introduce them to men whom they may well make their models. I would go
farther. I should be pleased to see the members of an important trade
setting apart an anniversary for the commemoration of those who have
shed lustre on it by their virtues, their discoveries, their genius.
It is time that honor should be awarded on higher principles than have
governed the judgment of past ages. Surely the inventor of the press,
the discoverer of the compass, the men who have applied the power of
steam to machinery, have brought the human race more largely into their
debt than the bloody race of conquerors, and even than many beneficent
princes. Antiquity exalted into divinities the first cultivators of
wheat and the useful plants, and the first forgers of metals; and we,
in these maturer ages of the world, have still greater names to boast
in the records of useful art. Let their memory be preserved to kindle
a generous emulation in those who have entered into their labors.

Another circumstance, encouraging the hope of progress in the laboring
class, is to be found in the juster views they are beginning to adopt
in regard to the education of their children. On this foundation,
indeed, our hope for all classes must chiefly rest. All are to rise
chiefly by the care bestowed on the young. Not that I would say, as is
sometimes rashly said, that none but the young can improve. I give up
no age as desperate. Men who have lived thirty, or fifty years, are
not to feel as if the door was shut upon them. Every man who thirsts
to become something better has in that desire a pledge that his labor
will not be in vain. None are too old to learn. The world, from our
first to our last hour, is our school, and the whole of life has but
one great purpose,--edu