IvIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. ' 
 
 Received October, i8g4. 
 ^Accessions No.^^^l^*^. Class No. 
 
 % 
 
 II 
 
SJv.OJvrN^<>\^ ^'VV^4j»r\ ^aN\e.-o Vv\-z^^ C.t>\ 
 
 The 
 
 Man of Business, 
 
 Considered in his 
 
 Various Relations. 
 
 By 
 
 James W. Alexander, D.D., 
 John Todd, D.D., 
 William B. Spragiie, D.D., 
 Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., 
 Isaac Ferris, D.D., 
 Jonathan F. Stearns, D.D. 
 
 New- York : 
 Anson D. F. Randolph, 683 Broadway. 
 
 1857. 
 

 ing to Act of Congre 
 .XSON D. r./PvAN 
 
 Entered according to Act of Cofigress, in the year 1856, by 
 
 AXSON D. r./PvANDOLPH, 
 
 In the Clerk's Ofl&ce of the District Court of the United States for 
 
 the Southern District of New- York. 
 
 John A. Gray, Printer and Stereotyper, 
 16 & 18 Jacob St., Fire-Proof Buildings. 
 
<r 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The following Essays have been icritten expressly for 
 this icorJc. They are intended to bear upon a very im- 
 portamt class of the community — a class ichich in this 
 country is constantly increasing. The walks of business 
 become more ramified and extended^ as the luxuries of 
 cimlization and the skill of human inventions become 
 more m^ultiplied and more widely displayed. Every de- 
 scription of commercial^ mechanical^ and executive busi- 
 ness^ excited and created by the new wants and new ima- 
 ginations of advancing society^ will call for the creation 
 and extension of new agencies to accomplish the labors 
 ichich they must demand. Thus the variety and number 
 of business agencies of every kind must spread out in a 
 constant increase. Tlie earnestness of competition and 
 the fertility of invention which characterize the walks of 
 trade will also encroach more and more upon the previous 
 comparative tranquillity of professional life. And men 
 of all descriptions will^ to a great degree^ be transformed 
 into business men. Their temptations^ their principles 
 of action.^ their rules of enterprise^ their responsibilities^ 
 and their peculiar aspects of influence., will become^ to a 
 great degree., the common, aspects of the community of 
 ichich^ in earlier times, they have formed only a part. 
 
IV INTKODUCTION. 
 
 Such a work as the one now prepared for the publisher^ 
 who has assumed the responsibility of issuing this, will 
 be one of general i^iterest and usefulness. It will form 
 an appropriate guide for the young man in his start in 
 life. It will be an useful gift to a business friend in any 
 period of his life of experiment. It loill exercise an in- 
 fluence for tJie benefit of men, only limited by its own 
 adaptation to usefdness ; for the field upon which it 
 enters is boundless, and the persons for whom it is calcu- 
 lated to be a guide and a friend, are innumerable. TJie 
 aalue of this particular book must be tested by the experi- 
 ment of its character. It is fully believed by the pub- 
 lisher to be in an eminent degree adapted to be useful. 
 He thinks that no reflecting person ca7i read the table of 
 contents, and remark the subjects proposed, and the cha- 
 racter of the gentlemen who have severally written upon 
 them at his request, without a thorough conviction of the 
 value of the work, and the likelihood of its usefulness to 
 those for whom it is designed. It is, therefore, with 
 great confidence that he sends it forth, sincerely believing 
 lie is doing a public good in the provisio?i of such a 
 toork for sale, which is far beyond the value of any 
 perso7ial advantage i?i the p>a.rticular line of his own 
 BUSINESS, or his private profit in honorable trade. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 THE MERCHANTS CLERK CHEERED AND COUNSELLED 
 
 James "W. Alexander, D.D. 
 
 MEN OF BUSINESS: THEIR POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND 
 DUTIES, TO THEMSELVES, TO SOCIETY, AND ESPE- 
 CIALLY TO THEIR EMPLOYEES. 
 
 John Todd, D.D. 
 
 III. 
 
 MEN OF BUSINESS: THEIR RESPONSIBILITY IN RESPECT 
 TO GOVERNMENTS, CHURCHES, AND BENEVOLENT IN- 
 STITUTIONS. 
 
 "William B. Sprague, D.D. 
 
 MEN OF BUSINESS: THEIR PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 Stephen H. Tyng, D.D. 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 V. 
 
 MEN OF BUSINESS: THEIR HOME RESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 Isaac Ferris, D.D. 
 
 VI. 
 
 MEN OF BUSINESS: THEIR INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 
 
 Jonathan F. Stearns, D.D. 
 
THE MERCHANT'S CLERK 
 
 CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 
 
 JAMES W. ALF.XANDER, D.D. 
 
THE MERCHAFrS CLERK 
 
 CHEERED AND COUNSELLED, 
 
 Theee is no coming back to correct the errors 
 of youtli; as PLato reports Heraclitus to liave 
 said tliat no man ever bathes twice in the same 
 river : all things are in rapid flow, and what is 
 to be done for character should be done quickly. 
 In our hurrying age boys become men by a sort 
 of start or explosive advance. Impressions upon 
 society must, therefore, be made upon youth, 
 and if we would have good merchants, we must 
 first have good clerks. 
 
 The young men engaged in the commercial 
 houses of this metropolis are innumerable ; the 
 numbers rise by tens of thousands. Hence we 
 are justified in giving a character somewhat local 
 to these remarks, believing that the youth of 
 other cities are not so diverse in nature or situa- 
 tion as that they may not derive benefit from 
 
8 THE merchant's CLERK 
 
 advices calculated for tlie meridian of New- York. 
 Within limits so narrow, mucli can not be said ; 
 but all that is offered proceeds from true sympa- 
 thy and earnest good will. 
 
 Of the countless throng of city clerks, some 
 are living under the parental roof, but the great 
 majority have come from the country. An increas- 
 ing centripetal force bears the youth of rural dis- 
 tricts towards the great emporium. While this 
 infusion of fresh blood into the old veins is use- 
 ful in many ways to the receiving party, it in- 
 volves losses and exposures on the part of those 
 who come. Each of them has left a beloved 
 circle, which, alas ! he has not yet learned to 
 prize, and has entered into a comparatively 
 homeless state. Many a man of business can 
 look back to this juncture, when he sallied into 
 the great world alone ; and he shudders at the 
 pitfalls and precipices which he has escaped. 
 " Well do I remember, even at this distance from 
 the time," says a celebrated writer, "the scene 
 which my own home presented when I finally 
 c[uitted it to embark on life's stormy and danger- 
 ous ocean. My mother, one of the kindest and 
 tenderest that ever bore that dear relationship, 
 unable to sustain the parting, had retired to the 
 garden; my sisters wept; my father walked 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. V) 
 
 silently by me to the edge of tlie town, wliere 
 I was to take horse and ride to meet the coach 
 that was to carry me to London ; while my own 
 heart was almost overwhelmed with emotion, 
 under the idea that I was leaving home to en- 
 counter the anxieties, dangers, and resposibilities 
 of a new and untried course.^ 
 
 There is ground for these solicitudes. This 
 coast is strewed with blackened hulks and 
 gaping timbers, which went out of port all flaunt- 
 ing with pennons. The newly-arrived boy or 
 young man plunges into trouble and danger the 
 hour he sets foot in the city. All is strange and 
 much is saddening ; but he must choke down un- 
 manly griefs, and he knows little of his worst 
 enemies. The single circumstance that parental 
 care is henceforth removed, or made slight by 
 distance, leaves him stripped of armor in a bat- 
 tle-field. Thank God, that many a Joseph has 
 been led through this defenseless pilgrimage. 
 The evil is greater because it is unseen. Yonder 
 praying mother feels it at her aching heart ; but 
 
 * " The Young Man from Home," by the Rev. John Angell James of 
 Birmingham, England. When I name this admirable and affecting 
 little volume, I could wish it were in the hands of every youth who is 
 separated from his parents. Mothers could hardly select a more loving 
 gift for their absent sons, 
 1* 
 
10 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 the foolish boy is exulting in the sense of inde- 
 pendence, and perhaps tempted to try some new 
 pleasure to show that he is his own master. False 
 confidence is the ruin of thousands. The tempt- 
 ations of such a position, especially in a city, are 
 formidable. Most of these derive their main 
 strength from the presence of evil companions ; 
 to this subject, therefore, let us devote a few 
 moments. 
 
 Homely but golden is the old saying of the 
 Spaniard, "Tell me what is your company, and I 
 will tell you what you are." The first company to 
 which a young clerk really attaches himself often 
 fixes his career. This, however, he often falls into 
 at random, or more frequently has not decision of 
 character to cast off when detected. Among 
 many things which render bad company poison- 
 ous, one of the saddest is the extreme difiiculty 
 of getting rid of an insidious villain. In the 
 position which I occupy, I am constantly observ- 
 ing that this or that youth is held down by the 
 weight of evil comrades. To shake them off is 
 a Herculean task ; the ill attachment sticks like 
 the coat of Nessus. Indeed, solitary amendment 
 is often easier than disentangling one's self from 
 corrupting alliance. Has my reader ever known 
 a young man to remain virtuous in vicious 
 
CHEEKED AND COUNSELLED. 11 
 
 society ? Mark here tlie powerful argument for 
 securing good companions. 
 
 Evil company is often elegant, deliglitful, and 
 fascinating ; and inexperience can not escape the 
 coils of the gilded serpent. What is greatly to 
 be deplored is, that associates of this sort do not 
 wait to be sought out, but make the first ad- 
 vances, and not unfrequently lie in wait for the 
 new arrival. Unless the novice is on his guard 
 against these seducers, he will certainly fall. 
 Most deadly is the poison, when evil companions 
 are under the same roof, perhaps at the same 
 table, or even, by a wretched custom, in the 
 same bed. Better be chained to yellow fever 
 or small-pox, than joined to a vicious room-mate. 
 It can not, therefore, be too seriously urged on 
 young men, to beware what boarding-houses 
 they select, as also at what eating-houses, and 
 with what comrades, they take their meals. 
 Nor should this serious matter be left so entirely 
 as is now the case beyond the inspection of ex- 
 perience and age, by the firms which employ 
 numerous unprotected youth. Words are want- 
 ing to express the iniquity of those tradesmen 
 and those parents who deliberately place young 
 men amidst the temptations of taverns, with the 
 sordid hope of thus intercepting customers and 
 decoying them to their venal doors. 
 
12 THE MEKCHANT's CLERK 
 
 As I do not expect to toucli any point wMch 
 is more important, I would seriously demand for 
 it the best consideration of every merchant's 
 clerk who may take these pages into his hand. 
 Young man, I charge you in the name of all you 
 hold dear, in the name of your parents, in the 
 name of Almighty God, to break away from 
 evil companions. Whatever it may cause, of 
 offense or loss, cut the connection. " Enter not 
 into the path of the wicked ; and go not into 
 the way of evil men : avoid it, pass not by it, 
 turn from it and pass away." Pro v. 4 : 14- 
 That is, shun the very haunt or spot where the 
 wretches assemble ! Neglecting this, you will 
 probably, almost certainly, destroy your worldly 
 prospects, will bear the disgraces of those who 
 are even worse than yourselves, will lose your 
 principles of morality and religion, and will run 
 the risk of ruining yourself for time and for 
 eternity ! 
 
 If bad company is thus fatal, how may a 
 young stranger secure that which is good ? 
 Deeply to be lamented is it, that the answer is 
 difficult ; only because commercial society is 
 more eager to secure the gainful services of 
 young men, than to promote their moral wel- 
 fare. The uncorrupted youthful clerk may. 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 18 
 
 liowever, be safely advised tlius : Be cautious at 
 tlie start. Learn tlie character of those around 
 you. Commit yourself slowly. Especially dread 
 those specious persons who push themselves 
 upon you. Call in the aid of older heads. Ad- 
 vise with the wisest of your employers, as to the 
 comrades who may be proper. Make bold to 
 call upon the clergyman, whose ministry you 
 attend, and ask his counsel to a friendless youth ; 
 my word for it, he will neither repel you nor 
 give you any cause to regret the step. Seek 
 associations in church and Sunday-school ; here 
 you will find both companionship and protec- 
 tion. In like manner, inquire for those associa- 
 tions which propose the protection, rescue, 
 instruction, and entertainment of young men. 
 Reject promptly, as you would the foulest and 
 most noisome animal, every companion, however 
 attractive, who speaks impurely, takes God's 
 name in vain, violates the Lord's day, or indulges 
 in intoxicating drinks. Blessed is he who meets 
 with a good associate ! A single example some- 
 times gives color to the whole life. 
 
 Though it is never too late to seek reform, 
 and though every reader should be exhorted to 
 hasten back into the right path, yet honor and 
 success are on the side of him who has not begun 
 
14 THE merchant's CLERK 
 
 wrong. In morals as in business, true prosperity 
 comes from a fair start. The first steps in trade, 
 tlie first iLonrs in a situation, tlirow forward tlieir 
 influence. The ship is built on the model which 
 is first laid down. The plans with which you 
 put on your office-coat, the day you enter your 
 shop, store, counting-room or bank, mark your 
 direction. As the railway-switch is turned, so 
 your track will be. All which is so well known 
 by employers, that they commonly form their 
 judgment of the entering lad before the first 
 week is out ; and find a verdict thus : " John is 
 dull ;" or, " lie is heedless ;" or, " He is awkward 
 — all his fingers are thumbs ;" or, " You see he 
 is an eye-servant ;" or, " He is incurably lazy ;" 
 or, " He has all vices in one, for he lies now, and 
 will smndle hereafter." If it is the end that 
 crowns the undertaking, it is the beginning that 
 gives it form. 
 
 By what possibility can a young man begin 
 business aright, who has no notion what he seeks ? 
 Such, however, is the case of many. Ask young 
 Smith, or Thomson, or Johnson, or Stuart, or 
 Allen, " What have you set before you V and he 
 is dumb. He does not know why he has entered 
 the place. If his views are mercenary, he might 
 return the answer, which is in many a heart, 
 
CHEEEED AND COUNSELLED. 15 
 
 " To make money." But, my beloved, and as yet 
 uncorrupted, young reader, making money is not 
 tlie ultimate object of life. Do not mistake tlie 
 means for tlie end. Money is but a subordinate 
 means. Fix before you some pure and lofty 
 aim, or you will assuredly become one of the 
 grovellers. Let tbis be tbe pleasing of your 
 Creator, Benefactor and Saviour, and, insepara- 
 I )ly from tbis, the realizing of a noble, generous, 
 symmetrical character. Resolve, under God, to 
 seek all the perfection of which your powers are 
 capable ; and go to that desk, or that counter, 
 with a deep purpose never to flinch from a duty, 
 or commit a deliberate fault. Now, if you will 
 lay down this book for three minutes, look 
 steadily at what is proposed, and in reliance on 
 Divine aid, settle your decision accordingly, it 
 will be superfluous to prescribe petty rules for 
 business. 
 
 Parents, employers, and senior associates will 
 inculcate upon you the daily duties of youi* call- 
 ing ; indeed you already know them ; which may 
 show you that the grand desideratum is not by- 
 laws but inward principle. Nevertheless, take 
 kindly a few disinterested counsels from one 
 who is no longer young, but who has " long 
 cherished a warm sympathy mth those who are 
 
16 THE merchant's CLERK 
 
 beginning life. Under tlie general determina- 
 tion to do your duty, beware of early disgusts, 
 wlietlier towards persons or work. All new 
 trials are burdensome ; all beginnings are vexa- 
 tious. He that ascends a ladder must take the 
 lowest round. All who are above were once 
 below. " An two men ride of a horse, one must 
 ride behind." To consider any thing menial, 
 which belongs to the career of training, is to be 
 a fool. The greatest philosophers and the 
 greatest commanders have passed through toils 
 as humble and as galling. These hard rubs are 
 an indispensable part of education, and it is best 
 to have the worst first. Cheer up on cold win- 
 ter mornings, when you blow your fingers as 
 you walk briskly down Broadway, or at late 
 hours of packing, invoicing, or replacing goods. 
 Cheer up at the thought that it will make a 
 man of you. Perhaps you remember Latin 
 enough to quote the words in Virgil, " All this it 
 will be sweet to remember hereafter."* Recall 
 enough of history, to think of what Roman 
 and especially Spartan boys were accustomed to 
 bear. Think of the whaling- voyage ; think of 
 the morning drill at West Point ; think of the 
 
 * Glim raeminisse juvabit 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 17 
 
 ignominy of giving up prospects in life out of a 
 little girlish, disgust. 
 
 Whatever comes of it, put your shoulder to 
 the wheel for a few months ; by that time some 
 of the rough places will have become plain. 
 Wear the yoke gracefully. Every moment of 
 this weariness and trouble will turn out to your 
 lasting profit, especially in regard to character. 
 There are certain things which you will be 
 ashamed to class among hardships. Such are 
 early rising, which you should practise foi* 
 pleasure and longevity, as well as religion ; ex- 
 ercise in the open air, or on your feet; hard 
 work, tending towards knowledge of business ; 
 punctuality, without which you can never at- 
 tain wealth or honor ; and tedious employment 
 in affairs which secure you confidential regard. 
 In all these temptations to discontent, let me 
 venture an observation on life, which I confess it 
 cost me many years to comprehend. Uneasiness 
 in the youthful mind arises from a fallacy that 
 we may express thus : " Work now, but rest and 
 pleasure hereafter." Not merely the clerk, but 
 the millionaire, thus deludes himself: "I will 
 bear these annoyances in view of the refresh- 
 ing and luxurious respite of my hereafter." In 
 opposition to all this, let me declare to you, that 
 
18 
 
 these hours, or days, or years of repose, when 
 the mighty oppressive hand of the giant Busi- 
 ness is let up, will be none the less sweet, for 
 your having taken a genuine satisfaction in your 
 work as you went along. You will not make 
 the journey better, if, like famous pilgrims to 
 Loretto, you put peas in your shoes. Form the 
 
 HABIT OF SEEKnTa PLEASURE IN WORK, HAPPINESS 
 IN" THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. 
 
 The period when the young man is about com- 
 ing of age is very important. Now it is, if ever, 
 that he is most tempted to slip his neck out of the 
 yoke, and most harassed with wishes prompted 
 by false independence. No man can calculate 
 the mercantile disasters arising from the prepos- 
 terous wishes of young men, without experience, 
 ability, connections or capital, to rush into busi- 
 ness for themselves. Wise delay in such cases is 
 promotive of success. The number of principals 
 is far too great in proportion. It is not every 
 man who is formed to be a leader, and some are 
 clearly pointed out for subordinate posts as long 
 as they live. But as these are often the very 
 pei^ons who will be slowest to take the hint, let 
 it be the maxim of all to adventure no sudden 
 changes ; to wait for undeniable indications of 
 duty and discretion ; to attempt nothing of the 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. ID 
 
 sort without the full approval of older heads ; 
 and, above all, to play the man in regard to the 
 unavoidable annoyances of a subaltern place. 
 
 To be successful and happy costs something. 
 Assure yourself, that if you yield to effeminate 
 suggestions, you sink. ISTobly determine, at the 
 hazard of some weariness and some smart, to 
 pass contentedly through the appointed stages, 
 and to become a thorough merchant. Consider 
 how many a man, now great in Wall street, 
 came to town with all his personal effects in one 
 bundle. Away with home-sickness and queru- 
 lous imbecility ! Tear up those whining epistles 
 which you have written home; write rather 
 on your private memorandum, Peeseverance. 
 Quash every disposition to make changes, ex- 
 cept where they tend to moral benefit, or know- 
 ledge of business. "It is ill transplanting a 
 tree which thrives well in the soil." Let the 
 cheerfulness of a contented mind evince itself in 
 deference and submission to those who control 
 your time, and in uniform good-nature and cour- 
 tesy to your companions in business. With such 
 principles and resolutions, and with reliance on 
 Divine Providence, you may boldly hope. Brace 
 your nerves to meet every engagement, and, 
 however poor, you will succeed. Dismiss from 
 
20 THE merchant's clere 
 
 youi" soul all belief in tlie divinity of modern 
 pagans, called Luck, and stake nothing on sud- 
 den windfalls. " In human nature," says Play- 
 fair, " there is no struggle that appears more un- 
 equal at first sight than that of a man without 
 connections or capital, against the man who has 
 both ; yet there is no contest which so constantly 
 terminates in favor of him who appears to have 
 the disadvantage." 
 
 Very delicate is the situation of the young 
 man who is required by an employer to do that 
 which is dishonest or dishonorable. Every thing 
 must be surrendered to the claims of enlight- 
 ened conscience. There are limitations to the 
 individual responsibility of an agent, which can 
 not be expounded here ; but the pure-minded 
 youth will hasten to free himself from engage- 
 ments which involve falsehood, fraud or provo- 
 catives to sin in others, such as intemperance and 
 licentiousness, and desecration of holy time. 
 The higher we go in mercantile ranks, the more 
 we find equivocation and disingenuous finesse to 
 be denounced as short-sighted and obsolete. 
 Yet among the thousands of city merchants, 
 there will be an admixture of those who deal 
 by craft, the " wisdom of weakness," and who 
 exact the like of their dependants. But the 
 
CIIEEREI) AND COUNSELLED. 21 
 
 disguised sharper who orders an honest man's 
 son to utter a lie in his name, to customer, 
 creditor or government, should expect either 
 to be cozened in his turn, or on the spot to be 
 abandoned and posted by the indignant youth 
 whom he would corrupt. 
 
 In a class of persons comprising so many men 
 of honor and men of breeding, as that of Ame- 
 rican merchants, to say nothing of morals and 
 Christianity, it is mortifying to find some who 
 resort to ignoble means of alluring customers. 
 If a young and uncorrupted rustic falls into such 
 hands, I can only advise him to seek speedy 
 deliverance. The entire affair of flash advertise- 
 ments, decoys, runners, and what is known by 
 the slang term, DRUMMiNa, belongs to a system 
 which high-minded commerce has long since 
 outrun ; the system which led Cheapside shop- 
 men to cry to passers by, " What d'ye lack V^ 
 which lingers in the market-place where herb- 
 women twitch your sleeve and laud their wares, 
 and which maybe seen full-blown among Chath- 
 am-street Jews, who wrangle and almost fight 
 for the privilege of investing some stranger with 
 a half-price coat. Not less ignominious is the 
 practice of lurking about hotels to gain the 
 acquaintance of arriving dealers, smirking, and 
 
22 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 bowing, and treating for their good-will, and 
 playing the spaniel at their heels, at oyster- 
 house, concert and opera, in order to divert 
 custom into a desirable channel. What a tax 
 is this to pay for trade ! And how like Shylock 
 must he feel who accustoms himself to such 
 grovelling ! 
 
 " Hath a dog money ? is it possible 
 A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? or 
 Shall I bend low, and in a bondsman's key, 
 With bated breath, and whimpering humbleness, 
 Say this — 
 
 Fair sir, you spit on ms on Wednesday last ; 
 You spurned me such a day ; another time 
 You called me — dog ; and for these courtesies, 
 I'll lend you thus much moneys ?" 
 
 Merchant of Venice^ I. 3. 
 
 From this disagreeable topic let us pass to 
 what some have named the lesser morals ; and 
 among these, as certainly preeminent, the care 
 of HEALTH. Neglects L^ere come back with ven- 
 geance in after life. Let us leave out, at this 
 place, the horrible vices which poison the blood 
 of youth, and send rottenness into the bones. 
 Smaller errors may destroy health. The vari- 
 eties of mercantile life can not all come under 
 the same rule. There is a difference between 
 desk work and street work, between day work 
 
CHEEKED AND COUNSELLED. 23 
 
 and night work, between long and short hours. 
 In general, it is the sin and shame of mammon- 
 serving employers, that they arrange the times 
 and degree of business with little reference to 
 the health and improvement of those whom they 
 employ. Engrave it over your humble mirror, 
 that temperance, cleanliness and exercise will 
 make you hearty and alert. " The three best 
 doctors are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Merry- 
 man." Continual meddling with the animal 
 machine is not the way to promote health. 
 Asking whether this will hurt or that will hurt, 
 generally ends in a state in which every thing 
 shall hurt. When Dr. Johnson's friend Taylor 
 happened to say that he was afraid of emetics, 
 for fear of breaking some small vessels, " Poh !" 
 said the old Doctor, "if you have so many things 
 that will break, you had better break your neck 
 at once, and there's an end on't. You will 
 break no small vessels." And then, says Bos- 
 well, he puffed and blowed with high derision. 
 If a young fellow is regular in his habits and 
 moderate in his food, and if he abstains from 
 tobacco and alcohol, he will probably have 
 cheerfulness and strength. Many of the neural- 
 gias, dyspepsias, palsies and melancholies of 
 later life, arise from the cigars and suppers of 
 
24 THE 3IERCII ant's CLERK 
 
 boylLood, and their consequences. If space were 
 allowed, we might here warn every young man 
 who regards his health, to avoid the hasty mas- 
 tication which prevails at eating-houses ; as 
 likewise we might implore employers, who 
 themselves sit long at their wine, not to abridge 
 the moments allowed their poor clerks for this 
 refection. 
 
 Health is promoted by early rising, cleanli- 
 ness, and temperance. " Cleanliness," as Wesley 
 used to say, " is the next thing to godliness.'' 
 Scrape the surface with a dull knife, and 
 you will learn why it is not enough to wash 
 for the public, cleansing only what is visible. 
 These are not trifles, as the biography of all 
 long-lived men will demonstrate. 
 
 While I am upon these lesser matters, I must 
 be allowed a word or two upon the subject of 
 Dress. The garb, in some sort, expresses what 
 is within. How many an employer has instantly 
 rejected an applicant, because of a meretricious 
 shirt-pin, a flash waistcoat, and a heavy Califor- 
 nian chain across his stomach. Sharpers, gam- 
 blers and foreign adventurers carry the most 
 ostentatious jewelry ; which is the mark not of 
 wealth, and not even of fashion, but of vulgarity 
 and upstart pretension. The most elegant dress 
 
CHEEKED AND COUNSELLED. 25 
 
 is just that wMcli no man can remember after 
 you have left tlie room. Youth need not array 
 itself like age ; but there is a modest reserve 
 Avhich commends even the youthful person. 
 Everywhere a young man loses caste with such 
 as know the world, by dressing beyond his 
 means. The habit of extravagance in apparel 
 leads to undue expense, and is a particularly 
 bad sign in one whose salary is small, and whose 
 parents are poor. A fop is a fool, as truly as a 
 sloven is a savage. On this head I am reminded 
 of what may be called congruity in dress. You 
 shall see a raw young fellow whose extremities 
 do not match any more than Horace's mixed 
 animal. Above, it is winter, below, it is summer ; 
 furs and white trowsers ; no great-coat in snows, 
 and pumps in drenching rains. Chief-Justice 
 Hale used to say, that he formed a judgment of 
 young men from their knowing how to take 
 care of themselves, in dressing suitably to the 
 weather. Attention to one's clothing, in trunks 
 and drawers, at lodgings, belongs also to good 
 husbandry in youth. Let me peep into these 
 repositories, unawares, and I will tell you how 
 far my young master is a person of method, and 
 how far he spares trouble to the toilsome nee- 
 dle-woman, whether sister aunt or mother, who 
 
 2 
 
26 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 has the cliarge of his wardrobe. All these 
 things, especially in one away from home, con- 
 nect themselves with thrift, advancement, and 
 even inward character. 
 
 From dress and ornament, the transition is 
 natural to manners and bearing. The same 
 principles govern both. Nothing but the ex- 
 amples of good society can insure genuine polish 
 in a young man ; but good sense and good taste 
 influence him to choose and follow one example 
 rather than other. The grand fault of Ame- 
 rican young men is pertness. To this, it must 
 be confessed, the airy chat of the counter and 
 the sales-room directly tends. Forward, ill-bred 
 boys take this ease for elegance, when it is only 
 effrontery. Eules can not be laid down on a 
 matter so impalpable ; but two or three maxims 
 will not be denied. Nothing is well-bred which 
 is presuming or devoid of modesty. Quick, loud 
 accost, and utterance of slang terms, designate 
 the pretender. All this glitter is not gold, but 
 pinchbeck. Good manners are not indeed 
 sheepish, but quiet. Undue eagerness, even 
 with a customer, is ungraceful, and misses the 
 mark. Wherever you see a man of accom- 
 plished manners, you find one who treats even 
 the humblest person with respect. Indeed, in 
 
CHEERED AND COUN^SELLED. 27 
 
 no one word is genuine politeness so comprelien- 
 sively summed up, as in Defeeeds'ce. This is to 
 be practised and acquired in hourly intercourse. 
 For wMcIl reason, pray avoid the Tom-Dick-and 
 Harry manner, even with your comrades. Eely 
 upon it, the truest armor against uncivil obtru- 
 sion is courtesy to all around you. 
 
 " The man who hails you Tom or Jack, 
 And proves by thumping on your back 
 
 His sense of your great merit, 
 Is such a friend, that one had need 
 Be very much his friend indeed. 
 
 To pardouj or to bear it."* 
 
 The squads of young roisterers, whom you 
 meet at night in Broadway, by twos or by 
 threes, talking in a voice between boy and man, 
 and very loud lest they should be thought to 
 care for any body, puffing cigars and occasionally 
 dragging one another to drinking-places and 
 bright saloons, are not the persons whose man- 
 ners one would copy ; let it be added, they are 
 not those whose names will hereafter carry 
 weight on 'Change. As a class of men, it must, 
 in justice, be said, that American merchants are 
 remarkable for ease and propriety of demeanor. 
 
 * Cowper. 
 
28 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 As tlie manners, and to a certain extent tlie 
 morals, of every man, are dependent on tlie 
 society wMcli lie keeps, tMs deserves special 
 attention in tlie yonng. It ouglit to be admitted 
 on all hands, tliat young men engaged in mer- 
 chandise need some associations beyond those 
 wMcli occur in business. If by some chance the 
 youth has access to the house of his principal, it 
 is well ; we all know how rare is such a case. 
 One of the worst defects in the present condi- 
 tion of young men in city affairs, is that they 
 are shut out from the genial intercourse of a 
 domestic circle. Human nature cries out foi* 
 such brotherhood. If good companionship 
 is not afforded, there will be a resort to that 
 which is seductive. So far are we from abridg- 
 ing this disposition to spend a portion of spare 
 time in agreeable company, that we would en- 
 join it as a means of improvement. Nowhere is 
 the young man safer than in the houses of his 
 friends. Especially is the company of intelligent 
 and refined women a cordial and a medicine, 
 cheering to the jaded spirits, and preventive of 
 a swarm of vices. The shy and boorish temper 
 which studiously shuns all intercourse, is some- 
 times found allied to moral obliquity. No 
 greater favor can be shown to a youth exiled to 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 29 
 
 city business, than to introduce Mm to a fireside 
 wMcL. lie may freely and often approach. The 
 Good Samaritan was not more merciful than he 
 who descends from his status of wealth or 
 dignity, to take a poor boy by the hand, and 
 lift him over the awkwardness of the strange 
 threshold. It is, moreover, the facility afforded 
 for enlarging such circles of evening enjoyment, 
 which causes us to set a high social value upon 
 church connections, which smooth the young- 
 man's way to liberal and improving friendships. 
 Whatever differences exist between kinds 
 of business, all men need relaxation of soul after 
 the day's work. You may tell them to forego 
 all entertainment ; but you talk against nature ; 
 the thing is impossible. JSTor are those the best 
 men, who never seek to be amused. The field 
 for such entertainment is happily spacious ; but 
 young men of business are not cared for in the 
 arrangements of society. The thing manages 
 itself in rural districts ; but rational recreation 
 must be laboriously sought for in town. And 
 who can expect of the young, to make toilsome 
 circuits to gain a safe pleasure, when gaudy in- 
 dulgence beckons them at every brilliant street- 
 corner? After many years of observation, J 
 declare my sad conviction, that society has yet 
 
30 THE MEECHANT's CLERK 
 
 to reacli a great reform in tlie matter of inno- 
 cent and healthful recreation. The duty of the 
 moral teacher is not completed when he has ex- 
 ercised his censorship over amusements which he 
 pronounces noxious ; it is demanded of him to 
 show some which are benign. The absence of 
 any concerted scheme in our cities, for recrea- 
 tions, scientific, literary, musical or gymnastic, 
 to which, as to the ancient Palaestra, our care- 
 worn youth might resort, is a defect which 
 clamors for supply. 
 
 But in the very degree in which we hold that 
 society is wronging its sons by failing to provide 
 on a large scale, and with inviting accompani- 
 ments, generous pastime and healthful joy, would 
 we sternly charge the young man to resist the 
 temptation to sinful pleasure. It is one of the 
 first dangers of the novice from country life. 
 The earliest of his city evenings sometimes set- 
 tle his fate. The gayly illuminated halls for eat- 
 ing and the haunts of gaming hold out strange 
 colors of delight. The half-intoxicated rustic 
 sees fairy-land in the common saloons of merri- 
 ment. Theatrical amusements exercise a dread- 
 ful fascination. This has been so in all ages. 
 Late hours at places of public amusement con- 
 duct to all the rest ; to drinking, gambling and 
 
CHEERED AND COIHSTSELLED. 31 
 
 unholy love. Under the guidance of some new 
 companion, a veteran in vice, a demon in seduc- 
 tive power, ready to turn the bolts of satire 
 against country prejudices and childish super- 
 stitions, the flexible youth goes, only half-con- 
 senting at first, to have his eyes opened. What 
 can be more hellish than the wish and purpose 
 to debauch the conscience of an innocent boy ! 
 I would gladly persuade every such young per- 
 son to peruse and re-peruse the lessons of the 
 wise man upon a delicate but momentous branch 
 of this subject."^' 
 
 The practice of playing at games of hazard, 
 generally begins without stakes. But the only 
 places where young men in cities can indulge in 
 play, are those which lead directly to gambling 
 in its worst forms. Ceasing to be an amuse- 
 ment, it becomes a passion, a frenzy. It ab- 
 sorbs the thought and scorches the brain. Re- 
 sist the first cast of the die or the card, and 
 turn away from the path of destruction. How 
 many thousands are the instances in which frauds, 
 thefts, and even robberies have had their origin 
 in the wish to obtain money for the gaming-ta- 
 ble. Generally speaking, the merchant's clerk 
 is already ruined, who has become familiar with 
 
 *Pr()V. 7 : G-27. 
 
82 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 those houses of high play, which have been well 
 named hells. 
 
 Can it be necessary to put any intelligent 
 young man upon his guard against those dazzling 
 assemblies, by whatever names disguised, where 
 nocturnal hours are spent in promiscuous danc- 
 ing ? The gauze veil hardly conceals, even from 
 the most unsophisticated, the neighboring lures 
 of the cup and the courtezan. Young man, in 
 regard to a variety of exhibitions and reunions 
 which can not be detailed, ask yourself before 
 you cross the threshold, how you would like to 
 conduct thither a pure and lovely sister. 
 
 Let no youthful reader think my caution over- 
 timorous, when I earnestly whisper in his ear, 
 My son, take care of your evenings. The 
 morality of most young persons in city trade 
 may be judged by the way in which they pass 
 these hours, especially after dark. Happy are 
 those, beyond expression, who have a home, 
 where they can spend these — ^probably the hap- 
 piest hours of life — with the mother, the sisters, 
 and the domestic friends, and who have not 
 taken the fearful step of disliking and shunning 
 this shrine of virtuous love. Happy, in the 
 next degree, are those, who, though among 
 strangers, have found the path to cultivated and 
 
CHEEKED AND COUNSELLED. 83 
 
 Christian circles, uniting relaxation witli pro- 
 gress in knowledge. Happy, also, as connected 
 witL. these, or even in default of these, are sucli 
 as know the charm of books, of libraries, of 
 scientific lectures, of literary gatherings, and of 
 meetings connected with any of the fine arts. 
 Happy, in no common measure, are the followers 
 of true religion, who learn to employ a portion 
 of their time in assemblies of devotion, or oi* 
 fraternal converse and philanthropic effort. But 
 amidst all diversities, one thing remains fixed. IF 
 the evening and night are misspent, the youth is 
 hurrying towards downfall. Almost all the cor- 
 ruption of young mercantile clerks is perpetrat- 
 ed by night. Well may you pray to God to 
 cast a sacred shield of guardianship around these 
 hours of exposure. 
 
 It is the more necessary for the young man in 
 a strange city to be resolute and decided in this 
 matter, because he has to make head against a 
 strong torrent of circumstances. Those who 
 have mastered this tide, and reached success, are 
 too often indifferent about the poor fellows who 
 are still struggling. Again I must say, with much 
 earnestness, the state of society in our cities, is 
 not favorable to the improvement of clerks. In 
 a great number of instances, they may be said 
 
34 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 to be homeless. Their solitary chambers afford 
 no invitations, except to sleep. There is often 
 no cheerful apartment where they can feel them- 
 selves to be welcome. The mansions of their 
 employers are, of course, out of the question. 
 But without are bright streets, and gay com- 
 panions, decorated halls, warm in the wintry 
 night, and resonant of music. How irresistible 
 are these temptations to the minds of such as 
 are not forewarned and protected by sound prin- 
 ciples of morals and religion; and how many 
 hundreds of youth, every year, become corrupted 
 by the nocturnal allurements, so strongly in 
 contrast with their forlorn lodgings ! But great 
 as the temptation is, it must be manfully resisted. 
 The struggle, just at this juncture, is often for 
 life, nay, for more than life. Here at this very 
 point, upon this very question, how one's even- 
 ings shall be spent, the road forks, and bliss or 
 woe are on the right hand or the left. Every 
 unprotected young man should hasten to place 
 himself in connections which may afford motive 
 and means to shun evils so direful. Those, like- 
 wise, who come to wealth and influence, should 
 use all endeavors to introduce new elements 
 into our social state, so that it may no longer be 
 true, that thousands of youth, the hope of com- 
 
CHEEKED AND COUNSELLED. 35 
 
 ing generations, are in this respect aliens and 
 orphans, during the most tempted hours of 
 life. 
 
 'V\Tien we mark the powerful drawing to the 
 night-cellar, the low concert, the ball, the 
 equivocal show, the theatre, the billiard-room 
 and the den of infamy, we are led to rate 
 highly every hopeful or even innocent at- 
 tempt to create counter attractions. At the 
 risk of all sneers, I will maintain that they ought 
 to be multiplied a hundred-fold ; as they ought 
 also to have the countenance, patronage and 
 frequent presence of our established merchants 
 and other men of wealth. Lectures, schools of 
 art, collections of books, of plants, of minerals, 
 of statuary, of painting ; societies for composi- 
 tion, recitation, debate, music, varied entertain- 
 ments ; for whom, I pray, should these be fur- 
 nished, if not for our cherished youth, who are 
 to be the great commercial leaders of a more 
 adventurous age ? Let no labor and expense be 
 thought too great when such objects are at 
 stake ; and let the warmth of general interest 
 in the movement convince the young persons 
 who are primarily concerned, how great are 
 their hazards, and how important the struggle 
 for deliverance. 
 
36 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 Sucli contemplations as these show us the 
 value of early mental discipline. It is cruel to 
 curtail a boy's preliminary schooling, without 
 urgent need. The young man should bless God, 
 if his parents have secured to him a good edu- 
 cation, even in rudiments ; and if he is wise, he 
 will consider every one of these precious attain- 
 ments a foundation to be built upon. True it 
 is, that the city clerk has few hours for study ; 
 but even moments should be husbanded ; and 
 it is wonderful how much odd moments may 
 accomplish. Half the moral downfalls of young 
 men in mercantile houses arise from the want of 
 intellectual excitements. In the absence of these, 
 and to flee from the horrors of ennui, they must 
 run out of doors for animating objects. Nothing 
 is more restless than youth ; nothing more crav- 
 ing of rapid pleasures. But ignorant young 
 men do not know what elevated and exquisite 
 pleasures are to be derived from the pursuit of 
 knowledge. In this view of the case, we set up 
 a great barrier against vice, when we infuse into 
 any opening mind a taste for reading. If con- 
 sidered only as a means of amusement, and as 
 countervailing the seductive objects above men- 
 tioned, books may be ranked among the most 
 valuable aids of mercantile discipline. He who 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 37 
 
 is thorougUy awake to tlie pursuit of knowledge, 
 will be unlikely to roam tke streets with swag- 
 gerers, or to fuddle his wits at drinking-places. 
 On tMs cardinal point of my whole subject, 
 let me crave the attention of the clerk or young- 
 merchant, whose eye may be upon my page. 
 My dear young friend, it is impossible to exag- 
 gerate the importance of what I am now advis- 
 ing. It were little to say, that by mental 
 culture your power and your happiness would 
 be doubled ; say rather you will hve in a new 
 world, and be another man. The young merchant 
 is not expected to become an erudite scholar, 
 or a profound philosopher, though such might 
 be named ; but there is no one who can not 
 acquire knowledge enough to be his great profit 
 and unspeakable dehght. Knowledge is Powei\ 
 says Lord Bacon. Knoivledge is Pleasure^ we 
 may add with equal truth. Say not that such 
 pleasure must be earned by long pain. It is 
 untrue. The early obstacles are only for a mo- 
 ment ; and the subsequent pursuit of knowledge 
 is so purely pleasurable, that I have often paused 
 and sat in amazement at the blindness and folh' 
 of those who, with every opportunity and free 
 invitation, never enter on it. " We shall con- 
 duct you to a hill-side, laborious indeed at the 
 
38 THE MEKCHAin?'s CLEKK 
 
 first ascent ; but else so smooth, so green, so full 
 of goodly prospects and melodious sounds, tliat 
 tlie harp of Orpheus was not more charming."^* 
 The objections which are now rising in your 
 mind are groundless, and would instantly vanish 
 if your desires were right. You say the acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge is a great work. True ; but 
 you are not to do all at once. Step by step, 
 men cross continents. Constant dropping wears 
 away rock. Sands make the mountain, mo- 
 ments make the year. You say you have no 
 time. I wish the over-heated business customs 
 of trade and the cupidity of capitalists, allowed 
 you to have more. But let us look this spectre 
 in the face. There is not one clerk in ten who 
 does not spend some hours in idleness, if not in 
 vice. More may be learned by devoting a few 
 moments daily to reading, than is commonly 
 supposed. Five pages may be read in fifteen 
 minutes ; at which rate one may peruse twenty- 
 six volumes, of two hundred pages each, in a 
 year. See how much might be saved from 
 sleep, from Broadway, and from the theatre 
 You say you have none to guide you. The best 
 scholars and men of science will tell you that by 
 far the most valuable part of their education Is 
 
 * Milton. 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 39 
 
 that wMcli they have given themselves. Vol- 
 umes have been filled with the autobiography 
 of self-taught men. Think of Franklin the 
 printer, of Linnseus the shoe-maker, of John 
 Hunter the cabinet-maker, of Herschel the mu- 
 sician, of Dollond the weaver, of Turner the 
 printer, of Burritt the blacksmith. Love learn- 
 ing, and you will be learned. Where there is a 
 will there will be a way. 
 
 Begin at once ; begin this very evening. Take 
 time by the forelock, and remember that it is 
 only the first step which costs. And, having 
 begun, resolve to learn something every day. 
 Strike the blow, and avoid the weakness of 
 those who spend half of life in thinking what 
 they shall do next. Always have a volume near 
 you, which you may catch up at such odd min- 
 utes as are your own. It is incredible, until 
 trial has been made, how much real knowledge 
 may be acquired in these broken fragments of 
 time, which are like the dust of gold and dia- 
 monds. Your journey will be made lighter and 
 even shorter, if you have a companion ; and be 
 assured that there is no man of real learning 
 who would not take pleasure in lending a help- 
 ing hand to a beginner. You will thank me 
 some day for drawing you away from common 
 
40 THE merchant's CLERK 
 
 pleasures to tlie luxury of books. Lord Brough- 
 am speaks well concerning tke pleasure of 
 study, and its unlikeness to tke low gratifica- 
 tions of sense. " While those hurt the health, 
 debase the understanding, and corrupt the feel- 
 ings, this elevates and refines our nature, teach- 
 ing us to look upon all earthly objects as insig- 
 nificant and below our notice, except the pursuit 
 of knowledge and the cultivation of virtue ; and 
 giving a dignity and importance to the enjoy- 
 ment of life, which the frivolous and grovelhng 
 can not even comprehend." And the late ac- 
 complished Professor Dugald Stewart, in refer- 
 ence even to those who begin late in life, 
 observes to the same effect : "In such men, 
 what an accession is gained by their most refined 
 pleasures! "What enchantments are added to 
 their most ordinary perceptions ! The mind 
 awakening, as if from a trance, to a new exist- 
 ence, becomes habituated to the most interesting 
 aspects of life and of nature ; the intellectual 
 eye is ' purged of its film ;' and things the most 
 familiar and unnoticed disclose charms invisible 
 before. More true than of the pleasures of 
 Vicissitude, are the poet's famous lines, when 
 applied to this case of one awakened to the 
 charm of knowledge : 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 4 1 
 
 " The meanest floweret of the vale, 
 The simplest note that swells the gale, 
 The common sun, the air, the skies, 
 To him are opening Paradise." 
 
 This is no place for unrolling tlie chart of 
 studies. But there are some which seem par- 
 ticularly to invite the notice of one who expects 
 to be a merchant. The command of a correct 
 and easy style is perfectly attainable, and can 
 not in our day be left unsought without great 
 loss and poignant mortification. How little did 
 Abbott Lawrence know that he should become 
 the successful correspondent of princes, or Lord 
 Ashburton that his pen should ever conciliate 
 two continents ? Arithmetic and accounts are 
 so much matters of trade that it seems officious 
 to name them. The history of our own country, 
 besides being delightful to every American, has 
 a particular bearing on business. Add to this 
 so much of the history of trade, and its pro- 
 gress, legislation and restrictions, as may con- 
 duce to the knowledge of public and interna- 
 tional economy. 
 
 As a young merchant finds his trade, his asso- 
 ciates, and his correspondence, bringing him to 
 greater heights and a wider horizon, he will find 
 such questions as these rising before him for an 
 
42 THE meechaistt's cleek 
 
 answer : What gave distinction to the mercliant 
 princes of Italy ? How did commerce come to 
 cross the Alps and glorify the Hai^se Towns ; 
 and what is the mercantile history of those 
 municipalities ? By what means did Flanders 
 and Holland surpass England for a time in 
 manufactures, colonies, and navigation ; and what 
 was the condition of Dutch trade when our city 
 was founded? What is meant by the Act 
 of Navigation, and has it wrought most good or 
 evil to Great Britain ? When was cotton intro- 
 duced into America, and what are the bearings 
 of this staple upon the manufactures, the trade, 
 the wealth, and the mutual peace of England 
 and America ? Each of these, and of such as 
 these, is a proper and most interesting study for 
 the young merchant. Nor will we fail to hint, 
 in passing, at the noble fields of science and ele- 
 gant letters, and the incomparably precious 
 truths of Eeligion. 
 
 Before leaving this great theme, we may ad- 
 duce a most important reason why the young 
 American, especially, should add some mental 
 enlargement and refinement to his strictly mer- 
 cantile education. He does not know but that 
 he may attain the very highest social position 
 which our country affords. There are countries 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 43 
 
 where trade is a disparagement : it is altogether 
 the reverse in America. A young man should 
 be unwilling to grow rich amidst vulgar ignor- 
 ance. He should have forecast to prevent his 
 breaking Priscian's head, amidst the columns 
 and statues of his sumptuous library. He should 
 study a little in youth, so as not in age to be the 
 illiterate foil of a brilliant wife, and the blockish 
 reproach of the lettered notabilities whom he 
 invites. To escape these daily mishaps, great 
 erudition is not indispensable, nor any outlay 
 of time or effort beyond that which an ordinary 
 mercantile youth may command. 
 
 From what has been said concerning the 
 evening entertainments of city youth, something 
 will at once be inferred concerning the value of 
 associations for social ends and mental gratifi- 
 cation. These may be compared to the two 
 fruit-baskets of the Hebrew prophet : " Figs, 
 the good figs, very good ; and the evil, very 
 evil that can not be eaten, they are so evil.' 
 (Jer. 24 : 3.) What they need is the guid- 
 ance and protection of superior minds, the 
 wise patronage of society, and the sustaining 
 and corrective pressure of parental interest. 
 Their plans are too momentous to allow of being 
 separated from the best counsels of benevolent 
 
44 THE MEKCH ant's CLEKK 
 
 and learned men. The clubs wMcli young men 
 get up among themselves not merely are some- 
 times frivolous and fruitless, which is a lesser 
 evil, but often become the arena of wrangling 
 debates, and even degenerate into night brawls 
 and noisy wassail, like the gatherings of second- 
 rate firemen. Here again our caveat against 
 ultra-democracy in the young has place ; inex- 
 perience and temerity should not be left so much 
 to their own disposal. Society at large, espe- 
 cially that governing part of it which comprises 
 our mercantile weight and wealth, should con- 
 sult its own interests enough to cast an eye upon 
 the nocturnal dangers of persons in their em- 
 ploy, and to devise means for mental pleasures 
 which are as true and as necessary a part of 
 general education at the school or the college. 
 As the matter now stands, we would exhort the 
 young man who is away from home to attach 
 himself to some group of friends, who are at 
 once virtuous, well-bred and intelligent, for some 
 stated fellowship in improving exercises. Those 
 who know the world will testify, that it is al- 
 ways dangerous for a young man to have many 
 evenings in which he has to cast about him for 
 something to give entertainment. Among the 
 social pleasures, one of the highest places should 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 45 
 
 be given to Music. Meetings for musical prac- 
 tice, when sternly guarded against convivial ac- 
 companiments and after-pieces, are among the 
 long-rememLered oases in a desert life. We 
 have dwelt much on this subject of evenings 
 and nights, with their enjoyments ; because we 
 know how large a place it has in the thoughts 
 of every clerk, in his hours of freedom from the 
 place of business. The world needs a jog at its 
 elbow, to awaken its consideration of the alli- 
 ance between virtuous entertainment and good 
 morals. 
 
 And now we approach a part of our subject 
 so grave and affecting, that we might well lay 
 down the pen, and ask the guidance of Heaven 
 in behalf of the class whose good we contem- 
 plate. It is that of PRIVATE MORALS. We might 
 rest somewhat on the business side of the ques- 
 tion, if it were not despicable in comparison. 
 For if you look around you in society, you will 
 observe that the cases are very rare in which an 
 openly immoral man is a good merchant. Even 
 minor negligences of an ethical kind, such as 
 frequent gay parties, undue display in furnish- 
 ing, upstart zeal for club-life, and keeping fast 
 horses, are observed to damage a man's credit. 
 
46 THE MERCHANT S CLERK 
 
 But we speak of higlier morals, and refer to a 
 higher principle. The fear of the Lord is the 
 beginning of wisdom. Keligion and morals 
 must not be severed ; for morality is a part of 
 religion, as religion is the source of morality. 
 In a book on practical ethics, the several duties 
 of mercantile life and of young men in business 
 ought to be catalogued ; but within these limits 
 we can only deal with general maxims, exem- 
 plifying these by a most sparing selection of 
 particulars. 
 
 The chief thing is principle. No empirical 
 rules, no imitation, no regard for outside or for 
 gain, can take the place of inward purity and 
 right. Consider what is meant by a young man 
 of principle. He is not so much one who does 
 this and that, or avoids this and that, as one who 
 acts from a heart-spring of perennial conviction 
 as to duty. He is principled by intelligent con- 
 scientiousness. He works by rule. He carries 
 within a little chart and compass of right and 
 wrong. He may err in details, but he follows 
 his conscience ; and when young comrades sug- 
 gest this or that form of doubtful indulgence, 
 he resolves, however gaudy the lure and how- 
 ever disgraceful denial may be in their eyes, to 
 refuse point blank, and to hold his ground with 
 
CHEEKED AND COUNSELLED. 47 
 
 courage, until lie shall have settled the right and 
 wrong of the matter. 
 
 This virtue of courage is a great safeguard of 
 youth, but is sadly wanting in most. Thou- 
 sands of crimes begin in shame or fear about 
 declining a friend's invitation. The novice 
 dreads above all things to be thought " green." 
 The country boy blushes at the charge of rustic 
 innocence. The good man's son is twitted with 
 his " governor," and is asked whether his mother 
 knows that he is out. Imbecility and cowardice 
 are not proof against the assaults of ridicule, and 
 so become an easy prey. " He goeth after her 
 straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or 
 as a fool to the correction of the stocks : till a 
 dart strike through his liver ; as a bird hasteth 
 to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his 
 life." (Prov. 7 : 22, 23.) The only adequate 
 provision against such emergencies is found in 
 perpetual regard for the presence of God, and 
 immovable determination to observe his law. 
 
 Without courage, there will be no truth ; and 
 without truth, no honor and honesty. Nor will 
 there be any of these without reverence for 
 God. To lie, and to swear falsely, are parts of 
 ungodliness ; both exist extensively among un- 
 principled mercantile men. Inward truth is the 
 
48 
 
 beautiful base of the whole commercial column. 
 Abhorrence of falsehood, in all its even tolerated 
 forms, of prevarication, equivocation and eva- 
 sion, should be cherished by the commercial 
 novice concerning himself, as it is universally 
 entertaiu'cd by wise employers in regard to such 
 as apply to them. Whatever fair colors we may 
 put upon them, all the deceits of trade are so 
 many lies, and all the deceivers are liars. The 
 thing is not disinfected of its foetor by its being 
 for custom. Men will draw blood if one gives 
 them the lie, as it is called, who will, neverthe- 
 less, daily utter and act the lie, at the counter 
 or in the street. The foundation must be laid 
 early, and the trial of a boy often involves some- 
 thing akin to martyrdom. !N"o youth is bound, 
 or even allowed, to lie for his employer, or lie 
 for his living, and if the question be, " lie or die," 
 no heroic fellow will doubt which to choose. 
 The same reverence for God will govern ever}' 
 young person of principle, in regard to the more 
 solemn sanctions of the oath. However ignor- 
 ant and loose minds may regard the kissing of 
 a book, in the Custom House or elsewhere, as a 
 mere rite, every oath is an act of worship, an 
 appeal to the heart-searching God as witness, 
 and an implicit imprecation of his judgment in 
 
CHEEllED AND COUNSELLED. 49 
 
 case of untruth. So nearly allied are integrity 
 of word and of deed, tliat tlie common people 
 are not far astray when they say, " He that will 
 lie, will steal," which naturally leads us to the 
 next topic. 
 
 Honesty, in the common meaning of the term, 
 is the cardinal virtue of trade. Integrity in 
 matters of business, namely, justice between 
 buyer and seller, is clearly the bond of union 
 among all who engage in exchange of value for 
 value. To j)ut the matter on the footing of the 
 adage that " Honesty is the best policy," would 
 be looking much too low. Bright honor, in all 
 that regards property, is the dictate of enlight- 
 ened conscience, and is pleasing to God. Prin- 
 ciples of honesty are implanted early, perhaps 
 at an age earlier than the entrance upon the 
 most juvenile business. The community is star- 
 tled when some great sinner absconds, leaving 
 hundreds of widows and orphans beggared by 
 his monstrous frauds. But the flood which has 
 now burst its banks began to trickle many years 
 ago; and close inspection will perhaps show 
 that the princely villain has long been living in 
 breach of other commandments besides the 
 eighth. There was no moral principle. 
 
 So wide a subject can not be discussed in two 
 
 3 
 
50 
 
 pages. We warn, we charge, we beseech the 
 youth who enters a mercantile house, to pray 
 that he may not be led into temptation. You 
 feel safe ; but so have others — so have all felt. 
 The sight and handling of money works changes 
 in the mind. "Where there is chance of appro- 
 priating what is another's, he who does not fear 
 God, will brave the risk of detection. It is not 
 only perilous but destructive, to admit the trea- 
 cherous thought that the pettiness of the crime 
 removes its guilt. Equally delusive and ruinous 
 is the pretext which commonly veils the begin- 
 nings of embezzlement, that what is abstracted 
 shall be replaced. Theft is so odious, that the 
 poor creatures who purloin from their employers, 
 do so under some fairer name than that of steal- 
 ing. Yet such it is, whether by detention of 
 funds, false entries in books, deceptive represen- 
 tations as to value, concealment of errors, or 
 connivance at the petty tricks of others. 
 
 Ingenuous youth ought to be made acquamt- 
 ed with the fact, which we derive from mei-- 
 chants of the highest respectability, that cases 
 of private dishonesty are much more common 
 than appears by any public statement. In banks, 
 in offices, in shops, the unwary young man is led 
 to appropriate what is not his own. Detection 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 51 
 
 follows, but to prevent exposure, lie is quietly 
 dismissed — ^perhaps at some future day to figure 
 in tlie police reports of San Francisco. It is an 
 established fact, familiar to all observers, tliat 
 larcenies, and frauds of this nature, connect 
 themselves, in a majority of instances, with more 
 common and venial faults ; against which the 
 inexperienced should be warned. For example, 
 the straitened clerk, whose parents are poor and 
 whose salary is scanty, has been silly enough to 
 contract debts which he is unable to pay. There 
 is a propagative power in debt, and he finds 
 himself sinking deeper and deeper ; it is one of 
 the great reasons to deter from becoming thus 
 involved. Instead of making a clean breast of 
 it to parent or employer, he abstracts a portion 
 of what is intrusted to his watch, under the self- 
 delusion that it is a loan. Or a young fellow 
 is buckish and vain of his person. He dresses 
 and decorates far beyond his means ; and in an 
 evil hour seeks to supply his necessity from the 
 property under his charge. Or he has been 
 smitten with a passion for the theatre and iU 
 kindred entertainments, and thus is led to th(^ 
 till, the drawer, the sealed letters for the mail. 
 More dreadful yet is the habit of early gam- 
 bling, itself inseparable from dishonesty, and lead- 
 
52 THE MERCHANTS CLEKK 
 
 ing to thousands of small frauds at tlie place of 
 business. These considerations should operate 
 on persons in such posts, as a powerful argument 
 for plainness of dress, temperance in food and 
 drink, and rigid frugality in all expenses. 'No 
 young aspirant for honorable gain can ever ac- 
 quire too intense a horror of the beginnings of 
 dishonesty. 
 
 Dreadful is the case of a young man who finds 
 himself in the clutches of a principal who is 
 dishonest, and who is expected to forward him- 
 self by indirect gains. The victim must either 
 abandon the place, or, what is infinitely worse, 
 become a rogue. The emulation of salesmen, 
 in busy establishments, is stimulated too highly, 
 when youth are laid under inducements to 
 make false representations, to conceal known 
 defects, to shuffle about quality or prices, and by 
 word or sign, to violate the bond of honor. 
 Short-sighted is the policy which leads any to 
 bring up young men on such principles. Yet he 
 must have lived out of the world, who knows 
 not that the frequency of such deceptions, 
 among a certain class, is bewailed by honorable 
 merchants as the opprobrium of their calling. It 
 was this view of the perversion of trade, which 
 led the celebrated Gouverneur Morris to write 
 
CTTEEKKI) AND (H)rNSELLEl). 5o 
 
 thus in his diary in Switzerland : " I think I have 
 observed in this country, that the spirit of com- 
 merce has operated in the cities a depravation 
 of morals, which nothing can cure but that same 
 spirit carried still further." Conformably to 
 this, we observe the contempt with which such 
 methods are habitually scouted by great and 
 established houses. _ 
 
 We should greatly sin against our conscience, [ 
 if we allowed any false delicacy to withhold us 
 from warning our young readers against anothei* 
 class of immoralities. We mean such as are of- 
 fenses against the seventh commandment ; and 
 these as well of thought and imagination, as of 
 word and action. What tongue can tell the hor- 
 rid, loathsome, damning, consequences of youth- 
 ful impurity, w^hether social or secret ! Could 
 our hospitals, with their lazars, or the more se- 
 cluded pining and mental ruin of self-destroying 
 vice, be spread before the tempted, they would 
 shudder and fear. Words of unchastity ; pe- 
 rusal of licentious books, now, alas, common ; in- 
 spection of loose pictures, prints, and exhibi- 
 tions ; and converse on topics which should not 
 l)e named, are working daily havoc among the 
 young. It is melancholy to know that the dan- 
 gers are greatest in our cities. The principles 
 
54 THE merchant's clekk 
 
 of tlie Word of God, deeply fixed in the lieart 
 and conscience, furnish, the only sure protection. 
 At this period of life, temptation will certainly 
 come ; let every young man seek the aids of di- 
 vine grace. For such persons the history of 
 Joseph is a most valuable study, and myriads 
 have been restrained from transgression by re- 
 membering and reit^pl^g his words : " How, 
 then, can I do this great wickedness, and sin 
 against God ?" (Gen. 39 : 9.) 
 
 Allied to these, as carnal pleasures, and pro- 
 vocative of these, are the indulgences which tend 
 to intoxication. There seems to be but one patli 
 of safety to the city youth ; it is that of entire 
 abstinence. No method is so simple, none so 
 effectual. It is amazing that any young man, 
 so long as a single shipwreck from strong drink 
 meets his view, should hesitate to save himself 
 from the peril. Here, again, the night-hours 
 are full of jeopardy. It is madness to allow 
 yourself, even for once, to be led by jolly com- 
 panions, to enter that illuminated house, or drink 
 at that bar. Cry, Avaunt, devil! and pass by. 
 Once entered, you will go again, and again. 
 Thus when you shall have acquired the habit of 
 drinking, you will be possessed, not by one vice, 
 but by the parent of many vices. Summon be- 
 
CHEERED A>fD COUNSELLED. 55 
 
 fore your thoughts the worst and most ghastly 
 drunkards you have ever known, and then con- 
 sider that there is not one of these dewiiiiiacs, 
 who was not once as pure and as fearless as 
 yourself. Keep yourself pure. Contaminate \ 
 not this -blessed period of youth, by making it 
 the avenue to possible crimes. The course of 
 temperance is one which in no event you can ever 
 regret. Above all, set a guard upon appetite 
 and cowardice, at the moment in which you are 
 tempted by convivial and less cautious asso- 
 ciates. And, as you value your prospects for life, 
 and your soul's health, never allow yourself to 
 be caught a second time in the room where 
 there is carousing, or in the street group whicli 
 turns aside into the depositories of liquor. But, 
 as has been already declared, it is beyond our 
 power to stigmatize vices in detail. The great 
 jewel to be prized and watched, is the internal I 
 desire and purpose of doing right. 
 
 So tender is the relation between parent and 
 child, that where it is not religiously observed, 
 there can be no soundness of character. If this 
 is gone, all is gone. I have alluded to the fact 
 that so many young men in city life have left 
 parents in other places ; and I have always felt 
 that it gave increased interest to the class whom 
 
56 THE merchant's clerk 
 
 I address. The first impression on leaving honie 
 is always sorrowful yearning ; but afterwards 
 there comes in many a stage of neglect, if not 
 of indifference. Hence young men should be 
 exhorted to maintain a constant and frequent 
 correspondence, by letter and visits, with the 
 honored and beloved home. These divinely or- 
 dered attachments are among the safeguards of 
 wtue. Think often, young reader, of the anx- 
 iety of those parents on your account ; yet the 
 greatest of these throes are as yet unknown by 
 you. These solicitudes have increased as you 
 have grown older, and reached their summit 
 when you left the threshold of your infancy. If 
 those venerated guardians of your life are truly 
 religious persons, you need nothing from me to 
 inform you what is their chief wish concerning 
 you. The happiness of their declining years is 
 very much committed to your trust, and is 
 every way a generous motive for you to be 
 temperate, honest and successful, that thus you 
 may cherish and shelter their old age, as by a 
 contrary course you may bring down their gray 
 hairs with sorrow to the grave. 
 
 Little does the giddy youth guess the conflicts 
 of the parent, on whom, perhaps, he has but 
 lately drawn for the supplies which he squan- 
 
CHEERED AXU COUNSELLED. 57 
 
 ders. In his boisterous and inexcnsable nights, 
 he thinks not, though it be true, that the aged 
 pair are by the home foeside, projecting for 
 him some innocent joy which he has long out- 
 lived and learned to despise. The son may be 
 deep in drink, in gaming, in loose enjoyment, 
 when that father and that mother are on their 
 knees before God, invoking every blessing on 
 his head, and especially his eternal good. There 
 is many a mother caressing her lovely infant, 
 who, if she could foresee his course of profligacy, 
 would rather behold him dashed to pieces while 
 yet a child, than live to be his own destroyer. 
 May I not use these familiar but affecting con- 
 siderations as urgent motives why, in this your 
 absence from home, you should carry joy to 
 your parents' hearts ? By industry, by frugal- 
 ity, by purity, by religion, realize that prompt- 
 ing which rises within you. "A wise son 
 maketh a glad father ; but a foolish son is the 
 heaviness of his mother." (Pro v. 10 : 1.) Not 
 only let a regard for filial duty, and a fear of 
 adding to parental woe, arm you against the 
 seductions of vice, but continually act as in the 
 presence of those revered counsellors ; remember 
 their precepts, and ask God's aid to requite them 
 for their love. 
 
58 
 
 Thus you perceive I have been almost imper- 
 ceptibly led to touch on Religion, as tlie only 
 certain protection from tbe dangers of the city. 
 It might be set before you as not less truly the 
 cause of worldly happiness. While some dream 
 of fortune, the wise youth will trust in his fa- 
 ther's God. " Acknowledge the Lord in all thy 
 ways, and he will direct thy paths." Take the 
 affectionate counsel of one who is growing old, 
 and forsake not the morning and the evening 
 devotion, nor the perusal of that Bible, the gift, 
 perhaps, of a mother's hand. With equal ear- 
 nestness do I implore you to regard the day of 
 holy rest, and to go regularly to some one stated 
 place of worship. The habit of roving from 
 church to church is common with young men, 
 but is inc6?isistent with genuine devotion and 
 improvement. You will be a gainer for life by 
 entering closely into the associations of some 
 Christian church. It will be your Sunday home ; 
 it will make you the safest friends ; it will give 
 you reputation and credit; it will cultivate 
 social and religious habits ; and it will bring 
 you early into active philanthropic habits, for 
 which the Christian merchants of [N'ew-York 
 remain unsurpassed. If you have erred in this 
 respect, hasten to retrace your steps. Lose no 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 59 
 
 time in securing yourself a place in tlie liouse of 
 worship, and an opportunity of teacMng or of 
 learning in some religious class. In some hour 
 of illness and peril, you may remember what 
 you now read, experiencing the fraternal sup- 
 ports of Christian affection. 
 
 True religion is the perfection of the intel- 
 lectual and moral being. It is a secret thing, 
 but of most public consequences. From its 
 nature, it is suited to every period of life, but 
 peculiarly beautiful in youth. Infinitely re- 
 moved from all grimace, superstition, bigotry 
 and show, it is perfectly compatible with every 
 variety of innocent labor and successful enter- 
 prise. Its maxims, principles, methods and 
 promises, you will find in the Holy Scriptures. 
 But especially will you behold it in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the 
 life ; true religion is the belief of his truth, and 
 the following of his example. In those moments, 
 especially, when in solitary musing you are made 
 to feel the hollowness of earthly things, recog- 
 nize the gentle drawing to a portion which can 
 satisfy, and learn that Wisdom's ways are ways 
 of pleasantness, and all her paths peace. 
 
 I should greatly fail of my purpose, if I left 
 on any youthful mind the impression that reli- 
 
60 THE merchant's CLERK 
 
 gion is merely negative. No, no ! When I con- 
 template the power wielded by the mercantile 
 talent, enterprise, and wealth of New-York, and 
 then see the army of youthful recruits who are 
 pressing forward, I glow with new desire that 
 they may attain a manly, earnest, courageous 
 Christianity. Our best hopes for the Church of 
 the future, under God, is in what we descry of 
 promise in young Christians. Consider what 
 kind of religion is demanded by the period 
 about to dawn. Is not manly earnestness in 
 Christ's cause especially required for the times 
 which are coming upon the earth ? No one 
 who has at all kept abreast of the times, can 
 give a glance into the future, without starting 
 up, roused and expectant, at the probabilities 
 of trying times and near emergencies, which 
 will call for stout hearts and strong hands. 
 The combination of omens during a few years, 
 naturally leads reflective patriots and Christians 
 to search afresh into the prophetic oracles ; and 
 both Providence and the Word teach us to await 
 a period in which a robust Christianity shall 
 have all its nerve brought to the test. This 
 conflict will involve the capital of our extensive 
 commerce and the mighty men of trade. Woe 
 to the young man, who goes up to this battle 
 
CHEERED AND COUNSELLED. 61 
 
 with weak and sickly habit, with slender faith, 
 and with wanino^ love. In exhortation to the 
 whole class, therefore, I would say, Be men, m 
 knowledge, in self-denial, in endurance, in effort, 
 in perseverance, in love. "Whatever contributes 
 to your real piety will add to your strength. 
 No increase of outward act, no pragmatical 
 hurrying from toil to toil, no forwardness, no 
 bustle, will make you powerful for good ; all 
 these may exist in the absence of both purity 
 and benevolence. But devoted attention to the 
 Scriptures, and private prayer, in such hours as 
 even the busy may redeem for this purpose, will 
 do it ; the habit of performing common acts as 
 religious duties, will do it ; communion with a 
 dying Saviour will do it ; the " unction from the 
 Holy One" will do it. Let me leave with you 
 my vehement charge, that you seek a religion 
 higher, broader and deeper than we your 
 counsellors have acquired in our tardy age, or 
 than you observe around you m a world mad- 
 dened by devotion to Mammon. 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS : 
 
 THEIR POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES, 
 TO THEMSELVES, TO SOCIETY, AND 
 
 ESPECIALLY 
 
 TO THEIR EMPLOYEES. 
 
 JOHN TODD, D.D. 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS: 
 
 We have no doubt that had the arrange- 
 ments of Providence, and the whole order and 
 condition of human society, been entirely differ- 
 ent from what it actually is, it would have been 
 Tvise ; not because we can see how it could be, 
 but because we believe that God could not and 
 would not establish any order which would not 
 be wise. If he had so arranged things that 
 every star had shone with equal brightness ; 
 that every mountain had been of equal height ; 
 that every tree had been of equal size; that 
 every flower had been of equal brilliancy ; that 
 every breeze had been of equal strength ; that 
 every human body had been of the same pro- 
 portion, and that every human mind had been 
 of the same powers and faculties, we have no 
 doubt it would have been thus, because 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS 
 
 this was the wisest plan : but because we see it 
 is not so ; tbat no two things are alike and in all 
 respects equal ; that no two waves of the ocean 
 are of just the same height, no two blasts of 
 wind of the same strength, no two sj)ires of grass 
 precisely alike, and inasmuch as we see through 
 all the works of God endless variety combined 
 with perfect unity — ^men of different colors, and 
 forms, and sizes ; of different minds and capaci- 
 ties ; some lofty and some lowly ; some strong and 
 some weak ; some giants and some pigmies ; some 
 rich and some poor ; some active and full of en- 
 ergy and fire, and some timid or sluggish, we 
 have no doubt but this arrangement is the 
 wisest possible. Mutual dependence runs 
 through all the works of our heavenly Father. 
 The dull, gray lichen, that clings to the rock 
 and draws its life from the cold stone, is slowly 
 gnawing that rock into fragments so small that 
 the proud tree of the forest may take it up for 
 nourishment. The planets hang in the heavens 
 and roll in their orbits by mutual dependence, 
 balancing and hanging upon each other. De- 
 stroying one, or changing its position, would 
 change the whole face of the heavens. 
 
 Let it be once settled in the mind that Infi- 
 nite "Wisdom has seen fit to have mutual depend- 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 3 
 
 ence among his creatures, and then we can see 
 why under his government there should be di- 
 versities of gifts — why there should be differ- 
 ent stations and positions in life ; some high and 
 some low ; some honored and some unknown ; 
 some rich and some poor ; some to plan and 
 some to execute ; some to be like large lakes to 
 collect the waters, and some like the pipes to 
 distribute the waters when collected. The wise 
 and the unwise, the strong and the weak, the 
 educated and the neglected, the full and 
 the empty, are all mingled together, and all 
 mutually dependent on one another. The care 
 and toil and anxiety of the parent, and the joy- 
 ous laugh of childhood, and the fresh smile of 
 infancy, are all parts of the happiness to be 
 found in a family. Take any one out, and you 
 take out a golden link. Hush one voice in 
 death, and you bring a shadow over the dwell- 
 ing, which will continue to darken it as long as 
 life remains. 
 
 Instead of doing away with these diversities 
 of gifts, and breaking up the arrangements of 
 Divine Providence, the Gospel comes in to regu- 
 late and guide them, and make them all work 
 in beautiful harmony. There will always be 
 the necessity for laws and rulers, for the differ- 
 
4 jviex of business : 
 
 ent professions, for ricli men and poor men, for 
 teachers and pupils, for men to plan and men 
 to execute, masters and servants ; and tliese dis- 
 tinctions will always exist. Some are fitted in 
 the providence of God, by natural talents, by 
 caj)ital, one or both, to be employers, and some 
 are fitted to be employed. 
 
 In a land where the Grospel has roused up the 
 human mind, educated it universally, and created 
 great industry, there will be great wealth ; and 
 this wealth must be kept moving, changing 
 forms and places and hands. It must find new 
 channels in whictf to flow, new markets to sup- 
 ply, and create new demands where no demand 
 exists. In heathen countries, where the in- 
 tellect sleeps and is uneducated, there is com- 
 paratively little wealth. Macaulay testifies that 
 India, in its dark heathenism, is one of the 
 poorest countries in the world. In our own 
 country the Gospel has from the beginning so 
 far laid its hand upon the nation that it has 
 educated it, awakened the intellect, called forth 
 new and important inventions, created a great 
 amount of wealth, and put every thing in mo- 
 tion. The streams are harnessed and made to 
 draw ; the earth is dug open and made to yield 
 fire, and light, and power for machinery ; a 
 
greater number of tons of merchandise is an- 
 nually moved, tlian by any other nation ; manu- 
 factories of every thing, and machinery for 
 changing the form of every thing, are every 
 where set up. All this goes to create and call 
 out men possessing a peculiar kind of talent, a 
 peculiar natural endowment ; and these consti- 
 tute a distinct and a very important class. I 
 mean what is commonly called the business 
 MEN of the age. It embraces a great variety 
 of occupations and employments. I include in 
 it all who give their time and thoughts to a 
 particular branch of business, inch as bankers, 
 insm^ance companies, merchants of all descriji- 
 tions, ca]3italists, manufacturers, railroad and 
 canal contractors, master mechanics, ship-mas- 
 ters, and all who employ others to manage 
 movable property. Modern cities are built ex- 
 pressly as business-posts; ancient cities were 
 Ijuilt for defense. A modern city is built on a 
 harbor, so as to be easily accessible to the 
 ocean; ancient cities were built on the river, 
 away from the ocean, accessible to fertile lands. 
 Modern cities pay little attention to the ques- 
 tion of defense, and ask no walls ; ancient cities 
 made this the great question. Hence our 
 modern cities are the gathering-points where 
 
 Vkr. 
 
 r»i^- • -tf' 
 
b MEN OF business: 
 
 lousiness men congregate, and are the tunnels 
 througli whicli they pour the creations of hu- 
 man industry. They contain, of course, and 
 naturally, more business men than any other 
 portion of the country. In Boston, as near as 
 I can ascertain — and I suppose that to be a 
 fair specimen of a business city — the business 
 men are about one to fifteen or sixteen of the 
 inhabitants. In our large flourishing country 
 villages, it will be much less — ^probably not 
 more than one business man to fifty of the in- 
 habitants. In our small towns far less still — 
 probably not more than one in an hundred. 
 Strict accuracy on this point, if attainable, is 
 not important. It is plain that they constitute 
 but a small part of the population. And yet 
 they are a most important class, and it is to 
 these business men that I now wish to speak. 
 I have called them an impoetant class of men ; 
 and there are several reasons why I consider 
 them important. 
 
 I. Th6 circulating medium of the world is all 
 in their hands. 
 
 It would be difiicult to know how much 
 money — ^the circulating wealth of the world — 
 is in their hands, or how much changes hands 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 7 
 
 daily. Probably to do the business of New- 
 York, not less tlian ten millions, if not twenty 
 millions, of money changes hands every day — 
 to say nothing about the merchandise bought 
 and sold on credit. This mighty tide is swayed, 
 ebbing and flowing every moment. They have 
 the power to create a panic, to honor or dis- 
 honor a nation, every day. They can give their 
 city and country a good name all over the earth, 
 or they can carry bankruptcy over a wide do- 
 main. There is no earthly power which is felt 
 so quickly or so widely as the power that moves 
 the ciixiulating medium. Half a dozen men in a 
 country bank, though the bank is but a drop in 
 the bucket compared with the real estate in 
 the place, can often control a whole town ; and 
 half a dozen banks in a great city often control 
 the city — ^because they can control the circulat- 
 ing medium. A single manufacturer can throw 
 a gloom, in an hour, over the dwellings of all 
 his workmen. Keady money is ready power ; 
 and the men who have all the money of a nation 
 in their hands, must be an important class. 
 
 II. The?/ are important^ hecause all the mova- 
 hie ivealth is in their hands. 
 
 The ore that comes out of the earth, the coal 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS I 
 
 that follows the ore, the products of all the fac- 
 tories, all the workshops, of all the machinery, 
 of all the agriculture, of all the fisheries — in 
 short, every thing that can be raised from the 
 ocean, from the land, every thing that can be 
 moved on land or on the water, every thing 
 that human ingenuity and sMU and toil can 
 produce, is in the hands of these business men. 
 It may not be theirs, but it is passing through 
 their hands. It is for them to manage. They 
 may have all the machinery that human ingenu- 
 ity can invent, and they may have the best and 
 the largest ships that ever sailed; but they 
 must change the form, and the place, and the 
 value of all the property of the world. There 
 is not a farm in the land, nor an acre of ground, 
 nor a cow, nor a sheep, whose value is not 
 affected by these men. Their honesty, capacity, 
 activity, energy and skill, make a nation pros- 
 perous or otherwise. The beautiful lands of 
 Italy nourish the wild boar, and he can be 
 hunted within two and a half hours' ride from 
 the gates of Rome, and the sunny skies hang 
 over a starving population, because there is no 
 class of business men there — they are neither 
 encouraged nor allowed, and the land is running 
 to poverty and desolation. 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 9 
 
 III. The business men of a nation lia/ve most 
 of the activity of that nation in their hands. 
 
 Most of tliose who are managing and moving 
 all this great amount of property, are men in 
 the morning and vigor of life. Youth can not 
 do it. Age stoops under the burden, and with- 
 draws. The load is too heavy. Your business 
 men must have great bodily vigor, great strength 
 of constitution, incessant application, and untir- 
 ing labor. It is noticed that in a time of inva- 
 sion and war, no men make such soldiers as 
 business men. This is not because they have so 
 much to defend — the retired, timid rich men 
 have the property to defend — ^but it is because 
 they have the habits of activity and energy that 
 make them powerful anywhere. Your man of 
 business, with his pale forehead and anxious 
 look, has often a wiry frame and a body which 
 can evince great endurance, else it had long 
 since broken down. The load is so heavy that 
 multitudes do break down, fail in business, be- 
 cause they first failed in body, then in energy, 
 and then in judgment. ISTo class of men work 
 harder, as a class ; none strive harder to bear 
 up and carry their burdens manfully, than these 
 men ; and often the intellect is taxed to an ex- 
 tent of which few dream. 
 
10 MEN OF business: 
 
 IV. The business men of a nation must have a 
 vast amount of intelligence^ and hence they are 
 an important class. 
 
 We do not pretend that tliese men — eacli one 
 — ^knows mucli, except tlie particular "brancli to 
 wMcb. lie is confined. But let any one go into 
 tlie office where the patterns for a great machine- 
 shop are drawn out of the brain ; let him go 
 through the plottings and calculations necessary 
 to build a railroad or to build one great ship ; 
 let him sit down and study the markets thou- 
 sands of miles off, and calculate whether he can 
 deal with one of each country, and a dozen in all ; 
 let him plan what fabrics will be wanted two 
 years hence in a distant land, and how he can 
 collect materials and manufacture those fabrics ; 
 let him calculate the chances and prospects of 
 war or peace in this and in that part of the 
 earth ; let him study how to improve this ma- 
 chinery, obtain a few more revolutions of a 
 wheel in a minute, how to compete with men 
 who have great capital and skill and facilities ; 
 in a word, let the man whp thinks that the men 
 of business have not a vast amount of intelli- 
 gence, watch them as they roll the wealth of 
 the earth from one quarter to another ; as they 
 change a dreary sand-plain into a great city ; 
 
POSITIOIS', INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 11 
 
 as they make tlie air and tlie water, tlie streams, 
 tlie lakes, tlie forests, tke ocean, tlie winds, and 
 the very lightnings, work in their behalf, and 
 he will see that there is, and must be, a great 
 amount of intelligence in this class of men. I 
 have sometimes felt almost indignant when I 
 have heard the success of men attributed to 
 luck and chance, and the intelligence of this class 
 denied. Their success depends, first, on God, 
 and then on the intelligence, skill, thought, 
 judgment, activity, and labor which they bestow 
 on their business ; and he must be very weak 
 or very jealous who denies a great amount of 
 intelligence to our business men. 
 
 It follows that this class of men have, and 
 must have, a prodigious influence upon human 
 society. They make or unmake a nation. The 
 professional men are few in number, compared 
 with the men of business. They have in their 
 hands but little property. They move but lit- 
 tle. Their influence is of another kind. But 
 upon the men of business hangs the question of 
 plenty or want, activity or stagnation, hope or 
 despair. Men must look to them. Labor looks 
 to them for employment, for direction, and for 
 reward. Poverty looks to them to feed the 
 hungry. Our schools and colleges, and all that 
 
12 MEN OF business: 
 
 pertains to tlie education of tlie nation, tlie ele- 
 vation of the human mind, must look to them 
 for the pecuniary means. The ministry can 
 furnish teachers for the young, but we have not 
 money, and must come to you for that to endow 
 our institutions of education. The ministry 
 must call upon you to build our churches, and 
 support us while we labor for the elevation of 
 society, and the conversion of the soul to Christ. 
 You have the wealth, and we must call upon 
 you to aid us, and to furnish means, while we 
 explore the earth, circulate the Bible, and show 
 you how you may here and there use your 
 means for the best good of men. There is not 
 a college in this land, nor an institution of learn- 
 ing, which has not been created and endowed, 
 directly or indirectly, by men of business. The 
 clergymen, the lawyers, the physicians, as classes, 
 have little wealth. They are exceptions if they 
 have, and must get it, if they have it, aside from 
 their profession. "We labor, cooperate with 
 those who do the business of the earth ; but we 
 must come to them to furnish the means and 
 the appliances of usefulness. A village store 
 has been known to have the circulating wealth, 
 and therefore the power to control the political 
 elections of the village for years. Such a store 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 18 
 
 has been known to do more to demoralize a small 
 town than all other things ; and having all this 
 power and influence, is there any danger of my 
 over-estimating the importance of having our 
 business men understand their position, their 
 influence for good or for evil, upon the great 
 interests of humanity, here and hereafter ? 
 
 It is hardly possible, as it seems to me, to 
 over-estimate the responsibility which the pro- 
 vidence of God has laid upon this class. They 
 owe peculiar duties to themselves, to their 
 families, to those employed by them, to society 
 at large, and to God, the Father of all. And, 
 
 I. They ought to he men of the sternest integ- 
 rity and Iwnesty. 
 
 No young man ought to look forward to a 
 life of business, if he is conscious that it is hard 
 for him to be honest in the smallest matters. 
 If he would defraud his sisters or brothers, if he 
 would take more than his share in a division, if 
 he ever conceals what falls in his way without 
 actually steahng it at the time, he ought never 
 to go into business. When property is passing 
 through your hands continually, when it is so 
 easy to over-charge here and there, to clip a 
 little here and there, to use what is in your 
 hands with the intention of repaying it, you 
 
14 MEN OF BusmEss: 
 
 ought to be very careful to be lionest to a mill. 
 As to tlie plea wMcIl some men make, that it is 
 impossible to do business and be strictly lionest, 
 I must say witli great frankness, I don't believe 
 a word of it. I believe it is just as practicable 
 to be lionest in using property, as it is to use tbe 
 tongue without being profane. I have known 
 men grow old as merchants and as manufactur- 
 ers, who were, I have no doubt, strictly honest. 
 A single fall of a clergyman dishonors all the 
 profession ; and so every dishonest man in busi- 
 ness hurts all his compeers. He tempts othej's 
 to meet him with the same weapons, and to fight 
 him with his own sword. He tempts the whole 
 class to do so, and he tempts the community to 
 look upon the whole class with suspicion. Bu- 
 siness men have the very best opportunity to 
 be dishonest. They can cheat every day of their 
 lives, and nobody can detect them. We are all 
 in their hands, and they may grind the poor, 
 and do injustice to the ignorant and the unsus- 
 pecting, and we have no redress. They can 
 manufacture or adulterate or palm off a poor 
 article for a good one. By silence they can 
 defraud me. How important, then, that in the 
 f(».ar of God they should make it a rule from 
 which they never swerve, that they will be 
 strictly honest in all their dealings ! 
 
POSITIOlSr, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 15 
 
 n. The man of hisiness cmght to he a punctual 
 man, 
 
 '^o man can succeed in business unless he is 
 full up with it as to time. He must be punctual 
 not merely in paying his debts and meeting his 
 notes on the day they become due, but the 
 liabit should run through every thing. He must 
 see that the ship sails on the day and at the 
 hour advertised ; that the goods are boxed and 
 delivered and forwarded, not a week later, but 
 at the very time promised. A delay of a day 
 may disappoint passengers in his ship, or it may 
 detain the goods on their way over a whole 
 season. The habit is transmitted to others, and 
 if you are not punctual and prompt, those under 
 you will not long be so. The manufacturer is 
 careful to bring his help up by the bell ; and 
 the merchant ought to insist upon it that his 
 store be opened and closed at just such a time, 
 bhat every thing sold shall be delivered at once, 
 that bills shall be collected and paid promptly, 
 and that neither he nor his customers shall su '- 
 fer for the want of promptness. The loss of 
 time and property by delay and slackness is in 
 credible. You are, perhaps, building a large 
 factory which has been burned down. You 
 want it covered with slate. You send to the 
 
16 
 
 quarry and inquire if you can liave so many 
 slate, and at what time. They reply, yes, you 
 can have them, and name the day when they 
 shall be forwarded. You go on and put up 
 your frame, and get all your carpenters on 
 hand, but no slate come. You write, but it 
 does not bring them. You send a special mes- 
 senger all the way to the quarry in another 
 State, and he finds, that a fortnight after the 
 time appointed, the slate are not shipped, or 
 even all out of the quarry ! And so you have 
 the loss, and the disappointment, and the vexa- 
 tion, and all because the man who made the 
 promise is not a punctual or a prompt man. 
 There are ten thousand such cases occurring 
 continually ; the loss in property, in time, and 
 in character, is beyond computation. Every 
 man living, who deals with men, has suffered 
 more or less in this way. You might as well 
 deal with a tailor who only basted your coat, 
 as with such a man. Every unpunctual man 
 forfeits his word, disappoints expectation, and 
 brings reproach on his class. It is most grievous 
 when professed Christians are thus slack. The 
 temptation to it is very natural. We are weary, 
 and if we can put off a duty, we hope it will be 
 easier to-morrow. It may demand more of re- 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 17 
 
 solution, more of nerve, more of strengtli, to be 
 always vigilant, always prompt, always active 
 and efficient, but you can not succeed in busi- 
 ness without all tbis. Instead of being surprised 
 that so many, who undertake business, should 
 break down, with the strength, and hope, and 
 courage gone, I am rather surprised that there 
 are not more. I have far more charity for men 
 who fail in business than I used to have before 
 I knew how long and how hard they struggled 
 and staggered under the load, and how they 
 came out of the contest for which they were 
 never fitted, with shattered health, with loss of 
 self-confidence, with hopes that are crushed, and 
 with the future covered with clouds. And pro- 
 bably these cases are far more frequent than 
 they would be were the books kept thoroughly 
 and examined frequently, and the soundings and 
 offings of the ship constantly recorded. The 
 mistake is a great one, for a man to continue in 
 business when he is not its master; when he 
 finds that he lacks qualifications and adaptation 
 to his business, to struggle on, hoping that some 
 brighter day will come, without courage to cut 
 down expenses, or to look truth in the face, 
 A vessel is swamped and wrecked amid the 
 storms of the great ocean, which would have 
 
18 MEN OF business: 
 
 safely crept along tlie shore and coasted from 
 tarbor to harbor. Every one can think of men 
 who are amiable, and who mean well^ but who 
 would be wrecked were they to command a 
 ship in a gale, or grapple with all the difficulties 
 of commerce or of business, at the time when 
 decision, promptness, and fearless energy alone 
 can avail. The proper medium between timid- 
 ity and weak caution, and rash confidence, is 
 the medium which the man of business needs, 
 and parents who are ambitious to have their 
 sons become men of business, can tell at an early 
 age whether they evince those traits of charac- 
 ter so essential to success. 
 
 And here let me say, that the man of business 
 has need of special care in the training of hi^ 
 family. He is under a heavy pressure as to 
 time, and can hardly take time to be economical. 
 He can have but little opportunity to see his 
 own family. He hastens in at meal-time, anx- 
 iously and hastily swallows his food, the care 
 and vexations of his afiairs perhaps clouding his 
 face while in the house. His words are few and 
 short, and, it may be, the irritation which is 
 caused by the unfaithfulness of others, is vented 
 upon his family. His children see that the father 
 has not time to cultivate the social aifections, nor 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 19 
 
 time to attend to economy — ^that lie had rather 
 hand them out ten dollars for a new dress than 
 to stop long enough to advise in regard to one 
 that would not cost half the sum; and hence 
 they infer that economy is a virtue not held in 
 high estimation by the father. It naturally 
 turns what would be love and the refinement 
 of the social affections, into the channel of dress. 
 They see the father handling a great deal of 
 money, and do not realize but it is all his own ; 
 and hence come habits and expenses into the 
 family which the rich only can meet, while he 
 is struggling to manage the capital passing 
 through his hands so as to carry on his business. 
 His family think him rich, when he is poor. 
 They draw upon him under a mistake, and he 
 meets the drafts because he is too much hurried 
 to correct the mistake. His daughters are 
 tempted to want to make up for the desolations 
 of the home caused by the inability of the 
 father to cultivate the heart and the affections, 
 by showy furniture, ostentatious equipage, and 
 extravagant dress. The sons are tempted to feel 
 that while the father drudges early and late, 
 and keeps all his business agoing, they can not 
 fail to be rich, and they may waste time or 
 property, or both. The great temptation of 
 
20 MEN OF business: 
 
 business men, as it seems to me, is tlie attempt 
 to accomplisL. too mucli, to do too much, and 
 thus to more than exhaust their time, their 
 strength, their intellect, and their affections. 
 They want to get over the point of danger, to 
 weather the cape of poverty, and sail into the 
 straits of thrift, too quickly. They can not 
 wait for any thing that moves slowly. They 
 have not time to do justice to their children in 
 their training. Hence it comes to pass, too 
 often, that a business that has become estab- 
 lished and prospered by the great and life-long 
 efforts of the father, instead of being carried on 
 by the sons, passes into the hands of the poor 
 boy who came from the country as a clerk, and 
 the property which was earned by such untiring 
 efforts, is spent before it was fairly owned, and 
 the sons and daughters who, a few years ago, 
 seemed to be on the top of fortune's wheel, are 
 cast down out of sight. It seems to me that 
 the point of failure is in the fact that the man 
 tries to accomplish so much business, so that he 
 must be absent much, be hurrying all over the 
 earth in a chase that has no termination, and in 
 gathering in only that he may scatter still wider ; 
 so that he unconsciously neglects his family, and 
 unintentionally teaches them to despise economy 
 
INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 21 
 
 — ^not because he despises it, but because lie lias 
 not time to teacli them economy. Whereas the 
 children of business men ought to have the best 
 possible training, and then those noble and shin- 
 ing characters which sometimes arise from this 
 class of society, would become common, and, 
 being common, would be great blessings to the 
 world. 
 
 III. Business men should learn the true use 
 of property. 
 
 There are three uses to which money can be 
 put : first, to hoard or use it in business for the 
 sake of its increase ; the second is, to spend it 
 upon ourselves or our families ; and the third 
 is, to use it for the good of our fellow men. 
 Formerly, when the channels for business were 
 few, men were tempted to hoard it, to bury it, 
 or to put it away where it would be safe, and 
 yet be on the increase. The temptation at this 
 day is not so much in that line as to gather it 
 fast and spend it fast. The struggle is to see 
 who will live in the best style, make the most 
 show, excite the most envy, attract the most 
 eyes, and be foremost in the race. Every new 
 house must be costlier and better than the last 
 built, and every returning season, fashion must 
 
22 MEN OF business: 
 
 invent sometliing more costly tlian the season 
 preceding. Hence tlie race is more eager and 
 more costly. And let me say in all sincerity, 
 tliat I do not believe tliere is a people on tlie 
 face of the earth who are so extravagant in their 
 expenditures as the American people. It seems 
 to be in the place of nobility, of old family 
 pride, and of intellectual and moral worth. 
 But I think that our business men are beginning 
 to learn the true use of money. They are begin- 
 ning to understand that he who digs a well, like 
 Jacob, which will gush up with fresh water for 
 ages, has done a good and a great deed ; that 
 he who has used his money to found a school 
 where the little feet of children will gather, 
 and the hum of young voices be heard, ages 
 after he is dead, has done a good and a great act ; 
 that he who founds a professorship in a college 
 will have an educated and a polished mind there 
 instructing young men generations hence ; that 
 he who uses his money to stereotype and pubhsh 
 a good book, has opened a well that will send 
 forth the waters of life as long as time shall be ; 
 that he who provides an asylum for the blind, 
 the deaf, or the deranged, will be ministering 
 directly to alleviate the woes of humanity in all 
 future time ; that he who with his money plants 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 23 
 
 a little churcli among the heathen, or opens a 
 school there, or who circulates the Bible in a 
 new dialect, is opening a fountain never again 
 to dry up. We must have school-houses and 
 school-books ; we must have colleges and semi- 
 naries, libraries and apparatus, and all the appli- 
 ances for educating the human mind ; we must 
 have churches and ministers, and all the moral 
 appliances for educating the conscience and the 
 heart. And to whom has God, in his wisdom 
 and providence, committed the wealth of the 
 earth ? To whom shall we go, when we want 
 the means of alleviating or preventing the woes 
 of the human family ? We can go nowhere 
 else, but to the men who own and who are 
 handling the wealth of the globe. And when 
 these men feel that we call upon them often, 
 and want large sums, too, let them remember 
 that we go to them because they alone have the 
 means ; that it is easier for them to earn money 
 than for any other class — ^indeed, no other class 
 can earn it. It is therefore unquestionably true, 
 that we must and shall bring the wants of our 
 schools, and colleges, and asylums, and semi- 
 naries, and ask these men for the means to make 
 these fountains of good to men. It is also un- 
 doubtedly true that we must depend very much 
 
24 MEN OF business: 
 
 on tliese men for the means of carrying the 
 Gospel to the heathen. We own, too, that the 
 support of the ministry must rest very much on 
 them. They are the financial agents of com- 
 merce, of manufactures, of agriculture, of edu- 
 cation, of occasional and systematic charity. 
 The business of the world and the charities of 
 the world depend on them. They will not 
 deny that their position is that of trustees for 
 humanity, nor must they blink the fact that 
 they are deeply responsible for this trusteeship. 
 May I not say, also, we can scarcely estimate 
 the importance of having the business men of 
 the world a pure, elevated, intelligent class of 
 men ; expansive in their views, honorable in all 
 their transactions, noble and great-hearted in 
 their charities ? It is not the place for a dis- 
 honest man; it is not the place for the small- 
 minded man ; it is not the place for the reck- 
 less man ; it is not the place for the narrow- 
 minded man. Every thing about the man of 
 business should be above-board. In their place, 
 the physicians of a Christian land are a most 
 valuable, important, and indispensable class of 
 men. Our comfort, our life often hangs upon 
 their judgment and skill. But they move in a 
 particular circle, and money is not their instru- 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 25 
 
 ment of usefulness. I can not speak too tigMy 
 of the sacrifice and tlie toil wMcli this profes- 
 sion often makes, not only without reward, but 
 without even the hope of a reward. In their 
 place, the lawyers of a Christian land are not 
 useful merely, but absolutely essential, and a 
 sound, conscientious lawyer is a character not 
 to be admired merely, but a character of 
 great beauty. The profession is an ornament 
 to civilized and Christianized society. They are 
 a moral and intellectual police, and the insurers 
 of Justice between man and man. But their 
 sphere is peculiar, and they can do but one 
 thing. 
 
 While they have, rightly, great influence, 
 money is not the power they wield. As law 
 and justice are the foundations of governments, 
 we naturally look to this profession to make 
 the laws of the nation, and mostly to manage 
 the machinery of government. The money 
 power of the world is committed to one class of 
 men. I have sometimes heard it asserted that 
 it is mere accident and chance that one man 
 makes money while his neighbor can not. But 
 I know better. It is a talent. The Bible calls 
 it a '•'- power P " Thou shalt remember the Lord 
 thy Grod ; for it is he that giveth thee power to 
 
26 me:n- OF business: 
 
 get wealth." A peculiar talent is necessary, just 
 as a peculiar talent is necessary for a profession. 
 Tlie Christian ministry must have a particular 
 talent and a particular call to their position, and 
 the ministry wields a prodigious power, though 
 fewest in number, by far, of all the professions. 
 Their commission is from Christ, and we estimate 
 its importance by his estimation when he gave 
 gifts to men, and by the good they accomplish. 
 But they have not the money power. They 
 live upon what you choose to give them, are 
 honored as you choose to esteem them, and they 
 cheerfully live and die for you. Now is it not 
 clear that God, in his great wisdom, has raised 
 up a class of men, scattered all over the earth, 
 to attend to its financial concerns, and to trans- 
 act the business to be done ? They can not be 
 called a profession, for there is no one branch 
 of knowledge which they profess to know ; but 
 they are a class, and they wield the quickest 
 power which men wield, and one far-reaching. 
 They embrace much, very much, of the talent, 
 the strength of mind, the mechanical skill of the 
 world ; and they have an amount of energy, and 
 living energy, to be found nowhere else. The 
 news, the intelligence communicated, and the 
 comforts and luxuries of life, depend on them. 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 27 
 
 If a scholar invents the telegraph, the business 
 man must carry the wires round the globe ; if a 
 scholar writes a book, the man of business must 
 print it, and see that it is circulated all over the 
 land. If a great thought rises up in the mind 
 of the scholar, the business man must put it in 
 material shape, and send it forth for the use of 
 all. He is the universal architect, creating all 
 the material enjoyments which men have. Let 
 him remember that he has this high position, 
 that he may have resting on him great responsi- 
 bilities. Let him remember that God charges 
 him to beware and " forget not the Lord God, in 
 not keeping his commandments, and his judg- 
 ments, and his statutes, lest when he has eaten 
 and is full, and has builded goodly houses and 
 dwelt therein, and when his herds and his flocks 
 multiply, and his silver and his gold is multi- 
 plied, then his heart be lifted up, and he forget 
 the Lord his God, and say in his heart. My 
 power and the might of my hand hath gotten 
 me this wealth. But let him remember the 
 Lord his God, for it is he that giveth him power 
 to get wealth." 
 
 But in looking at the responsibilities of busi- 
 ness men, in the light of the Gospel — to do 
 good to all men according to their opportunity — 
 
28 MEN OF business: 
 
 there comes up the very important question, 
 What duties do they owe to those whom they 
 employ ? And it must be allowed that the 
 relation between the employer and the em- 
 ployee, is a very important one. The man who 
 has the power to plan and also to execute, is a 
 decided business man. But for the most part, 
 the departments are separated. The man who 
 carries on any business must have others to 
 carry out his plans. He must contrive, others 
 must execute. The general must plan the battle, 
 the soldiers must carry his plan into execution. 
 It is mind using matter ; the brain employing 
 muscle and sinew. It was estimated that the 
 mind of Bonaparte was equal in battle to forty 
 thousand men. The skill and mind of the manu- 
 facturer or the merchant are often worth more 
 than the labor of all whom he employs. He 
 must take the responsibility, and do all the 
 planning. Hence he advertises for liands^ not 
 heads — ^for manual labor, and not mental. 
 
 The imperfection of our state is seen in the 
 fact, that exact justice is impossible among men, 
 however we may desire and intend it. You 
 may employ twenty men to work for you, and 
 when you pay them all an equal sum, you are 
 sure that some have earned more than others. 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 29 
 
 and their labor was worth more. But the risk 
 of their being good or bad workmen you 
 assumed when you hired them. 
 
 Now, were the thing possible^ strict justice 
 would require something like the following: 
 We will suppose you are proposing to erect a 
 factory, which is to employ say one hundred 
 men. Could it be done, let the hundred men 
 put in an equal amount of money, of skill, of 
 labor, and then equally share the profits or the 
 losses. But the trouble is, when you assemble 
 the hundred men, it is found that ninety-nine 
 have no capital to put in. They are poor, and 
 can only put in their labor. But here is another 
 difficulty : they are poor, and can not wait 
 through the year for the dividends — ^they must 
 live from day to day. And another difficulty 
 still : there will be some years when there is no 
 dividend to be made — ^when the factory must 
 run, possibly, at a loss, and the ninety and nine 
 are now in distress. So that it is wholly imprac- 
 ticable to form such a partnership. The same 
 is true of the merchant, the shipper, and of all 
 kinds of business. But among the hundred men 
 assembled, there is found one who has uncom- 
 mon energy, a balanced, calculating head, un- 
 tiring perseverance, and capital in addition. 
 
•^>0 MEN OF business: 
 
 He now proj)oses to build a factory, furnish the 
 capital, manage the whole concern, run all the 
 risks, pocket all the gains or losses. The ninety 
 and nine shall be spared all this ; and instead 
 of dividing the loss and gain with them, he 
 proposes to give them so much wages, pay them 
 ^veekly or monthly, and make these wages sure. 
 Whether the concern is making or losing, they 
 run no risks. It seems plain to me that this is 
 the foundation, or, as we say, the philosophy of 
 the relation of the employer and the employee. 
 It is a state growing out of the unequal condi- 
 tion of things in this world. It brings the two 
 parties together, mutually dependent on each 
 other, and creating reciprocal duties and obliga- 
 tions. It is a state of things under the wise 
 appointment of our heavenly Father. Many 
 schemes have been formed to make the condi- 
 tion of all equal ; and there have been societies 
 formed and organizations instituted, designed 
 expressly to do away with the relation of master 
 and servant, employer and employee. Vain 
 attempt ! The experiments are all failures. 
 Complaints are often loud that the employer is 
 unmerciful ; that he makes the poor seamstress 
 sew a whole shirt for a few cents, when he ought 
 to pay so many shillings. You forget that it is 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 31 
 
 not the employer who regulates the price, but 
 it is, that the number of poor females who crowd 
 into the city is so great, and the demand for 
 employment so urgent, that they fix the price. 
 Let three fourths of these starving women go 
 into the country, where there is food enough and 
 work enough, and the price of making a shirt 
 would soon go uj). It would be the same thing 
 to the employer. He had as lief pay a high 
 price as a low one, provided others had to do 
 so. He has only to charge higher for his shirt 
 when sold. It is the number of people that 
 want employment that fixes the price of labor. 
 If twenty will work for A at low wages rather 
 than not have employment, it is plain that B 
 can not afford to pay more ; and the employer 
 is sometimes blamed severely, because, as it is 
 said, he cuts wages down so low, when in fact 
 it is the number who want employment who 
 regulate the wages. 
 
 In all countries, the majority of those who do ^ 
 the manual labor are poor. They live on their 
 present income. They are often deficient in ex- 
 perience, in skill, in mental endowments, in self- 
 reliance, in energy, in capital, and, in a word, 
 they have no business capacity. It may not be 
 their fault. It may be the want of education 
 
32 MEN OF business: 
 
 and early training. It may be tlie combination 
 of circumstances wMch they could not resist or 
 break tlirougb. It may be plainly the leadings 
 and dealings of Providence that has made them 
 what they are, as it is his dealings and leadings 
 that make the employer what he is. The same 
 wisdom that gives the different color and shape 
 and value to the tree or to the plants that 
 grow in the field, has caused this diversity in 
 the capacity and allotments of men. 
 
 The great fact should be borne in mind, that 
 the dependence between the employer and the 
 employed is mutual. If the one is dependent on 
 ihe other for daily bread, for prompt and fre- 
 quent payments, he is equally dependent on their 
 industry, their faithfulness, for the advancement 
 of his plans and his prosperity. It is very plain, 
 from the bare statement of the relation, that it 
 is the duty of the employer to pay his workmen 
 frequently and promptly. In Bible times, before 
 factories and commerce had become known, and 
 when labor was mostly confined to agriculture, 
 we are especially instructed that " the hire of 
 the laborers who have reaped down your fields, 
 which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; 
 and the cries of them which have reaped are 
 entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." 
 
POSITION, INFLUEKCE, AND DUTIES. 33 
 
 A poor man stands none too good a chance of 
 getting tlie best article, even if lie lias the 
 money in his hand ; and if he has to buy on 
 credit, he must pay dear indeed. It is not the 
 rich who eat the poorest flour, the poorest meat, 
 or fish. The riches of the wealthy are his cas- 
 tle, and none dare attack the castle. The poor 
 man has no such castle. The skill and shrewd- 
 ness which enable the rich man to gain his 
 property, will prevent his being cheated in his 
 daily purchases. The poor man may have no 
 such shrewdness ; and if you take away his 
 power of paying ready money, you have proba- 
 bly enhanced his expenses equal to taking off 
 fifteen per cent, of his wages. I am afraid that 
 employers do not always realize how much sor- 
 row and even misery often grow out of their 
 neglecting to pay the poor laborer as soon as 
 his work is done. It is simple justice to do this, 
 and if you do it at a personal inconvenience, it 
 probably will be far less than that which you 
 make him feel if you do not. The laborer may 
 have a family at home who are suffering for 
 food, or for clothing, or for medicine. He may 
 have sickness and sorrowing hearts there, whose 
 woes will be increased if the head of the family 
 can not bring home his honest earnings. It 
 
34 MEN OF business: 
 
 may not be this man or tliat man, but among 
 fifty workmen probably some one or more will 
 be in this condition. The employer may go to 
 his full home, where want is unknown, and for- 
 get all this ; but a great injustice is inflicted if 
 he does so. 
 
 We are aware that the duties owed to the 
 employees are dependent somewhat upon the 
 business done ; that the duties towards clerks 
 and apprentices, day-laborers, operatives in the 
 factory, and sailors on the ocean, are different, 
 and that the variety of position is almost end- 
 less, and therefore it is that there is so much 
 need of having the conscience enlightened and 
 awake on this subject. A large class of young 
 men are clerks and apprentices — ^inferior to the 
 master, it may be, only in age, experience and 
 capital. They may have, and, as a class, must 
 have, the elements of strong men in them. They 
 are soon to be the business men of the age ; and 
 their treatment and training ought to be such 
 that they may be led into paths of industry, 
 knowledge, virtue, and religion. The difference 
 between training up an honest and a dishonest 
 man, a good character and a bad one, is im- 
 mense. These young men are taken from their 
 homes and placed under your care, to train 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 35 
 
 them, to form their characters, and to make 
 them men. They are followed by the anxieties, 
 the tears, and the prayers of their parents and 
 friends. To see that they serve you during the 
 hours of business punctually, and to pay them 
 their small stipend, is not enough. These young 
 men are exposed to temptations, to bad asso- 
 ciates, to extravagance, and, as a consequence, 
 to dishonesty. They walk over pitfalls contin- 
 ually. How easy to teach them to be dishonest, 
 slippery, tricky, and untruthful ! " Why did 
 not the lady who has just left the shop take 
 those goods V said a Boston merchant to his 
 clerk, a few years ago. " Because, sir, she 
 wanted Middlesex cloths." " And why did you 
 not show her the next pile, and call them Mid- 
 dlesex V " Because, sir, I knew they were not 
 Middlesex." " Young man ! if you are so par- 
 ticular, and can't bend a little to circum- 
 stances, you will never do for me." " Very well, 
 sir ; if I must tell falsehoods in order to keej) 
 my place, I must lose it, though I know not 
 where to go or what to do." He took his hat 
 and coat, and left ; and this took place in the 
 presence of all the clerks. The rest now knew 
 the conditions were, that they must lie whenever 
 their employer could gain a sixpence by it. Is 
 
36 MEN OF business: 
 
 such, a man a safe man to form future merchants ? 
 And is lie a solitary exception, or is lie the 
 representative of a large class ? That young 
 man, thus summarily dismissed, is now one of the 
 first merchants in the West, one of the first men 
 in his region, and one of the most useful men in 
 all that vicinity. If a man teaches his clerk or 
 apprentice that he may lie for his convenience, 
 the young man will soon learn to do it for his 
 own. If he is trained up to be a deceiver and 
 a sharper, he will be oi^e as long as he lives. 
 Perhaps one of the most difficult positions, as to 
 duty, is occupied by the man who has a large 
 number of young men in his employment. He 
 can shape their character and destiny for this 
 world and the next. To instruct them how to 
 handle goods or tools, how to judge of qualities, 
 liow to keep accounts, is not enough. There is 
 a great deal to be done to keep them from 
 temptation. The places where young men are 
 poisoned and ruined are, the theatre, the oyster 
 saloon, the livery stable, the nine-pine alley, the 
 drinking club, and the violation of the Sabbath. 
 Any one of these will most assuredly ruin the 
 young man. The expense is such that he must 
 be dishonest and rob his employer, or he must 
 over-charge and rob his customers — sometimes 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 37 
 
 both. Then lie associates with those who are 
 adroit teachers in the ways of sin. How to 
 prevent young men from going to these places 
 of temptation, is a great question. I have known 
 more than one firm require each young man, on 
 entering their employment, to give a written 
 pledge that he would use no strong drinks, that 
 he would never visit an oyster shop, nor the 
 ten-pin alley, nor the theatre, nor the livery 
 stable, on the Sabbath, and that he would 
 attend church twice on the Sabbath. These 
 conditions were imperative, and instant dismis- 
 sion followed their violation. And after careful 
 observation, I can testify that these firms never 
 had any difficulty in obtaining as many young 
 men as they wanted ; that these rules were almost 
 uniformly observed, but that when a young man 
 violated them and broke his promise, and was 
 dismissed, he uniformly turned out badly. If 
 there is not moral character enough in a young 
 man to submit to such requirements cheerfully, 
 there is not enough to build upon and make a 
 valuable character. While I would make such 
 requirements absolute, and hold the young man 
 firmly to his promise, I would do more. I would 
 pay him a premium for excellence. I know of 
 one firm who pay their employees punctually 
 
38 MEN OF BUSINESS : 
 
 the stipulated wages, and at tlie end of tlie year 
 give premiums to those who have cheerfully 
 done their best, from $25 to $50 each ; and 
 they tell me the case is very rare in which they 
 do not pay the premium and are gainers by it. 
 The few hundred dollars thus spent are more 
 than saved in making the young men careful, 
 saving, prompt, and vigilant. All men are dis- 
 couraged by hearing only orders, complaints, 
 and corrections. They want approbation, appre- 
 ciation of what they do, and reward in some 
 shape or other. Do we not all recall times 
 when an encouraging word or a few remarks of 
 approbation have cheered us and encouraged us 
 to do well in future ? The stern commander of 
 a war-ship, who never speaks but to find faulty 
 is feared and detested ; while he who at times 
 expresses approbation, and says that this or that 
 is done just as he likes, will have a thousand 
 opportunities afforded him when he can thus 
 express approbation. 
 
 I can not deny myself the pleasure of men- 
 tioning here what I may call a model village. 
 It was a wild spot where three brothers com- 
 menced a small mechanical manufactory. It 
 was far one side, and out of the way. From the 
 first, they made it a condition with their work- 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 89 
 
 men, that they should attend church every Sal> 
 bath ; that they should lay up a part of their 
 wages ; that they should use no strong drinks, 
 and the like. They have now between three and 
 four hundred men in their employment, most of 
 whom have families; for when a workman 
 wished to build himself a house, he was aided 
 and encouraged to gain and own it in fee simple. 
 The firm have established a reading-room for 
 their workmen, at an expense of about $400 
 annually ; have built and support a high school, 
 at a still larger outlay. The result is, that many 
 of their workmen have been with them for 
 years — some for thirty years ; they are owners 
 of property ; they are intelligent — one of the 
 most appreciating audiences I ever had the 
 honor of addressing ; and for a model village, I 
 do not know its equal on the face of the earth. 
 We may say that here was a peculiar opportu- 
 nity to set out right and to keep things right : 
 and so there was, but it was rightly improved ; 
 and many a village has been started and grown 
 up in similar circumstances, where now the Sab- 
 bath is desecrated ; where few go to church ; 
 where spirit-shops are abounding ; where there 
 are poor, dilapidated, and decaying houses, and 
 where the marks of ruin are visible on many a 
 
40 MEN OF business: 
 
 human habitation. If the employers through 
 the land, and through the world, felt equal re- 
 sponsibility for their employees, and as judi- 
 ciously set themselves to aid them, the whole 
 face of the world would be changed within 
 thirty years. The forging, the purloining of 
 money, the breaking open of letters, the petty 
 thefts of men while young, and their stupendous 
 frauds when older in years, which now ring and 
 echo all over the earth, would be unknown. No 
 employer has a right to the time and strength 
 of his men, without feeling that he owes them 
 the sympathy of benevolence. He owes them 
 advice. They will hear to him as to no other 
 person living. His experience will be invaluable 
 to those who have no experience on which they 
 can rely. Some of our large merchants, who 
 have many clerks, are purchasing libraries to 
 be at the service of these, and thus save them 
 from the temptations of being out in the evening. 
 And the benevolent heart will find a thousand 
 ways of winning those whom it employs to the 
 side of sobriety and virtue. You can provide 
 seats in the house of God on the Sabbath, allow- 
 ing each one to select his own church, of course, 
 and then see that these seats are occupied. You 
 can see that one or more religious, as well as 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 41 
 
 political papers, come regularly for their use. 
 You can see that eacli one in your employment 
 has the word of God — ^that treasury of instruc- 
 tion which will show every young man where- 
 with he may cleanse his ways. If you will care- 
 fully read over the fourth commandment, you 
 will see that those whom you employ are under 
 your own charge, and you have the command 
 of God that you shall see to it that they keep 
 holy the Sabbath day. They stand in the reh;- 
 tion of children to you, in many respects, and 
 you are to see that they externally honor the 
 Sabbath. The modern exaggerated notions of 
 toleration and the sacred rights of conscience, 
 have nothing to do with a duty which God has 
 settled. I do not ask, nor will you, that those 
 whom you employ shall attend worship where 
 you do ; but if you will raise up men who are 
 worthy to take your place when you are off the 
 stage, if you will raise the character of even the 
 lowest, and create in him self-respect, you must 
 insist upon it that he shall honor the Sabbath. 
 
 When you have men under you whose char- 
 acters are formed, who have grown into the 
 station they occupy, and can never rise above 
 it, you can do a great deal of good by taking ar» 
 interest in their concerns, and advising with 
 
42 MEN OF BUSINESS '. 
 
 tliem and for them. I once knew a poor man 
 wlio lived in a cold liouse and nsed more than 
 a cord of green wood a week, on an average, tlie 
 year round, in t?ymg to keep comfortable. He 
 felt too poor to buy a stove. By great urging 
 and long demonstration, I induced Mm to sell 
 twenty cords of his green wood, and buy a cook- 
 ing-stove, and then to get up twenty cords more 
 in time to have it become seasoned. His amaze- 
 ment was great on finding that twenty cords of 
 dry wood, with his stove, made his family more 
 comfortable than the sixty cords did in the old 
 way, and he looked upon me as almost a con- 
 jurer. You can give that advice about their 
 procuring a home, about their purchases, about 
 the schooling of their children, about the em- 
 ployment of their children, which will be of very 
 great service to them. It is impossible, of course, 
 for one who has had little or no personal experi- 
 ence in the thing for which I am pleading, to be 
 very definite ; but all know that the clerks of 
 some houses, and the apprentices of some mas- 
 ter mechanics, turn out well, and make valuable 
 men, while those from other masters turn out 
 poorly. All know that the dwelling-houses 
 around some factories look bare, filthy, desolate, 
 and repulsive ; those of others are neat, clean, 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 48 
 
 inviting, and clieerful. All know tliat tlie em- 
 ployees of some establishments spend the Sab- 
 bath in fishing and hunting, in roaming and 
 drinking ; that those of others are sober, well- 
 dressed, well-regulated families, who go regu- 
 larly to the house of God ; that while some men 
 feel no responsibility about those whom they 
 employ — ^as if they had done all their duty when 
 they had paid them the sum agreed upon, and 
 had seen that they do their work — ^there are 
 others who take a kind of benevolent and 
 Christian interest in those whom they employ. 
 The clerks and the apprentices are sometimes 
 invited to the parlor and the table of the em- 
 ployer, and the lady shows that she deserves the 
 title, by noticing, encouraging, and honoring 
 those whose interests are committed to her hus- 
 band. These clerks and apprentices will, in a 
 few years, most likely, occupy positions as high 
 as yours ; and the children of the man who now 
 works in your factory may, by-and-by, be among 
 the lawyers and judges of the land. We should 
 make the impression on all, that labor is honor- 
 able, and that he who cJieerfully plunges into 
 labor and sustains his part well, is deserving of 
 high respect. All the distinctions in our country 
 are but for a day. Those who are at the head of 
 
44 MEN OF BUSINESS : 
 
 society to-day may be at the foot in a few years ; 
 and those who are low now, may, in their child- 
 ren, be greatly exalted. I am not pleading for- 
 equality, but for the rights of humanity, and for 
 something higher than these temporary distinc- 
 tions ; that the welfare of men committed to 
 your care, in God's providence, is a sacred trust, 
 and one of the ways in which you can do good. 
 The great thing which, in this country, places a 
 man in the position of influence and at the head 
 of his calling, is moral worth and talents. In 
 business, it is what we call a business tact, includ- 
 ing sound judgment, firm self-reliance, prompt 
 decision, and dispatch. These qualities depend 
 partly on bodily organization, education, and 
 mental endowments. They are the gift of God, 
 and these are a trust to be used for him to the 
 benefit of your fellow men. The great mass of 
 society have not these gifts. Now, if with your 
 energy, and skill, and industry, you acquire pro- 
 perty, and do a large amount of business, and 
 thus call around you a large number of men to 
 aid you, I want to impress it upon you that these 
 men are put under your care, not that you may 
 oppress them, not that you may make them pro- 
 fitable to you and aid to roll up an estate, and 
 thus every day put a greater and a greater dif- 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 45 
 
 ference between you and them, but tliat you 
 may guide them, assist them, and bless them. 
 You must often bear with them. They are un- 
 educated, perhaps. They do not see why one 
 should be rich and ninety-nine poor, perhaps. 
 They wonder why their income should not be 
 as great as yours, perhaps. You must bear with 
 them. I do rejoice to say that men of capital 
 and men of business are beginning to look at 
 this subject aright. There are many ships in 
 which the sailor is taken up from the horrid 
 forecastle, and put in comfortable quarters on 
 deck, where he can have air to breathe. Some 
 ships have been built, and as many poor men 
 allowed to take shares as they cost hundreds of 
 dollars to build and fit them out. Many manu- 
 facturers have put up beautiful tenements for 
 their workmen, planted their grounds with trees, 
 and in some instances set off a little garden to 
 each family. Many have established Sabbath- 
 schools, and sometimes day schools, for their 
 workmen's children. As to profit and loss, 
 mere dollars and cents, I have no doubt that 
 any employer who tries to aid, encourage, guide, 
 and care for the people thus committed to him, 
 will, in the long run, be decidedly the gainer. 
 A railroad contractor told me that in building 
 
46 MEN OF business: 
 
 a road at tlie South, lie had to hire slaves. 
 When his hands were assembled, he went to 
 them, and in a short speech informed them that 
 he had hired them of their masters ; that he 
 intended to give them good food and enough of 
 it, and that at every Saturday night he should 
 pay one dollar extra to each man who had been 
 true and faithful, for his own private use. As 
 a result, he said, he never had a corps of men 
 work riiore cheerfully or do better, and that the 
 hundred dollars which he thus weekly paid out 
 was a most profitable investment. 
 
 I would suggest, too, that the employer would 
 do well, when he finds a faithful man, to hold 
 out inducements to him to become permanent. 
 Encourage him to get a home of his own. Show 
 him how he may save a part of his wages, and 
 thus pay for it in time. A changing population 
 must be poor, and continue poor ; and the ope- 
 ratives in factories who roll round from place to 
 place, must be thriftless, poor, and sunken in 
 hope and courage. 
 
 Let but the heart of the employer go out in 
 benevolence, and feel the responsibility, and 
 there will be a thousand ways discovered by 
 which he can do good to those who toil for him. 
 When a man places his child in a school, he feels 
 
47 
 
 that he has committed that child to the teacher, 
 and that he is to do more than to hear the recita- 
 tions and see that the hours of study are duly 
 observed — he is to have the training of the 
 whole character of that child. So when a parent 
 commits his son to you to educate him as a 
 merchant or a mechanic, it is the school to 
 which he sends him, and you are accountable 
 for the whole moral training of the youth. It 
 is a different training from the college, but it is 
 training — a school, and you are the teacher. 
 Will it do, then, to say, that if you see that he 
 works during working hours^ and is instructed 
 how to work, that is all you are accountable for, 
 and you have no responsibility as to where he 
 spends the Sabbath or his evenings, as to what 
 company he keeps, and what influences are 
 shaping his destiny ? How bitterly through 
 life, and perhaps to eternity, many have 
 mourned their want of care in their early 
 youth ! 
 
 I do not feel that the sin of the employer in 
 this country is, that you do not pay your work- 
 men good wages, as a general thing, nor that 
 you neglect to pay them punctually ; but the 
 great defect is, want of sympathy, want of kind- 
 ness. The proud heart rebels at the decree of 
 
48 MisN OF business: 
 
 God which, places it in an inferior position. It 
 chafes under poverty. It magnifies its trials, 
 and forgets its mercies. It envies what is above 
 it, and wants to quarrel with the man who fur- 
 nishes employment. It complains much and 
 often, and wants to complain more than it does. 
 ISTothing but kindness and sympathy can cause 
 t to feel contented, without the grace of God 
 /n the heart. I shall be told, perhaps, that the 
 trials of the employed are imaginary, and that 
 the youth who is turning morose, and feels that 
 he shall never forget his present hard lot, has 
 no reason for all this. Very likely it is so. But 
 if you can, by kindness and sympathy, prevent 
 his becoming soured in temper and spoiled for 
 life, prevent his laying up this and that to think 
 over in future days, it is better far to show that 
 kindness and sympathy, and turn the waters into 
 channels that will be green and fertile through 
 future years. The great amount of suffering 
 among the poor in this country, some would 
 say, is imaginary. I am speaking of those who 
 labor. In other countries, the child that is born 
 in a low condition is expected to continue there. 
 The child of a servant is a servant, of course. 
 The family of the operative are operatives, of 
 course. They have no trouble because they are 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 49 
 
 low, or because they see means of rising Hglier. 
 They do not expect it. It is widely different 
 here. JN'ot a young man here undertakes to 
 learn any business, who does not know that he 
 may be at the head of that business in a few 
 years. Not a boy works in a factory who 
 does not know that perhaps the owner of 
 all this great establishment was once as poor as 
 himself ; and thus he has not merely the natural 
 irritation induced by poverty and a depressed 
 condition, but he has also the impatience and 
 the irritation arising from the fact that he wants 
 to rise in his condition, and can not wait ere he 
 begins to rise. He forgets that every degree 
 of skill acquired, every new insight into the 
 business, every exhibition of promptness and 
 efficiency, is laying the foundation of what will 
 hereafter make him what he wants to be. 
 
 There are trials, temptations, and dangers, con- 
 nected with every situation in life ; and perhaps 
 there are few in which they are greater than 
 among business men. They have the means of 
 self-indulgence. There is not a gratification 
 known to the depraved appetite of man, which 
 money will not procure. They have it in their 
 power to oppress all other classes in the com- 
 munity, and especially to be hard and oppress- 
 
50 MEN OF business: 
 
 ive upon those who work for them. Laban can 
 change the wages of Jacob as often as he chose. 
 They have it in their power to grind the poor, 
 when once the poor are their debtors. And I 
 need not say, that any power which depraved 
 men have, is liable to abuse. There is therefore 
 the need of special care, watchfulness, and circum- 
 spection, lest you give way to this temptation. 
 I have personally known things — ^treatment of 
 the laborer as to his pay, a^ the charges for 
 articles sold him — ^such as would make the ears 
 tingle. I know, too, that there are trials insep- 
 arable from business, which are constant, and 
 which are very great. 
 
 Life is made up of trials and duties. Every 
 class must expect these ; and if your position is 
 more exalted than the average of your race, 
 your duties must correspond. And a beautiful 
 arrangement it is, that our heavenly Father 
 should have waters gathered here and there in 
 great lakes, from which a thousand thirsty acres 
 can draw. He disperses and spreads the waters 
 over the whole region by means of these reser- 
 voirs. And so he places the business men along 
 through the land, that they may collect, and 
 move, and change the wealth of the world, and 
 thus give employment, and food, and living to 
 
POSITION, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES. 51 
 
 the multitudes whom they call in to help them. 
 And thus is a mutual dependence created be- 
 tween men of different capacities and gifts, 
 attainments and powers. The active and the 
 vigorous are delegated to sustain the weak and 
 the imbecile. The quick, powerful mind, to look 
 out for the mind that is slow and inefficient. 
 These should be the protectors of those who 
 need protection. These have a conscious super- 
 iority, which they wish neither to deny nor to 
 conceal. Is that superiority to be an engine of 
 good or of evil ? WiU you make it a blessing 
 or a curse to those who come to you to exchange 
 their toil for their bread, who sell their own 
 sinews that they may live ? 
 
 God is no respecter of persons, and that same 
 wisdom that saw it best to make different orders 
 and conditions of society, foresaw that there 
 would always be this relation — ^the employer 
 and the employed, the mind that plans and the 
 hands that execute. And how careful has he 
 been in his laws, and even in the unrepealable 
 commandments, to make provision for those 
 who serve, so that they shall be a part of his 
 family. It is wise for the master, for his interests 
 will be promoted in proportion as he sympa- 
 thizes with and takes an interest in those who 
 
'>i: MEN OF business: 
 
 labor for him. It is wise for the employed, for 
 they can use an experience and a sagacity supe- 
 rior to their own. I have been asked, I know 
 not how many times, how to make the interests 
 of the employer and the employed one and the 
 same. With our selfish hearts, it can not be 
 done ; but we can approximate towards it ; and 
 I believe the first step must be taken by the 
 employer, and that those who serve him will, 
 as a general thing, be faithful, very much in 
 proportion as he is seen to care for them. It is 
 not by giving higher wages than others do, that 
 you can do it. You can not buy an exemption 
 from the binding force of the fourth command- 
 ment, with money; but it is by aiding your 
 help to spend their wages wisely ; by taking an 
 interest in all that pertains to their families ; by 
 feeling responsible for their moral culture. But 
 the master who seldom or never speaks to his 
 employees, who never enters their dwellings, 
 who has no care how they spend the Sabbath, 
 what becomes of their souls, is, as it seems to 
 me, in the light of the Gospel, not doing his 
 duty. He is not doing as he would be done by. 
 They are your servants, and if they are so many 
 that you can not receive them under your own 
 I'oof, it will not take from you the responsibility. 
 
53 
 
 The world is not wretched because we are not 
 all on equality, and some have more mind, 
 energy, and property than others, but it is 
 wretched because we do not our duty to one 
 another. The friction of the machine is so great, 
 not because some wheels are large and some are 
 small, but because they do not move in har- 
 mony, each doing its share. Children of one 
 common Father, fed by one and the same hand, 
 our stations appointed by one and the same 
 wisdom, involved in the same fall and ruin, 
 redeemed by the same Saviour, to meet at the 
 same grave-yard, to be judged before the same 
 throne, are we not brethren now ? 
 
 Oh ! I am afraid that in the great day of trial 
 it will go hard, not with the master and owner 
 of the neglected and abused slave merely, but 
 with many who have taken high airs upon them- 
 selves because they were not owners of slaves, 
 ])ut who have had men and women in their 
 service, for whose welfare they have taken no 
 more interest than if they were slaves ! No 
 other man has so much influence with his hel}^ 
 as the employer. No other man is looked up to 
 as he is by them. They are his dependants, 
 and he holds their happiness very much in his 
 hand. They are committed to him by the pro- 
 
54 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 vidence of God. He can raise up jewels for the 
 crown of Christ from among their number. He 
 has constant and rich opportunities to do them 
 good, which no other man can have. What a 
 pattern ought he to be ! What a model ! 
 
 I am pleading the cause of the great mass of 
 the human family ; of all who preach the Gos- 
 pel, your servants for Christ's sake ; of all who 
 labor on the land, and plow your fields, and reap 
 down your harvests ; of all who stand or work 
 in your stores, at the forge or at the bench in 
 your shops, who sit at your looms or watch 
 your spindles in the factory ; of all who hazard 
 their lives to exchange your property in distant 
 countries ; of all who serve and aid in carr3dng 
 out the plans of the man of business. I am 
 pleading the cause of all who are beneath you 
 in position, and means, and influence ; and I 
 charge you that you are your brother's keeper. 
 Not his blood merely will cry to God from the 
 ground, but the groans of oppression, the sighs 
 of neglect, the mistakes of his ignorance, the 
 silent agonies of the heart that beats without 
 sympathy — ^these all cry to God, and their cry 
 comes up into the ears of the God of Sabaoth, 
 and he comes and charges you, " Masters, give 
 unto your servants that which is just and equal ; 
 knowing that ve also have a Master in heaven." 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS : 
 
 THEIR RESPONSIBILITY IN RESPECT TO 
 
 GOVERNMENTS, CHURCHES, 
 
 AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D.D. 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS: 
 
 THEIK EESPONSIBILITY IN EESPECT TO 
 
 THE GOYEKIS^MENT, THE CHUKCII, AND 
 
 BE]S"EyOLE]S[T institutio:n's. 
 
 In tlie largest sense of tlie pkrase men of 
 busiiws^j must be included all those whose time 
 is employed for purposes of profit or improve- 
 ment — all, indeed, except such as are rendered 
 inactive by disease or infirmity on the one 
 hand, or inclination or habit on the other. The 
 statesman, who watches the interests of his 
 country with a devotion that never tires ; the 
 lawyer, who works night and day to secure a 
 triumphant issue of his client's cause ; the min- 
 ister of the Gospel, who counts no sacrifice dear 
 that may be necessary to accomplish the great 
 ends of his office ; the physician, who, in obe- 
 dience to the midnight call, hurries away to the 
 dwellings of the sick; the schoolmaster, to 
 
2 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 whom is intrusted, in a great degree, the de- 
 velopment and direction of the youthful mind ; 
 the author, who now gives to himself a sort of 
 omnipresence, and now sleeps out a brief exist- 
 ence in some corner of a bookstore ; and, finally, 
 the farmer, whose vocation, involving obedience 
 to the very letter of the Divine command, 
 stands honored in the sight of both God and 
 man; — all these, I say, are, in an important 
 sense, men of business ; and each is necessary to 
 preserve the balance, and carry forward the 
 purposes, of human society. In the present 
 essay, however, I shall consider the phrase in a 
 more restricted sense, as applying chiefly to 
 those who are engaged in the different branches 
 of commerce and the various mechanical arts, 
 and in conducting banking establishments and 
 other institutions connected with the financial 
 interests of a community. I will endeavor to 
 illustrate, briefly, the responsibility of this class 
 in reference to civil government, the Church, 
 and the great benevolent institutions of the age. 
 
 I. CIVIL GOVEENMENT. 
 
 Whether the legitimate blessings of which 
 civil government is the divinely constituted me- 
 dium are to be realized, or in what measure 
 
THE GOVERNMENT. 3 
 
 they are to be realized, depends cMefly on tlie 
 character of those to whom its administration is 
 intrusted; and that this is determined in a 
 great degree by business men, no one who re- 
 flects at all can fail to perceive. For, in the 
 first place, every business man, in common with 
 the rest of the community, has a vote ; and in 
 this point of view, the numerical weight of this 
 class is immense. But there are other consider- 
 ations beside numbers that go to heighten their 
 influence in regard to popular elections. The 
 farmer, though he may have a well-considered 
 opinion in regard to the comparative merits of 
 different candidates, and may express it freely, 
 as he finds opportunity, yet, from the very 
 nature of his occupation, he has access to com- 
 paratively few other minds, and he is satisfied 
 for the most part with reading the newspaper 
 reports of what is going on around him, and 
 occasionally commenting upon them to a neigh- 
 bor, without even aiming at any thing in the 
 way of direct control. The business man, on 
 the contrary, is constantly brought in contact 
 with others — has an opportunity of communi- 
 cating his views and hearing theirs in return — 
 of discussing the character and claims of oppos- 
 ing candidates, and of exerting not only a 
 
4 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 direct, but often an extensive, influence to secure 
 or prevent an election. Moreover, there is an 
 energy imparted to tlie mind by business habits, 
 wLicli makes itself felt beyond tlie routine of 
 daily engagements, and especially in a matter 
 so identified with all the great movements of 
 society, as the choice of rulers. Hence it is 
 manifest that this class must necessarily exert a 
 mighty power at the ballot-boxes ; and they are 
 responsible for the manner in which this power 
 is used. Providence has given them peculiar 
 facilities for assisting to exalt good men to 
 places of honor and authority, and woe be to 
 such as neglect or abuse this privilege. 
 
 But if business men have a primary influence 
 in the election of rulers, it is for them, too, chiefly 
 to decide the measure of cooperation that rulers 
 shall meet in carrying out the designs of gov- 
 ernment. Those who occupy high places, how- 
 ever they may be envied by the multitude 
 below them, are really legitimate subjects for 
 sympathy, in consideration of the manifold 
 labors to which they are called, of the opposing 
 interests which they have to adjust, and of the 
 temptations by which they are often beset, to 
 make shipwreck of a good conscience. It de- 
 volves on business men, more than any other 
 
THE GOVERNMENT. 6 
 
 class, to determine whether they shall find the 
 administration of government attended with 
 greater or less difficulties ; whether the great in- 
 terests of the state or the nation shall be proper- 
 ly attended to, or shall he sacrificed to the jea- 
 lousies, and rivalries, and collisions incident to 
 the malignant fever of party spirit. K this 
 great and influential class, or any considerable 
 portion of them, array themselves against the 
 civil authorities, in the faithful discharge of 
 their duty, it can not otherwise be than that the 
 machinery of government will be retarded or 
 rendered irregular in its movements, and not 
 improbably some disastrous result will be 
 worked out. There is often a diseased state of 
 the public mind which passes under the name 
 of apanic^ which usually originates with business 
 men, and of which they are more immediately, 
 if not exclusively, the subjects. Such a state 
 of things is eminently fitted to impair general 
 confidence in the " powers that be ;" and while, 
 at least by an indirect influence, it acts injuri- 
 ously upon them, it is equally certain to have a 
 disastrous reaction upon those by whom it is 
 excited ; and thus the energies of government 
 ])ecome sensibly impaired. Let rulers do their 
 work as faithfully as they may, there will be 
 
6 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 occasional financial embarrassments — dark 
 clouds obscuring tlie commercial horizon, wMcli 
 no human sagacity could anticipate, and no 
 human power could prevent ; and yet nothing 
 is more common, and surely nothing more un- 
 reasonable, than for those who suffer from such 
 a state of things, to lay it to the charge of those 
 in authority, as if they were of course respon- 
 sible for whatever of evil may be inflicted by 
 the providence of God, or the villainy of man, 
 during their administration. It were a dictate 
 of justice, in such cases, to sympathize with 
 rulers, rather than to indulge impatient and 
 bitter complaints of them; and even where 
 they are justly chargeable with imprudence, 
 not to say an absolute dereliction of principle, 
 it were far better to wait — -not, indeed, without 
 suitable remonstrance, or, as the case may be, 
 even expostulation, but without restless and in- 
 discriminate abuse — ^for the next visit to the 
 ballot-box to work a favorable change. Bad 
 rulers only become more exasperated by fierce 
 opposition ; their administration gathers poison 
 from all the hard paragraphs they read, and all 
 the bitter words they hear, which is sure to be 
 subsequently exhaled in acts still more oppress- 
 ive ; and the best service that can be rendered 
 
THE GOVERNMENT. 7 
 
 to society is to tolerate tliem in as mucli quiet- 
 ude as may be, as long a.s they must remain, but 
 to vote tliem intolerable the very first moment 
 tbere is an opportunity. 
 
 Let it further be borne in mind that the class 
 of which I am speaking, far more than any 
 other, are brought in direct contact with the 
 government ; for while they look to it for the 
 protection of their various commercial and 
 financial interests, the government, in return, 
 exacts from them a tribute in aid of its own 
 operations. Here is a field in which the busi- 
 ness man often has the opportunity (and alas ! 
 too often improves it) to indulge his cupidity 
 for wealth at the expense of truth, justice, and 
 honor. He who would be as quick to recognize 
 the obligation of dealing fairly with his fellow- 
 man, and to resent the imputation of fraud in 
 any private transaction, as any other, seems not 
 unfrequently to regard the public revenue as 
 little better than a matter of private plunder ; 
 and a cheat committed upon the custom-house 
 ofiicer is more likely to be recalled as an in- 
 stance of shrewdness or good luck, than as an 
 outrage upon the common weal, or an offense 
 against God. And yet, so far as the nature of 
 the act is concerned, it matters not whether the 
 
8 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 object against wMcli it is directed be an indivi- 
 dual or a community ; for tliougli tbe evil might 
 seem to fall more beavily upon one tlian upon 
 many, yet it is by no means certain but that, in 
 its ulterior consequences, it migbt act with a 
 more malign influence, even upon individual in- 
 terests, tban if it bad been limited to a single 
 person in its original design. Let every business 
 man feel, when be is tempted to defraud tbe 
 public treasury by concealment, by bribery, by 
 false representations, that if be yields, be is 
 playing tbe part of a traitor towards tbe gov- 
 ernment tbat is sworn to guard bis rigbts and 
 promote bis interests ; and tbat bowever be may 
 succeed in wearing tbe mask, be is really an 
 offender against integrity and honor, against his 
 country and his God. And it is not enough 
 that he avoid such dishonest and dishonorable 
 acts himself; he is bound to discourage, if pos- 
 sible to prevent, or, as the case may be, to 
 expose, them in others ; and by every means in 
 his power to cooperate with the government in 
 securing to it its just dues, as well as carrying 
 out its legitimate ends. Let this numerous and 
 active class of citizens be scrupulously faithful 
 to their obligations in this respect, and we 
 should quickly find a new era of public pros- 
 perity opening upon us. 
 
THE aOVERKMENT. 9 
 
 Is it not true, then, tliat business men have a 
 mighty responsibility resting upon them, in con- 
 nection with the operations of civil govern- 
 ment — especially a government constituted 
 like ours, which is so immediately identified 
 with the will of the people, and which that will 
 may at any time modify by a change of rulers — 
 a change in which business men have always a 
 leading agency ? Who can estimate the amount 
 of influence which they may exert, must exert, 
 for good or evil, at this fountain of public weal 
 or woe ? Let them remember that the action 
 of the government is in a great measure, though 
 indirectly, controlled by them ; that it is for 
 them to say whether its movements shall be 
 easy or difficult ; that other classes virtually 
 implore them to be faithful to their interests as 
 well as their own. Nay, let it sink like lead 
 into their hearts, that to them especially is com- 
 mitted the integrity of this Union, — ^that which 
 we have always been looking to as constituting 
 our highest praise among the nations ; and that 
 if we are enabled to outlive all the threatening 
 convulsions, and to accomplish the glorious des- 
 tiny which has seemed to be marked out for us, 
 to them, more than any others — ^perhaps we may 
 say more than all others, so far as mere human 
 
10 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 influence is concerned, shall we be indebted for 
 our national preservation and triumpb. 
 
 II. But tbe responsibility of tbis class bas re- 
 spect not more to tbe government tban to tbe 
 Chuech ; it is bere, indeed, tbat tbeir influence 
 is most vitally felt ; and it operates tbrougb 
 cbannels analogous to tbose by wbicb it reacbes 
 tbe springs of civil government. 
 
 Tbe most obvious tbougbt wbicb occurs in 
 illustration of tbis point is, tbat business men 
 bave a most important part to perform in refer- 
 ence to tbe Cbristian ministry. Tbe Cburcb is 
 indeed, in tbe order of nature, anterior to tbe 
 ministry ; but tbe ministry acts as a bandmaid 
 to tbe Cburcb; indeed it is tbe divinely ap- 
 pointed instrumentabty by wbicb tbe Cburcb is 
 to collect ber members and acbieve ber victo- 
 ries. And tbe character of tbe Cburcb at any 
 given period may be learned witb almost infal- 
 lible certainty from tbe character of ber ministry. 
 " Like people, like priest," is descriptive of an im- 
 portant feature of botb tbe Jewish and tbe Cbrist- 
 ian dispensations. Whether we contemplate tbe 
 Church on a broad or a narrow scale ; whether 
 we note its movements for an age or for a year ; 
 whether we take in tbe whole body of Christ's 
 
THE CHURCH. 11 
 
 professed followers, or limit our view to one de- 
 nomination, or even to tlie worshippers in a 
 single sanctuary, we shall find that, with few 
 exceptions, it takes the character which a pre- 
 vious knowledge of its ministry would have led 
 us to expect. An enlightened, evangelical, dis- 
 creet, and earnest ministry, on the one hand, just 
 as naturally forms a church to an exalted type 
 of intelligence, public spirit, and devotion ; and 
 an ignorant, conceited, worldly, or blustering 
 ministry, on the other, just as naturally imparts 
 to a church its own leading characteristics, as 
 any other cause produces its effect. Whatever, 
 then, affects the ministry, touches vitally the 
 well-being of the Church. Whoever contri- 
 butes in any way to elevate or to depress this 
 divine institution in the regards of the commu- 
 nity, is, for that reason, to be reckoned a friend 
 or a foe to the Church. A moment's reflection 
 will show us that business men have here a re- 
 sponsibility which it is not easy to measure. 
 
 For here, as in respect to civil rulers, their 
 numerical importance gives them great influence. 
 If a minister is to be chosen, especially in a 
 populous place, you can not fail to be struck 
 with the fact, that a great majority of those on 
 whom the choice devolves, are business men. 
 
 / 
 
12 MEN OF BUSESTESS. 
 
 If the congregation are in doubt in respect to 
 a candidate, and wish to obtain tlie opinion of 
 some of the best judging among their own 
 number, in regard to his qualifications, you will 
 find that, in a vast majority of cases, the delicate 
 office of hearing and deciding for the rest, will 
 be intrusted to a few business men. And if 
 there are other important preliminary arrange- 
 ments to be made, the same class will almost 
 certainly be put in requisition to make them. 
 The fact that their respective vocations bring 
 them so much in contact not only with each 
 other, but with all other classes, in connection 
 with the habit of prompt activity which almost 
 necessarily results from their daily employment, 
 secures to them an influence in deciding the im- 
 portant question of the settlement of a minister, 
 which is peculiar to themselves. "Whenever a 
 congregation, especially a large and important 
 congregation, is vacant, the magnitude of the 
 interests involved in the question — how that 
 vacancy shall be supplied— outruns all human 
 comprehension. But that is the question that 
 business men chiefly have to settle. It is for 
 them to say whether there shall be a bright 
 light fixed in that candlestick, that shall shine 
 by an hereditary influence upon many success- 
 
THE CHURCH. J3 
 
 ive generations ; or whether it shall be a dim 
 light that shall scarcely show the path to Hea- 
 ven ; or whether there shall be a gloomy and 
 protracted vacancy there, which shall be shared 
 by a chilling worldliness and a frenzied fanati- 
 cism. Surely this is a responsibility that may 
 well make them pause, consider, even tremble. 
 
 The minister is now chosen ; and the proper 
 ecclesiastical authorities have sanctioned the 
 choice, investing him with the legitimate rights, 
 and charging him " to be faithful to the duties," 
 that belong to the pastoral office. But he is 
 made of flesh and blood, just as other men are ; 
 he has physical wants, in common with his 
 neighbors, that must be supplied ; he probably 
 has, or will have, a family to be provided for ; 
 and as he depends upon his vocation, as truly 
 as other men depend upon theirs, for a support, 
 to whom but the people he serves is he to look 
 for the competent provision? This, indeed, is 
 presumed to be definitely arranged as a prepar- 
 atory measure to his settlement ; but it some- 
 times happens that promises which were made 
 in good faith, are but tardily or imperfectly ful- 
 filled ; or that, upon change of times or circum- 
 stances, the pledged stipend proves inadequate ; 
 and in either case pecuniary embarrassment en- 
 
14 MEN OF BUSIKESS. 
 
 sues, — ^no matter whether the world take cogni- 
 zance of it, or whether it Ibe struggled with as 
 a painful secret in the sufferer's own bosom. If 
 a man of any other profession or occupation 
 becomes crippled in respect to his finances, he 
 can legitimately resort to other kinds of busi- 
 ness to meet the exigencies of his condition ; but 
 if a minister do that, he does it, in all ordinary 
 cases, at the expense of lessening his official 
 weight, if not of really secularizing his character. 
 Many a faithful minister who has been placed in 
 these embarrassing circumstances, has had his 
 heart rent by the alternative of knowing that his 
 honest debts must remain uncancelled, and his 
 family be scarcely provided with even the neces- 
 saries of life, or else he must make some move- 
 ment to retrieve his condition, that shall bring 
 him into such close contact with the world, as 
 both to mar his reputation and impair his use- 
 fulness in his appropriate field. Now it devolves 
 upon business men especially, to consider and 
 provide against all such painful exigencies. Let 
 them show themselves ready to minister to all 
 the reasonable wants of him who ministers to 
 them ; let them be quick to discover his needs, 
 so that he shall not be subjected to the morti- 
 fying necessity of seeming to take on the cha- 
 
THE CHURCH. 15 
 
 racter of a beggar ; let them act habitually in 
 the faith of that inspired declaration, " the 
 laborer is worthy of his hire ;" let him be able 
 through their justice — ^for I will not speak here 
 of generosity — ^to claim all his time for the ap- 
 propriate duties of his high calling, and then it 
 will be his fault, and not theirs, if, in his minis- 
 trations, there is any lack of service towards 
 them. Happy, thrice happy is that minister 
 who is cast in the midst of a congregation whose 
 character is a pledge that, with reasonable pru- 
 dence on his part, he has nothing to fear in re- 
 spect to worldly embarrassment ; whose enter- 
 prising, enlightened, conscientious, and liberal 
 business men are always watching his interests 
 with an almost fraternal regard, and not unfre- 
 quently surprising him with their generous ben- 
 efactions. 
 
 There are other concerns belonging to the 
 same category with the support of the ministry, 
 which require the thoughtful and liberal regards 
 of business men, — especially the building of 
 churches and other humbler edifices for religious 
 worship, and purposes of kindred interest and 
 importance. " Time, that doth all things else 
 impair," after a while leaves its finger-prints 
 upon our sanctuaries ; and however they may 
 
16 KSK OF BUSINESS. 
 
 be gratefully associated with tlie memories of 
 our fathers whose hands reared them, and whose 
 devout spirits consecrated them, we are obliged, 
 by reason of their dilapidated state, or in obe- 
 dience to the taste of the times, or perhaps to 
 accommodate a growing population, to take 
 them down, and build greater, or more beautiful, 
 or more commodious. But this is a work of 
 thought, and labor, and expense ; there are 
 often delicate and perplexing questions involved, 
 which it requires great sagacity and discretion 
 to meet ; and sometimes there are opposing in- 
 terests to be reconciled, that may seem to jeopard 
 the success of the project ; and there is a consid- 
 erable amount of pecuniary means requisite — 
 generally much larger than is originally contem- 
 plated. Here again the demand is chiefly upon 
 business men. Others, indeed, lend a helping 
 hand, — especially educated and professional men, 
 by their wise and judicious counsels ; but it is 
 to the mechanics, the merchants, the bankers, 
 that we look more especially to engage actively 
 in the project, and speed it onward to its com- 
 pletion. I might say, with comparatively few 
 exceptions, that every church in the land is a 
 monument, to a greater or less extent, of the 
 enterprise or the munificence of business men. 
 
THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 And there is tlie Sabbath-scliool — upon 
 whom, if not upon our young men of business, 
 are we to depend chiefly for sustaining and di- 
 recting that ? Here, indeed, is a noble field for 
 the display of female beneficence ; and it is an 
 occasion for devout thankfulness, that so many 
 of the gentler sex are found more than willing 
 to occupy it ; nor can it reasonably be doubted 
 that this circumstance constitutes one of the most 
 important elements of the efficiency of the insti- 
 tution ; but after all, they who have the primary 
 agency in establishing and guiding Sunday- 
 schools, are the young men, whom, during the 
 week, you will find scattered about in ware- 
 houses and workshops, insurance offices and 
 banks, laboring diligently in their respective 
 callings. The habit of mental activity, which 
 they contract from the prosecution of their 
 daily business, naturally quickens their mental 
 operations in respect to other matters ; especial- 
 ly are they prepared to address themselves with 
 proportionably greater vigor and earnestness to 
 their duties as Sunday-school teachers. And 
 I may add, they have many opportunities, in 
 the course of their business, to enlist the in- 
 fluence of others in aid of the object ; to per- 
 suade children and youth who are not yet in the 
 
18 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 scliool, to join it ; and to quicken the sense of 
 responsibility in reference to the same subject, 
 on the part of parents. Let them bear in mind 
 that the Sunday-school to which they belong, is, 
 by common consent, placed peculiarly in their 
 keeping — ^that while others are bound to labor, 
 as they have opportunity, for the advancement 
 of its interests, it is for them, more than all 
 others, to decide whether it shall become more 
 extended and benign in its operations, or whether 
 it shall be left to languish into a state of ineJ0&- 
 ciency that may prove the harbinger of its com- 
 plete extinction. 
 
 It belongs, moreover, chiefly to this class, to 
 determine, so far as human agency is concerned, 
 the actual state of religion in a community. As 
 business men respect or neglect Christian insti- 
 tutions — as they walk in the fear and love of 
 God, or show themselves indifferent to the 
 divine precepts — ^it may confidently be expected 
 that religion will be in a flourishing or a de- 
 pressed state; and that^ not merely from the 
 fact that they constitute so large a class, but 
 from the influence which their relations to soci- 
 ety necessarily secure to them. We may illus- 
 trate this thought under two or three particu- 
 lars. 
 
IITE CHURCH. 19 
 
 With nothing is tlie progress of religion more 
 immediately and essentially connected tlian a 
 regular attendance on tlie public services of tlie 
 Sabbath. Let these be deliberately and volun- 
 tarily neglected by the mass of any community, 
 and we have no occasion to inquire whether oi* 
 not Christianity exists there in its living power ; 
 for the very statement of such a fact is but an- 
 other mode of saying that if there be any true 
 religion there, it is, at best, in a sickly condition. 
 On the other hand, let the ordinances of Christ's 
 house be diligently and punctually attended, 
 and let the surrounding population make con- 
 science of being in the house of God on the 
 Sabbath as often as its doors are open to wel- 
 come them, and no higher evidence need be 
 asked for, that there the general tone of religion 
 is healthful and vigorous. Which side of this 
 alternative is to be realized, I say again, it is 
 leffc, in a great measure, with business men to 
 determine. It is lamentable that too many of 
 them find an apology for being at least irregu- 
 lar in their attendance at the sanctuary, on the 
 ground that the intense occupation of the week 
 renders it necessary that they should spend the 
 Sabbath in absolute repose ; while many more, 
 it is to be feared, are so eager in their worldly 
 
20 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 pursuits, that they suffer them even to infringe 
 upon holy time, and stay away from church be- 
 cause they can not spare from their business the 
 hour that others devote to the ser\dce of God. 
 And I may say in this connection, that in no 
 way is the Sabbath more frequently profaned 
 by business men, than in travelling, either by 
 public or private conveyances. Would that 
 this charge could be sustained against those 
 only who make no profession of their faith in 
 Christ, and who, therefore, are not amenable to 
 the Church for the violation of Christ's command- 
 ments; but the melancholy fact is that many 
 whose presence is always expected at the com- 
 munion table, and some even whose general 
 character would seem inconsistent with such a 
 delinquency, are still occasionally found in rail- 
 road cars and steamboats during the hours of 
 the Sabbath, with no better apology than that 
 they are away from their families, and wish to 
 lose no time in returning to them. I will only 
 say that professors of religion who do this, as- 
 sume a responsibility which they can very ill 
 afford to bear. They venture in the face of the 
 world to violate one of the plainest of God's 
 commandments. How they can do this and 
 keep a conscience void of offense — ^how they 
 
THE CIIUKCH. 21 
 
 can do this and not feel that they are charge- 
 able before God and man with the grossest in- 
 consistency — is a problem which it must be 
 left to them to solve. 
 
 Whether or not the occasional services that 
 are held in the church during the week are to 
 be well or ill sustained, we must also look to 
 business men to decide. These services are not, 
 indeed, strictly of divine institution, and there- 
 fore we have no right to exalt them into the 
 same category with the services of the Sabbath, 
 or to make the observance or non-observance of 
 them a test of Christian character; but that 
 they are, when properly regulated, and not 
 undu]y multiplied, an important auxiliary to 
 Christian growth, and a fitting antidote to a 
 spirit of worldliness, none, it is presumed, 
 who have had experience, will hesitate to 
 affirm. Will business men encourage by their 
 presence, and as the case may be, their more 
 positive aid, this noiseless but efficient instru- 
 mentality for the promotion of the Church's spi- 
 ritual prosperity ? Will they endeavor so to ad- 
 just their secular concerns during the week, as to 
 leave time for the weekly lecture or the weekly 
 prayer-meeting, so that this shall form a part of 
 their regular routine of duty ? Will they even 
 
22 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 give to these religious duties tlie precedence 
 of secular engagements, when the latter press 
 with more than common urgency ; thus at once 
 giving evidence of their spirituality and their 
 desire to increase it ? Or will they in their con- 
 duct ignore the very existence of these religious 
 exercises ; and shall the year open and close 
 upon them without their having so much as 
 once joined in these weekly devotions of their 
 brethren, or heard these more private teachings 
 of their pastor ? It is for them to decide whe- 
 ther they will adopt the one course or the other ; 
 but as they decide, it is not too much to expect 
 that the tone of religious character around them 
 will be elevated or depressed; and possibly 
 their course may involve the determination, so 
 far as it rests with man to determine, whether 
 the Spirit shall come down like the rain from 
 heaven, or whether the surrounding community 
 shall be, in a spiritual sense, as a dry and thirsty 
 land where no water is. 
 
 Let the business men of a church show them- 
 selves faithful to all their Christian obligations ; 
 let them not only attend regularly and devout- 
 ly upon all the means of grace, but keep their 
 hearts with all diligence, and resist the first in- 
 roads of a worldly spirit amidst the cares and 
 
THE CHURCH. 23 
 
 temptations incident to their daily occupations ; 
 let them, in a word, show themselves decided 
 and earnest Christians ; and they can have no 
 adequate conception of the amount of good 
 which they will thereby accomplish. That 
 they are placed in circumstances involving pow- 
 erful temptations to the neglect of the more 
 spiritual duties of the Christian life, and some- 
 times rendering these duties a matter of great 
 difficulty, can not be denied ; but these very ad- 
 verse circumstances, by being resolutely and 
 successfully met, impart fresh vigor to the spi-. 
 ritual system ; just as the physical powers are 
 braced and strengthened by exposure and toil. 
 If you will look for the individual who has 
 come nearest to the stature of a perfect person 
 in Christ, you will be most likely to find him 
 among those who have had to encounter the 
 greatest difficulties in their spiritual course ; and 
 you will find that his attainments are to be re- 
 ferred, in no small degree, to that watchful 
 care, that vigorous effort, that unyielding reso- 
 lution, that has been necessary to save him from 
 falling under the influence of temptation. 
 
 If we observe how large a proportion of the y 
 members of the Church consist of business men, 
 we can not fail to see that they must have much 
 
 V 
 
24 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 to do in determining the general tone of reli- 
 gions feeling and action. Let tlieni be watcli- 
 ful and earnest Christians, and the church to 
 which they belong will give out no feeble or 
 dubious light. She will be an epistle for 
 Christ, known and read of all men. But these 
 men, being thus conformed to a high standard 
 of Christian character, will not live for them- 
 selves alone — ^they will exert a mighty influence 
 upon the surrounding world. Let it appear 
 that their religion is an all-pervading principle — 
 that they are Christians in the week as well 
 as on the Sabbath — that, while they reverence 
 God's institutions, and delight in exercises of 
 devotion, they never stoop to a dishonest or dis- 
 honorable, or even doubtful action, in the pro- 
 secution of their worldly business ; let them, I say, 
 thus let their light shine, and I hazard nothing in 
 saying that the world will not only take know- 
 ledge of them that they have been with Jesus, 
 but will feel the quickening power of their good 
 example. The multitude with whom they are 
 brought in contact from day to day, and who 
 J witness their integrity, and humility, and de- 
 votion, and especially their conscientious adher- 
 ence to principle, while they are acted upon by 
 temptations that sweep others away, will not be 
 
THE CHUKCH. 26 
 
 able to resist tlie conviction tliat their religion 
 is a living reality ; and there is good reason to 
 fiope that some of them at least liiay open their 
 own hearts to its renovating power. 
 
 Blessed be God, Christianity has always had its 
 full share of witnesses in the ranks of men of 
 business. I might refer to many noble examples 
 of this now among the living — ^men distinguish- 
 ed alike in the walks of busy life, and in the 
 walks of Christian life ; but I will limit myself 
 here to a single case, and that shall be taken from 
 among those who have already passed to their re- 
 ward. I refer to the illustrious John Thori^ton. 
 As a business man, he was at the head of the 
 mercantile community in London. He had a 
 hand in all the great commercial movements of 
 the day. Probably there was not a merchant 
 then living who, in point of careful attention, of 
 honorable enterprise, of splendid success, could 
 be regarded his superior ; and yet it would have 
 been difficult to find among his contemporaries 
 one whose heart beat more warmly for the in- 
 terests of Christ's kingdom, or whose hand 
 moved more freely to sustain and advance them, 
 or whose life was more emphatically a life of 
 faith on the Son of God. He not only showed 
 the practicability of uniting the eminent mer- 
 
26 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 cliant and tlie eminent Christian, but he left 
 behind him a savor of piety that will last as 
 long as the world stands. IS'ot every merchant, 
 indeed, if he does his best, can become a Thorn- 
 ton ; but every one may be an active and de- 
 vout Christian, and may learn from the record 
 of Thornton's life how to unite commercial and 
 religious activity. 
 
 III. But I am to consider the responsibility of 
 business men in yet another aspect — ^I mean in its 
 relation to the great beistevolent institutions 
 OF THE AGE. Thcsc institutions may naturally 
 enough be divided into two classes : those which 
 are more immediately concerned in the propa- 
 gation of the Gospel, and which are designed 
 to act directly upon men's spiritual and immortal 
 interests, and those which look more to the in- 
 terests of the life that now is — ^that have respect 
 to the intellectual, social, and civil condition of 
 the world. And there are some that are of a 
 mixed character, having regard to both the 
 present and the future — ^to man's welfare as the 
 creature of a day, and to the higher interests of 
 the world to come. Indeed this is true to a cer- 
 tain extent of all truly benevolent institutions ; 
 for man's entire existence is a unit — ^his entire 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 2? 
 
 nature is a unit; and whatever is adapted to 
 subserve any of his true interests, has an indi- 
 rect bearing upon all of them. 
 
 In the first of these classes may be included all 
 Missionary, and Bible, and Tract societies, and 
 other kindred institutions, which, during the last 
 half century particularly, have been multiplying 
 so rapidly in various parts of Protestant Christen- 
 dom, and making such a vigorous onset upon 
 the territories of darkness. To the second class 
 belong all our industrial and economical associ- 
 ations — all that are designed to aid the interests 
 of agriculture, commerce, or manufactures — all 
 that contemplate the progress of the human in- 
 tellect, the advancement of civilization, the per- 
 fection of civil government, or the mitigation 
 and ultimate removal of any of the great evils 
 incident to human society. In respect to both 
 these classes, as well as any that are of an inter- 
 mediate character, it may safely be said that the 
 burden of responsibility rests upon business men. 
 
 If we trace these institutions back to theii* 
 origin^ we shall find that, but for the agency of 
 this class of our citizens, most of them, to say 
 the least, would never have had an existence. 
 Be it so that those associations that are more 
 strictly of a religious character, have been more 
 
28 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 commonly suggested and projected by ministers 
 of tlie Gospel, yet, in almost every case, they 
 liave had some of the more active and enter- 
 prising spirits in the community associated with 
 them ; and the latter have generally had quite 
 as much to do as the former in so arranging 
 things at the outset as to promise a successful 
 result. The skill and tact which they have ac- 
 quired in connection with their business hab- 
 its, have availed them much in framing and put- 
 ting in motion systems of moral machinery, de- 
 signed to operate for the renovation of the 
 world ; and they have not unfrequently discov- 
 ered, in a projected plan, serious errors that 
 needed to be corrected, or weak points that re- 
 quired to be strengthened, which no other 
 than a practised eye like their own could detect. 
 But in regard to those institutions which are of a 
 more general and secular character, it is not too 
 much to say that they originate almost entirely 
 with men of business. The different professions 
 may indeed be represented at their organiza- 
 tion, and may sometimes bear a very important 
 part in it; but if you inquire for those who 
 have done the most, you will find that they are 
 the men who have left their stores and ware- 
 houses, to come and labor thus for the public 
 weal. 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 29 
 
 If we inquire further, on wliom devolves the 
 responsibility of sustaining our benevolent in- 
 stitutions, we can reach no other conclusion 
 than that it is upon our business men. Facts 
 prove abundantly that it is so, and a moment's 
 reflection will show us why it must be so. For, 
 in the first place, these are the men who gene- 
 rally have at their command the means of 
 sustaining these institutions. It is with this 
 class that much the larger part of the wealth 
 of the entire community is lodged. Not 
 a small portion of them, indeed, have begun 
 life with nothing ; but by industry, economy, 
 perseverance, they have come in possession of a 
 large estate, and every year and every month 
 is adding largely to it. And even those who 
 are less prospered, are commonly able to secure 
 such a competence as will justify them in the 
 indulgence of a benevolent spirit towards at 
 least some of the great objects which solicit 
 their aid. But while these are the men who 
 have generally the means to bestow, they are 
 those also who, from their peculiar circumstan- 
 ces, are most likely to be willing to bestow 
 them. There are, indeed, some rich men who 
 have retired from business, and I may add, 
 some who were never engaged in active busi- 
 
30 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 ness, wlio evince a noble spirit of liberality, and 
 keep themselves almost as busy as tlie busiest 
 in dispensing the bounties which Providence 
 has intrusted to them. But it must be acknow- 
 ledged that these are exceptions from the general 
 rule. It much more frequently happens that, if 
 you approach the man who has retired upon a 
 large estate, with an application for charity, you 
 will find him with his hand clenched against the 
 claims of your object, or if he opens it at all, it 
 will be sparingly, and grudgingly, and to little 
 purpose. Such a man, no matter how large his 
 regular income may be, feels that his machinery 
 for making money has stopped, and that natu- 
 rally makes his benevolent pulsations more slug- 
 gish ; whereas, on the other hand, the man who 
 is still actively and prosperously engaged in 
 worldly concerns, can give away even profusely, 
 and yet take but little note of it, because he 
 confidently expects that what he gives will 
 quickly be made up to him in the ordinary rou- 
 tine of his business engagements. I have my eye 
 upon a man at this moment whose unceasing ac- 
 tivity in his worldly calling is not exceeded by 
 that of any other man I know, and yet whoever 
 approaches him for pecuniary aid — ^whether it 
 be the beggar, for money to pay for his night's 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 31 
 
 lodging, or the agent for some great scheme of 
 public beneficence, asking for thousands — ^his 
 heart and hand are always open, and his very 
 countenance shows that it is no self-denial to 
 him to be charitable. I can think of another 
 man who used, when he was at the head of a 
 great commercial establishment, to be accounted 
 liberal ; at any rate, I know that many indivi- 
 duals and several institutions were the better 
 for his benefactions ; but having made his for- 
 tune, he has retired to enjoy it ; his mind and 
 body have together become inactive ; his hand 
 will now scarcely open even to the imploring 
 voice of suffering ; in short, he has sunk into u^ 
 the indolent and sensual enjoyment of himself 
 This latter may indeed be an extreme case ; but 
 it is a fair representation of a large class of 
 cases, so far as respects the chilling influence of 
 the change from an active to an inactive life, 
 upon public spirit or Christian beneficence. 
 
 And here I can not but drop a word in the 
 way of protest against the practice which has 
 uever been uncommon, and which certaioly is 
 not now upon the wane, of men who have been 
 largely engaged in commercial or other business, 
 when they have reached a certain point, settling 
 down into a state of inactivity, in order to en- 
 
82 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 joy their fortunes. I do not mean tliat it is not 
 perfectly proper that men who have for many 
 years led a busy life, and been much engrossed 
 by worldly care, should in process of time, 
 relax from their severe labors, and even avail 
 themselves of the facilities for comparative re- 
 pose, which their successful enterprise may have 
 secured to them. Still less do I mean to inti- 
 mate that they are bound always to continue in 
 the same vocation ; or that they may not even, 
 in the technical sense of the phrase, " retire 
 from business," and still have an abundance of 
 useful occupation. What I would bear testi- 
 mony against is a deliberate settling down, in 
 the midst of a profusion of this world's bounties, 
 with nothing to do. The evils connected with 
 this are manifold. The man who has been active 
 for half a century can not, if his various faculties 
 are spared to him, form a habit of inactivity 
 then, without making himself wretched. The 
 mind that has so long been kept bright, can not 
 be left to rust, the hands that have so long been 
 kept busy, can not be habitually idle, but that 
 the curse that always hangs upon the footsteps 
 of indolence will quickly begin to develop it- 
 self. Presently you may expect that a morose 
 and impatient spirit will imprint itself upon the 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 33 
 
 countenance and breathe throiigli tlie lips ; and 
 at no distant period, you need not marvel, if tlie 
 man wlio went into retirement to enjoy liis for- 
 tune, should be found taking on tbe character 
 of a misanthrope or a hermit. And then let it 
 not be forgotten that this man has resting upon 
 him obligations to society, obligations to the 
 Church, obligations to God, as truly as when 
 his faculties were kept in vigorous exercise ; and 
 what sort of material for his final reckoning is 
 that which he is accumulating by this habit of y 
 indolent, selfish, I may say brutish, indulgence ? 
 It is to be reckoned among the propitious 
 signs of the times, that the spirit of Christian 
 liberality and public enterprise is constantly 
 assuming a more vigorous tone, and promises to 
 become ultimately the reigning spirit of the 
 business community. Who are they who, when 
 our great missionary institutions are ready to 
 falter in their operations, if not absolutely t(3 
 stand still, are most ready to step forward, and 
 by their subscriptions of hundreds and thou- 
 sands, to put the machinery at work again even 
 more vigorously and effectively than ever? 
 They are our business men. Who are they who 
 are most ready to sustain hospitals for the sick, 
 and almshouses for the poor, and to make the 
 
34 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 prisoner's life a process of reform, and to carry 
 into Ms cell as many comforts as may consist 
 with tlie legitimate operation of tlie penal sen- 
 tence ? They are our business men. Who are 
 they that sustain the great interests of educa- 
 tion and public improvement — ^that plant col- 
 leges, and^endow professorships, and build ob- 
 servatories by which heaven and earth are 
 brought into new relations with each other? 
 Here again, I answer, they are our business 
 men. There are on every side of us princes in 
 liberality as well as in wealth ; men to whom 
 the mere presentation of any object of pub- 
 lic importance is a sufficient pledge that it 
 shall be provided for ; men who greatly lighten 
 the burden of solicitation by keeping an eye 
 out and a hand open for every great exi- 
 gency ; and there is everything to indicate that 
 these mighty men in the walks of beneficence 
 wiE increase, until the world shall brighten into 
 a great field of millenial glory. 
 
 I may be allowed to remark in this connection, 
 that there is probably nothing that interferes 
 more with a due regard to objects of benevo- 
 lence on the part of men of business, than the 
 mistaken idea that the interests of their children 
 will be promoted by their being left rich. It is 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 35 
 
 wonderful how mucli the sagacity of men who 
 are acknowledged to be shrewd on all other sub- 
 jects, fails them on this. They repose in the 
 general idea that riches contribute to happiness, 
 while they overlook the fact that happiness has 
 its foundation in character, and that whatever 
 affects that favorably or unfavorably, has a cor- 
 responding effect upon the general well-being of 
 the individual. Now let us see how the matter 
 stands in regard to the case we are contemplat- 
 ing. God has supplied to us the elements of 
 our character in the faculties he has given us ; 
 but the character is formed in the directing and 
 moulding of these faculties ; and this is the ap- 
 propriate business of education. The great 
 object to be aimed at in the training of a child 
 is to lead him to exercise his faculties vigorously 
 and in the right direction ; for it matters not 
 though he should possess the original powers of 
 a Newton or an Edwards, it is impossible that 
 he should be either great or good without be- 
 coming used to high intellectual and moral 
 effort. But do we expect either men or child- 
 ren to exert themselves without a motive ? And 
 do we not expect that in proportion to the 
 strength of the motive will be the amount of 
 effort ? And is it not true that children who 
 
36 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 are trained to tlie expectancy of a large estate, 
 are placed in circumstances tliat are fitted to cut 
 tlie very sinews of even a naturally active and 
 resolute spirit ? The first thouglit tliat occurs 
 to them is that they have no need to submit to 
 the drudgery of hard labor for their subsist- 
 ence; and this naturally generates a spirit of 
 idleness; and in the track of idleness usually 
 follows ignorance, and not unfrequently vice, 
 and ultimately ruin. Children of this class, 
 though they may congratulate themselves, and 
 be congratulated by others, upon their easy con- 
 dition, are generally more to be pitied than the 
 children of the humblest peasant, who has no- 
 thing to give them but his blessing. I speak 
 Avith confidence on this subject, because there is 
 such a long record of facts spread out before 
 me. There are instances, I acknowledge, in 
 which children who have inherited large estates, 
 have been saved from the temptations incident 
 to such a lot, and have made their riches tribu- 
 tary to reputation, usefulness, even true great- 
 ness. But the cases are incomparably more 
 numerous in which such children grow up witli 
 an incubus upon their faculties, which they never 
 throw off, and actually live and die like useless, 
 perhaps noxious, weeds in a luxuriant soil ; 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. ^7 
 
 while much the greater part of those who occu- 
 py the highest places of influence and honor in 
 the different walks of society, have known from 
 the beginning what it was to depend upon their 
 own efforts, and not unfrequently have struggled 
 up to the eminence they occupy, through bar- 
 riers which, to an irresolute mind, would have 
 seemed absolutely insurmountable. 
 
 I will venture a word of counsel to the opulent 
 business man who is about to make his will. By 
 all means, take proper care for your own family ; 
 for the wife who has been associated with you in 
 bearing life's burdens ; for the children of whom 
 you are the divinely constituted guardian, and 
 some of whom not improbably may be entirely 
 dependent on the provision you make for them ; 
 and perhaps for other relatives also, whose ne- 
 cessitous condition may justly entitle them to 
 share in your beneficence. But forget not that 
 there are great objects of religious and public 
 interest, to which even a small portion of your 
 wealth would be a most acceptable offering, and 
 say whether it were not better to appropriate a 
 portion to these, than to multiply the tempta- 
 tions to your children to a life of ignoble ease, 
 perhaps of profligacy, terminating in ruin. Be- 
 fore you perform this important duty, let your 
 
 y 
 
N/ 
 
 88 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 judgment, enligMened and unbiased, have its 
 perfect work ; let your conscience be quickened 
 to its higbest tone of sensibility ; let your mind 
 expand to take in the future as well as tbe pre- 
 sent ; and above all, let your spirit be in com- 
 munion witb tbe God of all counsel and wisdom, 
 and tben I will not fear to contemplate tbe re- 
 sult — ^I will not fear tbat you will forget to 
 make provision for perpetuating your good in- 
 fluence after you bave fallen asleep. 
 
 But business men bave mucb to do in direct- 
 ing^ as well as in sustaining, our benevolent in- 
 stitutions ; tbeir quick discernment, tbeir wis- 
 dom, tbeir tact, to tbe cultivation of wbicb 
 tbeir babits of life are so favorable, are as ne- 
 cessary to give to tbese institutions tbeir rigbt 
 direction, and secure tbeir legitimate results, as 
 is tbeir money to keep tbem in vigorous opera- 
 tion. Tbere is a certain kind of practical 
 knowledge wbicb men engaged in active busi- 
 ness acquire, but wbicb is not so easily gained 
 by any of tbe professions, tbat may be turned to 
 good account in any of tbe departments of be- 
 nevolent activity. Hence it will be found, even 
 in respect to tbose institutions tbat are more 
 immediately of a religious character, and in 
 wbicb ministers of tbe Gospel are commonly ex- 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 39 
 
 pected to take the lead, that in their general 
 management great reliance is placed on the 
 common sense and sagacity of onr enterpris- 
 ing merchants; and in cases of great diffi- 
 culty and embarrassment, such is the confidence 
 reposed in them, that there are few who hesi- 
 tate to defer to their judgment. Who that has 
 been accustomed to attend the anniversaries of 
 our benevolent institutions, does not remember 
 more than one case in which this remark has 
 had a striking exemplification ? A great mis- 
 sionary society, for instance — ^perhaps owing to 
 some unexpected change of circumstances, pos- 
 sibly to a disposition to walk too fast or too far 
 by faith in the liberality of the Church, has be- 
 come crippled in its movements, and has well 
 nigh come to a stand, and how it is to recover 
 itself is a problem of which no one is forward to 
 venture a solution. At length, an individual 
 whose voice is perhaps rarely heard in a public 
 meeting, rises and suggests some measure by way 
 of relief, which, though it may involve great effort 
 and liberal contributions, is favorably respond- 
 ed to by one and another, until, after being duly 
 considered and discussed, it is carried by accla- 
 mation. And in due time it takes effect, and 
 that noble society whose fortunes had a little 
 
40 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 })efore seemed dubious, is now moving forward 
 again witli tlie majesty of a ship beneath a glori- 
 ous sky, with, every sail filled with a favoring 
 breeze. Now let us look and see by wbat instru- 
 mentality all tliis lias been accomplished. The 
 man who rose in that meeting, and proposed the 
 measure, and gave the impulse in favor of relief, 
 is at home in a counting-room, and a more busy 
 merchant than he you will rarely meet with. 
 The man who seconded the motion, and those 
 who followed, giving it their cordial support, 
 were all, like the originator, men of business — 
 
 ^ discreet, liberal, sound-hearted merchants. They 
 determined first what ought to be, and then de- 
 termined what should be ; and then took care 
 that what they had decreed should come to 
 pass. Had it not been for their timely inter- 
 
 5^ position, their skill in devising, their liberality 
 in executing, who can say how many heathen 
 might have died without the knowledge of a 
 Saviour, who will now walk firmly through the 
 dark valley, knowing in whom they have be- 
 lieved ? 
 
 I confess that, as I have advanced in this 
 
 v/ course of thought, my respect, I may say rever- 
 ence, for business men, and my estimate of the 
 importance which attaches to them as a class, 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 41 
 
 has been growing Mglier and higlier. 1 can 
 not but ask myself, what would the govern- 
 ment do, what would the Church do, what 
 would our benevolent institutions do, without 
 them ? And yet truth constrains me to say that 
 not a small proportion of this class are absorb- 
 ed in selfish enjoyment, having little sympathy 
 with any of the great interests of humanity. 
 There are thousands who are traitors to the 
 government, not merely by casting their vote 
 for bad rulers, and sacrificing at the shrine of 
 party spirit, but by defrauding the public reve- 
 nue — sometimes even at the expense of deliberate 
 perjury. There are other thousands, who, with 
 their names enrolled on the list of church mem- 
 bers, scruple not to take an unjustifiable advan- 
 tage of their neighbors, or to regard the claims 
 of business as paramount to the claims of reli- 
 gion, or to make the cause of Christ bleed by 
 their habitual insensibility to Divine things. 
 And there are other thousands still — ^though per- 
 haps they can scarcely be considered as forming 
 a separate class — at whose doors the various ob- 
 jects of Christian benevolence and public in- 
 terest knock and plead in vain ; who are always 
 haunted and scared by visions of poverty at 
 home, as often as they are asked to contemplate 
 
42 MEN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 the condition of the destitute abroad, while for 
 their own personal and selfish gratification they 
 can be free even to profuseness. From my 
 heart I pity all these men, and I pity them the 
 more in proportion to their prosperity ; for if 
 there is not found a moth in their treasures, 
 their treasures will certainly prove a moth to 
 their enjoyment. I blame them not for their 
 activity in business, but I blame them for not 
 making it subservient to higher and better in- 
 terests ; I blame them for forgetting that both 
 God and man have claims upon them, which, 
 however they may repudiate them now, will 
 come with fearful urgency upon their conscience 
 another day. 
 
 In writing these pages I have not been able 
 to keep out of my thoughts one living example 
 of a business man, whom I have the privilege 
 to number among my friends, and whose fine 
 character is worthy alike of being admired and 
 imitated. I may speak of him first as I have 
 seen him at home — ^the head of a lovely and 
 loving family, where every thing moves for- 
 ward in obedience to " Heaven's first law ;" 
 where there is a constant ministration and inter- 
 change of parental, and conjugal, and filial 
 affection ; where no harsh or bitter word ever 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 48 
 
 grates upon the ear, and the whole domestic 
 atmosphere is perfumed with love. But I think 
 of him now more particularly as a beautiful 
 illustration of the several topics of which I 
 have been treating. I can not say what his 
 politics are, other than that they are the poli- 
 tics of a true patriot. He loves his country in- 
 tensely, and considers well all her great in- 
 terests. He abominates the blustering dema- 
 gogue, but reverences the enlightened and 
 faithful ruler. He ponders with religious con- 
 sideration his duties as a citizen, and faithfully 
 does he discharge them, no matter whether his 
 time, or his money, or his influence, may be re- 
 quired. He scorns to be the slave of a party, 
 and is as quick to discountenance evil in friends 
 as in foes. And shall I say what he is in his 
 relations to the Church ? Why, in one word, 
 he is an active, consistent, devoted member of 
 it. No matter in what circumstances he may 
 be placed, his light never shines dimly, even for 
 an hour. In the prayer-meeting, and in other 
 occasional religious exercises, his minister is 
 sure to feel strong when he sees him there. 
 He is always ready, but never obtrusive; al- 
 ways edifying, but never tedious; always dis- 
 creet, but never time-serving. And he is a 
 
44 MElSr OF BUSINESS. 
 
 Christian in tlie counting-room as truly as in 
 the lecture-room ; a Christian in making a bar- 
 gain as truly as in hearing a Bible-class, or dis- 
 tributing the elements at the communion. You 
 never hear of his carrying the week into the 
 Sabbath, though he carries mach of the Sabbath 
 into the week ; and so far from violating that 
 sacred day to return to his family when they 
 are well, he would at least pause and require 
 that it should be an extreme case, before he 
 would consent to patronize any of the Sabbath- 
 desecrating conveyances, even if they were sick. 
 V And there is not a more liberal and efficient 
 patron than he of the benevolent institutions 
 of the day. His large pecuniary means he evi- 
 dently holds as a steward who must give an 
 account. His hand is always open to every good 
 object that solicits his aid. His voice is often 
 heard, his wisdom is often displayed, when grave 
 matters connected with the operations of bene- 
 volence are discussed. The frosts of nearly 
 threescore and ten winters have left his powers 
 of mind and body alike untouched. I might 
 say much more of his excellence and his useful- 
 ness, and still leave the picture unfinished. I 
 might have hesitated to write thus concern- 
 ing a living man, but for the conviction I have 
 
BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 45 
 
 that, whoever else may recognize the original, 
 Ms modesty will keep down all suspicion. 
 
 I would that this subject might be duly pon- 
 dered and applied, especially by our young men 
 of business. I would that, at the very com- 
 mencement of their career, they might form the 
 decided Christian purpose to be true to the 
 government under which they live ; true to the 
 Church of Christ ; true to the cause of benevo- 
 lence; true to all the best interests of both 
 worlds. Then will they live an honored and 
 happy life, and posterity will utter words of 
 reverence and thankfulness around their graves. 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS 
 
 THEIR PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 STEPHEN IL TYNG, D.D. 
 
THE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MAN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 No view of the present life of man can ever 
 be satisfactory, which separates it from the re- 
 sponsibilities and results of a life to come. Wo 
 must regard it as an arrangement of means to 
 an end ; as an inferior state of being which has 
 been appointed as an education for some higher 
 condition that lies beyond ; as a temporary pas- 
 sage of warfare, a contest with foes and difficul- 
 ties in the way, encouraged by the hope of 
 victory, and of the results of victory at the 
 close. It is to be considered, not as a voluntary 
 but as a necessary state of being ; a dispensation, 
 a prearrangement for man, in the continuance 
 and ordering of which he is altogether passive ; 
 in which his Divine Creator has fixed the bounds 
 
2 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 of his habitation, and holds him in its endurance 
 and accomplishment, according to his own will. 
 
 The acknowledgment and remembrance of 
 this divine providence and control, we must 
 never exclude. By its foresight and direction 
 every particular scene and element of this pre- 
 paratory discipline is arranged and overruled to 
 the minutest extent of application. And every 
 work and every secret thing, whether it be good 
 or whether it be evil, is to be brought before 
 the divine judgment at the close of life. 
 
 The question of personal relation to this 
 scheme of trial, of actual endurance of its ap- 
 pointed operation, or of individual responsibility 
 for its results, is not submitted to the choice of 
 man. We are here to carry out the plan of 
 personal education which God has devised for us, 
 and to finish, with a fidelity which is voluntary, 
 and for which he has promised an ample recom- 
 pense, the successive parts of the obligation 
 which he has imposed. We are here a spectacle 
 to angels and to men. We bear a commission, 
 and are intrusted with a stewardship, in which 
 the great object for us is that we be found faith- 
 ful. Here our warfare is to be accomplished. 
 Here our abiding character is to be formed. 
 Here motives and principles of action are to be 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSmESS. 3 
 
 adopted, regulated, and settled. Here the line 
 of our unending moral being is to be laid out, 
 and our spiritual nature to be prepared for tlie 
 exercise of the powers and privileges of its ma- 
 turity. 
 
 TMs is tlie divine appointment. And how- 
 ever inconvenient or pressing may be the con- 
 stituent elements of this scheme of education 
 and trial in any particular case, man can not re- 
 fuse or escape them. What can he gain by 
 rebelling against that Being " in whose hand his 
 breath is, and whose are all his ways" ? He is to 
 finish, as an hireling, his day. His duty and his 
 privilege combine to urge him to complete his 
 appointed work with assiduity and cheerfulness, 
 faithful to his trust and conscious of the gains and 
 advantages of his fidelity. His perplexities and 
 temptations are part of the great plan of instruc- 
 tion and guidance for him in the path of duty. 
 And his happiness and his success in all the great 
 ends and attainments of life, will depend upon 
 his holding fast this commanding thought of the 
 divine authority and his own resulting responsi- 
 bility, in its serious practical influence upon his 
 whole career. 
 
 This theory of human life is of universal ap- 
 plication. In the general facts of their trial 
 
4 PEEPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 and contest, whatever may "be the variety of 
 their circumstances, all men are equally engaged. 
 Order, employment, and industry are the un- 
 changeable requisitions of the great Ruler of 
 them all. In whatever particular scene or rela- 
 tion of this immense area of human duty, any 
 individual man may have been placed, he has 
 no time or energies to waste in barren contem- 
 plations or complaints of the comparative differ- 
 ence and inequality observed among them. His 
 simple province is to take heed to the ministry 
 which he has personally received, and to fulfill 
 that, remembering that the rule for all is, " he 
 that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful 
 also in much ; and he that is unjust in the least, 
 is unjust also in much." The comparative im- 
 portance of particular lines of duty, or stations 
 of trust, he can never adequately estimate. The 
 smallest pin, or the most unnoticed wheel in a 
 great machine, may possibly be the very one, on 
 the tenacity or regularity of which in its assign- 
 ed position, the harmony and success of the 
 whole depend. 
 
 The world in which we dwell is no place for 
 idlers. Its occupations and toils are accumu- 
 lated and pressing on each of its inhabitants. 
 Every individual has a distinct duty to perform, 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 5 
 
 a separate work to fulfill, wliich. lie alone can 
 accomplisli. It is tlie order of providence as 
 really as it is tlie precept of revelation, wMcli 
 requires every man to be " not slothful in busi- 
 ness, but fervent in spirit, serving tlie Lord." 
 Every agency is in motion. Every living being 
 here is active and engaged. In proportion to 
 the advantages of civilization surrounding, are 
 the demands for individual industry and effort. 
 Exaltation in condition is habitually but an in- 
 crease of toil. Striving, struggling, inventing, 
 contriving, executing are the inseparable cha- 
 racteristics of the present condition of man. 
 The most self-indulgent in intention is often the 
 hardest worked in fact. A life of purposed 
 gratification is habitually a life of experienced 
 disappointment and sorrow. And the happiest 
 and the most peaceful man is he who in faithful 
 contentment, the most thoroughly fills up the 
 measure of his work, and occupies the most 
 completely the whole circumference of his re- 
 lations. 
 
 The scale of human occupation is immensely 
 extended and varied. It presents a series of 
 innumerable gradations. But the lowest is not 
 less busy in the order of his place than the 
 highest. And the highest is no more free from 
 
6 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 the obligation of necessary toil tlian the lowest. 
 The necessity for habitual, constant labor is the 
 universal rule, and there are no exceptions. We 
 are far from speaking of this fact as an evil. In- 
 deed we may consider it one of the kindest 
 arrangements of the Creator's wisdom. To earn 
 and eat his bread with the sweat of his brow, 
 while it has . been the result, is also, to a great 
 extent, the restraint and the remedy of the sin 
 and folly of man. It is not to be regarded as an 
 infirmity, but as an advantage in his condition. 
 In the sinfulness of human nature, the obligation 
 to toil is the security of excellence. The bur- 
 den of labor is the strength of virtue. Man 
 finds himself equally guarded from moral evil, 
 and excited and prepared for moral improve- 
 ment and gain, by the inevitable law of his be- 
 ing, that every valuable harvest which he may 
 reap, must be the fruit of industry alone, and 
 that nothing but thorns and thistles can be the 
 product of his idleness and neglect. 
 
 Every man therefore becomes in the necessity 
 of his condition, a man of business, engaged in 
 the affairs of this life. His enterprises and in- 
 vestments may endlessly vary, in their fields, 
 their substance, and their extent. But be they 
 more or less, grander or more limited in their 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 7 
 
 scale, the great law wMch governs tlie whole 
 can not be changed. It is the order of man's 
 present being, the necessity of his nature and 
 condition, to strive and toil in his appointed lot 
 from the beginning to the ending of his days, 
 and he can not avoid it. His warfare has been 
 laid out before him, and he must accomplish it. 
 His duty and his destiny are in the labors and 
 contests of this necessary condition. And in 
 vain, under any pressure of weariness, or rising 
 of rebellion beneath his load, does he endeavor 
 to be free. 
 
 The remembrance of this oi^ily just theory of 
 human life is of incalculable importance. It is 
 not a final growth. It is ijot an end or object 
 in itself. It is in every step a progress towards 
 another and a future scene of experience and 
 display. It is a contest for a peace and a con- 
 nected inheritance, which are yet to be revealed. 
 It is a training in a patient continuance in well- 
 doing, for glory, honor, and immortality. It is 
 a temporary service of a high and heavenly 
 Master, in duties which he has himself pre- 
 scribed, and the recompense for which is to be 
 awarded in another and far more exalted state 
 than this. It is a probation, a test and trial 
 state, in which great principles are to be the 
 
8 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 subjects of experiment even in the narrowest 
 condition, and constant and accurate records 
 are to be made of tlie experiments as they 
 proceed, and the full and final results of them 
 are hereafter to be declared. " Like a refiner 
 and purifier of silver," does the great Judge 
 and controller of all " sit," watching with infal- 
 lible precision, the operation which he has in- 
 stituted, and bringing out with no mixture of 
 error or alloy the result which he has designed. 
 This is equally true of every condition of hu- 
 man life. The differences of human condition.^, 
 when compared with that relation to God and to 
 eternity which is common to them all, are ex- 
 tremely trifling and unimportant. The fixed ha- 
 bit of the mind of setting the Lord always before 
 it, of doing all things as in his sight, of remem- 
 bering the account which is to be given to him 
 of each hour, and of each work of every pass- 
 ing day, and of maintaining a conscience void of 
 offense towards him in every relation in which 
 he has placed us, exalts the lowest earthly em- 
 ployment into a heavenly calling, and makes 
 the most extended scene of earthly interest 
 seem in itself a very little thing. "Perfect 
 peace" is the characteristic and enjoyment of 
 the mind that is fixed on God. Happiness for 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 9 
 
 man is invariably the shadow of duty. To 
 make the attainment of personal happiness our 
 object in life, is but pursuing the shadow. We 
 lose the object for which we strive, and waste 
 our time and strength in vain. True enjoyment 
 is only to be found in the faithful discharge of 
 our individual responsibility. While we strive 
 and labor earnestly and assiduously in our ap- 
 pointed work, our happiness, without an ef 
 fort of our own to secure it, becomes the actual 
 and habitual attendant, and our daily advanc- 
 ing experience displays to us the fact that to use 
 the world, and to dwell in the affairs of the world, 
 merely as the scene of our appointed duty be- 
 fore God, whose favor and loving-kindness are 
 made our life, is the sure and only method of 
 really freeing life from its perplexities, and of 
 enlarging and multiplying the circle and the 
 number of its joys. 
 
 And here is the first opening perplexity of 
 the man of business. He forgets this true 
 theory of life. He loses the substance in his 
 vain pursuit of the shadow. The worldly mind 
 presses into the business of the world, as the 
 great end and purpose of its being. The wealtli, 
 and power, and honor of human hfe, the varied 
 attainments of personal influence and gain in 
 1* 
 
10 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 earthly things, are souglit with an earnestness 
 and perseverance entirely disproportionate to 
 their worth, and completely destructive to the 
 higher nature and hopes of man. The fountain 
 of living waters is exchanged in a deliberate 
 purpose of pursuit, for broken cisterns that can 
 hold no water. 
 
 Man is resolved to be rich ; and in the very 
 formation of this purpose, and in the conse- 
 quent efforts to accomplish it, though he may in- 
 tentionally involve himself in no actual fraud or 
 crime in human estimation, he falls into tempta- 
 tion and snares which habitually drown him in 
 destruction and perdition. His whole hfe is a 
 scheme of insatiable idolatry. The present 
 world itself becomes his object, and the re- 
 membrance of God, and the desire for God, 
 and the recognition of his responsibility to God, 
 are banished from his mind. He has set up an 
 idol in his heart, and has instituted a worship 
 before it of whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices, 
 the claims of which can never be satisfied. His 
 whole scheme of world-worship, too, involves a 
 constant sense of degradation and self-reproach, 
 an habitual repetition of conscious violation of 
 duty, and an unyielding fear of final loss and 
 ruin. He has made his whole life a perplexity 
 
OF THE MAlSr OF BUSIKESS. 11 
 
 in the very plan on wliicli lie has arranged its 
 occupations and obj ects. Already has he pierced 
 himself through with many sorrows, in the very 
 scheme on which he has framed the purpose of 
 his toil. But who shall pursue such an end as 
 this, as the object of life, and remain inno- 
 cent of great transgressions ? This earnest de- 
 sire and determination for mere gain will in- 
 volve the inevitable consequence of successive 
 acts of fraud. They may be secret. They 
 may be without responsibility to man. But 
 they are not the less real, and conscious, and 
 ruinous to the soul. There is a constant rob- 
 bery of God of the reverence to which his 
 authority is entitled, and of the gratitude and 
 remembrance which his bounties demand. There 
 is an increasing defrauding of the soul of its 
 native desire and privilege of enlargement for 
 higher and better scenes and occupations, by this 
 oppressive encasing of all its energies in the mis- 
 erable routine of low, selfish, local and temporary 
 designs. There is a progressive denial of all the 
 finer and nobler affections of the heart, in the 
 refusal of liberal kindness to the needy, and in 
 the artificial stimulating of the spirit of selfish- 
 ness, which, like riveting an iron armor on the 
 youthful body, violently repressing its natural 
 
12 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 growth, not only robs it of all its beauty and 
 strength, but adds also the keenest misery to 
 its inevitable deformity. There is a solemn and 
 fearful sacrifice of future hope, and resulting 
 glory, and a kingdom which can not be removed, 
 for the mere gratification of an earthly appe- 
 tite and a low sensual passion. Who can think 
 or speak of this whole course and scheme of 
 being without a solemn perception of the dis- 
 honor and guilt which are involved in the very 
 adoption of the theory on which it is framed ? 
 And how can the man who starts in his career 
 with a principle so delusive and false, and so 
 necessarily disappointing and destructive, won- 
 der at any perplexities in which he shall be in- 
 volved, or at any bitterness of despair in which 
 they may result at last. He has doomed him- 
 self to wretchedness as the very characteristic 
 of his life, and he must lie down at last in the 
 bitterest, but most unavailing sorrow, when his 
 whole weary career has been completed, and 
 his mad experiment has been thoroughly tried. 
 We quarrel not with the ardor and earnest- 
 ness of an active life. The business of this 
 world is to be pursued, and that with industry 
 and fidelity. But it must be pursued as a Hne 
 of duty, and as a course of obligation, with a 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 13 
 
 constant remembrance of its responsibility and 
 results, and of the divine authority which is to 
 control it, or it will become a scheme of unfail- 
 ing wretchedness to the man who engages in it. 
 A constant remembrance of God in his com- 
 mandments and his claims must be the chosen 
 and cherished attendant of the man who would 
 enter safely and happily into the active business 
 of the world. He must be able to say, '^ I have 
 set the Lord always before me," as much in the 
 aifairs of his office, or counting-house, or shop, 
 as in the direct offerings of his professed reli- 
 gious worship. If he be earnest and upright in 
 his motives and plans, on this high and enno- 
 bling scheme, he will enjoy in the highest de- 
 gree the prosperity which may crown his ef- 
 forts, and he will be peaceful and grateful still, 
 though outward losses and disappointments 
 should prove to be his designated trial. Such 
 a man may say of his acquired wealth, like Sir 
 Matthew Hale : " It has been honestly gotten, 
 and it will wear well." And however low his 
 outward condition may possibly become, there 
 will still be a charm and a relish in his dinner 
 of herbs, which riches gotten by wrong can 
 never supply. This just theory and remem- 
 brance of life will furnish him with constant 
 
14 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 light, tranquillity and peace. And lie will 
 find, as Lord Bacon has described it, " no less 
 tlian a heaven upon earth, in a mind which 
 rests in Providence, moves in charity, and turns 
 upon the poles of truth." 
 
 But here, habitually, the first perplexity of 
 the man of business occurs. He rushes into 
 the world, as if it were in itself the appointed 
 end of his being. He plunges into the midst 
 of bustling contests for gain without hesitation, 
 and without alarm ; he makes a complete over- 
 turn of the whole divine, and the only opera- 
 tive arrangement of his mind. Every thing 
 within himself, and in his relations to outward 
 things, becomes disordered. He chases after a 
 shadow which he never grasps. He exalts into 
 the place of his treasures, objects over which 
 the wind passeth, and they are gone. He 
 dooms himself to be the victim and the prey of 
 successive disappointments and of final despair ; 
 he sacrifices his calmness of conscience, his 
 peacefulness of spirit, his sense of dignity, his 
 freedom of usefulness and intelligent thought, 
 his future and higher hopes and aims, in mak- 
 ing himself a mere drudge — a slave, to bear an 
 inevitable burden, and to groan at last in the per- 
 ception that he has gained nothing by its endur- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 15 
 
 ance. What a complication of sorrows liang 
 upon tliis one error of man ! Covetousness is 
 idolatry, and tMs idolatry is tlie certain parent 
 of wretchedness and despair. 
 
 But against this whole train of sorrows the 
 principles and precepts of the Bible furnish a 
 complete antidote and preventive. What bet- 
 ter scheme for a prosperous and happy life can 
 he laid out, than that which is so beautifully 
 described by the apostle in his letter to the 
 Philippian Christians? "Rejoice in the Lord 
 always. Let your moderation be known unto all 
 men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for no- 
 thing, but in every thing by prayer and suppli- 
 cation with thanksgiving, let your requests be 
 made known unto God ; and the peace of God 
 which passeth all understanding, shall keep 
 your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 
 Here is a life of business, which is also a life of 
 usefulness, happiness, and rest; every act of 
 which is exalted into worship, and every gain 
 of which is made an imperishable treasure, en- 
 during in the heavens. In the settlement of 
 this one grand principle and question, " what is 
 to be the theory and plan and object of your 
 life V we may predicate the whole issue of pros- 
 perity, happiness, and final gain, or of turbu- 
 
16 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 lence, disappointment, discontent, and unalle- 
 viated misery, as its result. 
 
 This one fundamental principle will constitute 
 the real distinction between the Christian in the 
 l)usiness of the world, who is striving to do 
 every thing as unto the Lord, and the mere 
 worldling, whose only desired portion is in the 
 riches of the earth, and to whom self is the only 
 god. Both may meet with the same circum- 
 stances of difficulty. Both in their passage 
 through an active, anxious life, may scrape over 
 the same shallows, or be whirled around the 
 same rocks and rapids. But the one has a 
 guiding principle which will lead to certain se- 
 curity in the issue, and the other has adopted 
 a purpose, which, however it may give room for 
 an apparently freer course on the way, can lead 
 to no final result, but fearful and irreparable loss. 
 
 Our present object is with the former, and not 
 with the latter of these two. The idolator of 
 the world we must leave. He has entangled 
 himself in his first step, and every subsequent step 
 is but a further plunge into difficulty and ruin. 
 His only course of safety is in a complete re- 
 bracing of his plan of life, and seeking by the 
 Divine Spirit, to have all things within him 
 .nade new. The conscientious servant of God 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 17 
 
 in the world, the real soldier of Christ in the 
 affairs of this life, may be called to contend 
 with many perplexities and temptations; but 
 he will not be permanently entangled or dis- 
 heartened, still less destroyed by them. " Who 
 is he that will harm yon, if ye be followers of 
 that which is good V is the demand of conscious 
 security and success, even in the darkest hours of 
 a Christian's warfare. It is for him that we 
 here write. It is for him that we are disposed to 
 consider more particularly and practically, the 
 common sources and shapes of perplexity and 
 temptation to which the man of business, in all 
 the departments of human life, is likely to be 
 exposed. 
 
 The conscientious man, who is resolved to 
 square his whole conduct by the rule of God's 
 word, in every department of the business of 
 life, is exposed to very similar temptations. So 
 far as the mere attainment of worldly gam 
 is concerned, he has a twofold object. He 
 seeks the adequate support of himself, and per- 
 haps of a family dependent upon his efforts ; 
 and beyond this, the fair and moderate accumu- 
 lation of means for future independence, both for 
 himself and them. Each part of this twofold 
 object may be justly considered, not only as a 
 
18 PEEPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 personal riglit, but also as a relative duty. Man 
 may toil for them both, with, a clear conscience, 
 and a tranquil sense of his fulfillment of indivi 
 dual obligation, while he does it all in the fear 
 of God, with an obedient purpose to honor him, 
 and with a grateful remembrance of his goodness, 
 " who giveth him all things richly to enjoy." 
 But he will never pursue his path of labor and 
 gain without perplexities, which will awaken 
 constant anxious concern, often exceedingly 
 harass his mind, and sometimes almost disgust 
 him completely with the whole business of life. 
 Often nothing but the stern demands of mani- 
 fest necessity will be sufficient to control the 
 power of these rising embarrassments in his 
 condition. And he is ready to feel that were 
 he alone, and obliged only to provide for him- 
 self, he would rather flee to the wilderness, and 
 live away from all the busy haunts of men, than 
 endure the anxious toil and trial which he is 
 compelled to bear. This is all a part of the di- 
 vine scheme of his education for something bet- 
 ter. And it is by the means of this very pro- 
 cess of rising up early, and late taking rest, and 
 eating the bread of carefulness, that God pre- 
 pares his beloved for the rest which he has pro- 
 vided for them. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSmESS. 19 
 
 He must sometimes begin his life of toil with 
 exceedingly limited means for trade or profes- 
 sional skill. And he is compelled to feel at the 
 outset, the truth of the proverb, '^ the destruc- 
 tion of the poor is their poverty." He has lit- 
 tle, perhaps no capital of his own, on the basis 
 of which he may traffic, or with the provisions 
 of which he may labor. He starts in his course 
 under a pressure of want which if it sharpens 
 the wits for calculation and contest, also tends to 
 blunt the conscience, and to persuade man to 
 excuse and palliate many a conscious wrong. 
 '' Lest I be poor and steal," was Agur's reason 
 for his prayer against poverty. And its appli- 
 cation remains for ever. But poverty is a relative 
 word. Its adaptation to man's condition is not 
 actual and abstract, but contingent and propor- 
 tional. The young man in business without 
 adequate capital, may not be actually destitute 
 of food and personal comforts ; but he is with- 
 out the means of carrying on the trade in which 
 he has engaged with encouraging or compensating 
 success. To this extent he is poor, and must 
 live by his wits. He must make up in skill and 
 sharpness of calculation, and in toil and jDcrse- 
 vering industry, what he wants in means. And 
 here is often found a very severe pressure of 
 
20 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 perplexity and temptation. A thousand anxious 
 thouglits arise, and scliemes and visions of pos- 
 sible gain or of triumph, over the adversities of 
 his condition, occupy and excite his waking and 
 sleeping meditations. Bishop Hall says it is 
 easy to drive a long team on a large common ; 
 but to turn it safely through the narrow 
 lanes, and to guide it round the sharp corners 
 of a city, requires great skill and care in the 
 driver. Doubtless such an experience vastly 
 promotes the individual skill, and when rightly 
 guarded and governed, becomes the mother, 
 however severe, of valuable traits of excellence 
 and usefulness, and of a prosperity in after life 
 which is more than a recompense for all the 
 process of the education. But many a young 
 man in the fairest openings of trade, under the 
 pressure of anxiety in long-continued contem- 
 plation, from this one source, is driven either to 
 sink beneath the load of despondency or to 
 hazard in unwarranted and excessive loans the 
 integrity of his character, the peace of his con- 
 science, and the future prosperity of his life. It 
 is a contest in which tried strength and virtue 
 grows with permanent confidence, but under 
 which feebleness of principle, or fickleness of 
 purpose, is sure to fail. In every class of busi- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 21 
 
 ness, the princes of tlie trade are the men wlio 
 began with nothing, and who look around on all 
 the attainments of their age, with the honest 
 gratulation that under the divine blessing, they 
 have been dependent for their success and pros- 
 perity only upon their own integrity, fidelity, 
 and skill. And we can not regard the narrow 
 circumstances of the commencement of active 
 life, as a reason for regret, or a cause for sorrow, 
 for we believe there is no other process less 
 painful or harassing, which will so surely stir 
 up the gift which may be in man, and bring 
 out for circulation and use the veins of gold 
 which may lie embedded in his hidden mines. 
 If he be faithful, honest, honorable. Christian, 
 his early straitness of condition will be an 
 everlasting blessing. It is a soil that will yield 
 to appropriate cultivation the richest and the 
 most lasting fruit. But it will involve care, 
 thought, labor, purpose, and unshrinking virtue, 
 to prevent its becoming not merely a perplexity 
 in occupation, but a poison to the soul. 
 
 The want of capital is a difficulty which cir- 
 cumstances and periods of earthly business often 
 very much increase. There was a time in our 
 history, and perhaps there are still places in our 
 country, in which a very small capital might 
 
22 PERPLEXITIES AIS-D TEMPTATIONS 
 
 be made to appear a very adequate start in life. 
 Habits of living were plain and simple. The 
 expenses of conducting business were moderate 
 and comparatively small. But with tlie rising 
 prosperity of a country, tbese characteristics re- 
 markably change. No longer can a young mer- 
 chant, or even a mechanic, live respectably, as 
 he thinks, in the simplicity of his father's style. 
 Dr. Franklin says, " The eyes that ruin us, are 
 other people's." There is everywhere now an 
 advanced scheme of domestic residence, and fur- 
 niture, and dress, which seems imperative in its 
 demands. There is an immense enhancement 
 of all the costs of trade in every department of 
 its operations. The young man can not launch 
 his new-built bark upon the sea of enterprise 
 at less than four-fold, perhaps ten-fold, the cost 
 of outfit and inventory with which his father 
 sailed. This is a difficulty apparently not to be 
 avoided. If he shrink from locations and op- 
 portunities of trade for their excessive cost, he 
 retires also, as he thinks, from all the possible 
 gains and advantage which they hold out to view, 
 and loses the very prize for which he would con- 
 tend, from a fear of hazard, which he is tempted 
 to despise as a want of enterprise. This whole 
 contingency of profit often turns upon a very 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 23 
 
 sharp line. It may be that the question of 
 moving around the corner of a street may in- 
 volve half the expense of his scheme of business, 
 and yet hazard the whole of its profit. And he 
 must encounter all this anxious calculation and 
 contrivance in the very commencement of his 
 plans of work for life. His difficulties are 
 great ; the perplexity of his appointed path is 
 most harassing, and too often is he tempted, ei- 
 ther by a sacrifice of principle, to make haste to 
 be rich, and thus by assuming obligations which 
 he can never discharge, practically to " steal," 
 or to sink in a tame despair at the prospect 
 of the difficulties before Mm, and throw away 
 all the intelligence and thrift with which he 
 may have been endowed, in the mere terror of 
 the undertaking. The former course may in- 
 volve him in inextricable disgrace and ruin. 
 The latter dooms him to a chosen lethargy and 
 want. As an illustration of the former, there 
 was a young man tempted forward in apparent^ 
 ly prosperous openings, who, though, he never 
 had ten thousand dollars capital of his own, as- 
 sumed a rent of more than half that sum for a 
 desirable store — allowed his family expenses to 
 run up annually to five thousand more — traded 
 in one year to an amount over eight hundred 
 
24 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 thousand, and in a few years failed, leaving two 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars debts, of 
 which he was never able to pay a single dollar. 
 Who could be surprised that his character was 
 covered with dishonor, or that his conscience 
 knew no real subsequent peace ? He was pro- 
 minent as a Christian man, but his haste to be 
 rich in this perplexity of his career, made ship- 
 wreck of his faith, and wrote upon his very 
 countenance the deep lines of conscious wrong- 
 doing which all might read. Yet there is sure- 
 ly here a middle path of industry, economy, 
 and " patient continuance in well-doing," which 
 will lead a young man safely through this maze, 
 and enable him to enjoy that accepting " bless- 
 ing of God, which maketh rich and addeth no 
 sorrow therewith." Let him strive watchfully 
 in this path, remembering that no man striving 
 for the mastery can hope to be crowned except 
 he strive lawfully. The richest inheritance 
 which he can ever have on earth, and which 
 lie can never sacrifice or hazard with safety 
 or hope, is the testimony of a good conscience 
 before God, giving boldness to the coun- 
 tenance, elasticity to the spirit, and a conscious 
 right to the confidence and respect of his fellow- 
 men. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 25 
 
 Added to these two perplexities, comes tlie 
 constant increase of individual competition, 
 from tlie multiplying of the numbers around 
 the man of business who are engaged in similar 
 occupations, and the necessary diminution of 
 individual profits with which the business must 
 in consequence be transacted by each. This is 
 an inevitable result of the growing age and 
 population of a country. Every class of hu- 
 man business in an old country becomes over- 
 stocked. The field of occupation is subdivided, 
 until, in the business of life, as in the territory 
 on which it is transacted, farms are cut up into 
 acres, and acres into dwelling-lots, and even 
 these again compressed with an upward occupa- 
 tion of the sky above, in proportion as a pos- 
 session of the area of the earth below is refused 
 and unattainable. Such a separation of the 
 parts of business, and such a competition between 
 them, sharpens amazingly the powers of human 
 invention. It has been the parent of all those 
 thousands of machines, by which the present 
 age, and our land, are so distinguished, giving to 
 one man the strength of hundreds, and accom- 
 plishing in hours the work of days. But it also 
 almost equally forces the appetite, and what 
 men will sometimes excuse as the necessity, for 
 
 2 
 
26 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 fraud. If macliines are invented to supersede 
 human labor by mecbanical or brute force, and 
 steam be made apparently to starve multitudes 
 wbose handiwork it displaces, so also must new 
 plans of business be contrived ; new agencies of 
 enterprise be discovered ; cheaper and more ex- 
 peditious methods of accomplishment be in- 
 vented, that by the products of advancing skill 
 and better adapted intelligence, competitors 
 may be undersold, and the common business be 
 carried on with increased advantage to the indi- 
 vidual engaged. This competition is not to be 
 avoided. When it is healthful and just, it is not 
 desirable that it should be. Its aggregate con- 
 stitutes the wealth of a land, and its wholesome 
 and stimulating operation promotes and secures 
 the prosperity and comfort of multitudes who 
 are not directly engaged in the circle of its con- 
 test. But it creates frequent and great per- 
 plexities to the individual trader, and offcen em- 
 barrasses and breaks down the young man of 
 business in the beginning of his career. Fre- 
 quently, also, there is great injustice perpetrated 
 under the garb of just and equitable competition. 
 A large trader with abundant capital will delib- 
 erately adopt the nature and occupation of the 
 tiger among the flocks. Though already abun- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BTTSHirESS. 27 
 
 dantly ricli, and needing nothing more, lie will 
 devote Mmself to tlie oppressive persecution of 
 competitors with smaller means. Instead of a 
 noble and generous encouragement of them hy 
 maintaining the stand of the branch of trade in 
 which they are engaged in common, he wUl un- 
 dersell them, even at a loss to himself. He will 
 even ascertain the main staple of their invest- 
 ment, that he may especially destroy them by a 
 ruinous reduction of the market price for this 
 one class of merchandise. His purpose is no 
 longer an honorable gain for himself, but a 
 murderous ruin for others ; and embarrassment 
 aud failure in trade, and hopeless debts, and se- 
 cret family distress, and it may be heart-broken 
 poverty, and even despairing suicide, may be 
 the results of this unrighteous oppression of the 
 poor, by the rich of this world. Such a man, 
 while far from an advantage to the trade, is no 
 benefit to the community in which he trades. 
 Like some of the haughty and cruel land-own- 
 ers whom the soil of Europe occasionally pro- 
 duces, who delight to sell out whole villages of 
 the poor to increase the area of their worthless 
 parks, and to depopulate a neighborhood by 
 the grinding of the faces of the laboring and 
 needy, till they compel hundreds to depart, that 
 
28 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 they may dwell alone, and that their game may 
 roam where these poor ones were born, and 
 where their fathers lie, and where they too 
 would willingly have toiled and died, and then 
 affect to consider the splendor of their en- 
 larged palaces, and the green silence of their 
 outspread lawns, the index of the prosperity of 
 the land which they have cursed, so does such 
 an overgrown trader become the voluntary 
 destroyer of hundreds, furnishing, in return, no 
 increase to the common wealth, often even 
 swearing out from just taxation for the public, 
 the whole amount of his ill-gathered property, 
 and willingly sacrificing the happiness and pros- 
 perity of any and all others, to his own selfish 
 plans of covetous accumulation. This, in a 
 greater or a less degree, is a frequent shape of the 
 competition in which the man of business must 
 contend. And when such a pressure comes 
 upon one whose capital is small, and whose ex- 
 penses are necessarily disproportionate to his 
 means, the perplexity and the temptation are 
 great, and the conscience, and the stern purpose 
 of honesty and right become often severely 
 tried. The alternative frequently appears in- 
 evitable between absolute failure, with its 
 painful results in poverty and domestic distress. 
 
OF THE MAN OF ]JUSINESS. 29 
 
 and a sacrifice of truth, and honesty, and the 
 fear and favor of God, in unrighteous attempts 
 for vindication and relief 
 
 This increase of competition in trade necessa- 
 rily also promotes the improvement of means 
 and agencies for trade. And in this field again, 
 while capital may be honorably invested, and 
 skill and powers of invention may be justly and 
 profitably employed, another contest is urged 
 and maintained, in which the want of capital 
 is often the source of failure and ruin. A man 
 may have invested his whole command of pecu- 
 niary ability in a style or method of operation 
 of adequate and compensating profit, when the 
 unexpected invention of machinery, or the dis- 
 covery of some new principle of power by oth- 
 ers, or their greater ability of capital for invest- 
 ment in such machinery or discovery, may in- 
 stantly annihilate all his hopes of gain, and 
 destroy the worth of all the investments which 
 he holds. We can not complain of this new 
 element of contest, or righteously forbid its ap- 
 pearance and operation, as a general fact in a 
 community. The advance of the. prosperity of 
 the whole, is, in such, a case, more than a com- 
 pensation for the. losses of individuals. And 
 the general prosperity of a community justly 
 
80 PEKPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 compels tlie claims of private interest and advan- 
 tage to yield. It would be a mere absurdity to 
 groan over tlie want of employment to indivi- 
 duals, however multiplied tbey are, wbicli bas 
 followed from tbe amazing inventions of tbe 
 steam-engine, tbe power-press, or tbe cotton- 
 loom. Yet tbe fact bas been equally real and 
 pressing in a thousand cases of illustration. Eacb 
 of tbese inventions threw multitudes out of 
 work, and wrecked their little all in their un- 
 provided voyage. And it required tbe endurance 
 of much suffering, and tbe passage of a necessary 
 interval of time, before the equilibrium was 
 again restored, and tbe surrounding interests of 
 individuals and the trade were once more adjust- 
 ed. Such illustrations are likely always to occur. 
 As advancing science brings its new discoveries to 
 aid and adorn tbe arts, tbe mechanical and so- 
 cial powers of man must constantly increase ; 
 and tbe varieties of human invention will be 
 multiplied in number, and carried further for- 
 ward into tbe domains of actual work. Each 
 new invention successfully operating both sug- 
 gests tbe principle of another, and excites to the 
 effort for its realization. Tbe skill of man is thus 
 unceasingly sharpened and urged forward. A 
 machine may be hardly a year old, before some 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 31 
 
 new discovery gets rid of its friction, or dimin- 
 ishes its expense, or reduces tlie cost of working 
 it, and its doom is fixed. All its promises and 
 liopes are compelled to yield to a more effective 
 and successful competition. The reducing the 
 price of manufacture of necessity regulates in 
 its result the market for trade. And it is im- 
 possible to limit the field of application to which 
 the process of invention may be carried. It is seen 
 in all arts and preparations for navigation on 
 the sea, and in all the schemes for mechanical 
 power on the land. The lines and the materials 
 of commerce, and the methods and courses of 
 transportation are all in their turn involved. 
 The man of business, to be a successful one, must 
 be a quick, ready, intelligent, and thoroughly 
 informed one, not only in the particular branch 
 which he has selected, but in all the related and 
 contingent branches which bear upon it ; or the 
 skill of invention will distance his powers, and 
 the progress of discovery will leave him in the 
 rear. 
 
 The possibility of this competition, we might 
 more justly say the certainty of it, in every 
 shape and department of human trade, will 
 make a frequent cause of new perplexity to the 
 man of business. Wherever he may look around 
 
32 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 in a commercial community, whose free schools 
 and active trade give every poor man's son the 
 full chance for the exercise of all the powers 
 with which God has endowed him, and urge 
 him by every motive of hope, of gain, and of 
 honor, to realize the wildest of his dreams of 
 greatness and influence, this contest must grow 
 more and more earnest and varied. And as the 
 result, talent, industry, and enterprise, in their 
 applications to the walks of trade, united with 
 economy, honesty, and truth as the principles 
 of its management, must be the occupants of 
 the throne of social government, and rule and 
 regulate the interests of individuals by the en- 
 larging schemes which they propose. This 
 whole interwoven scheme of operation will 
 enlarge and quicken the powers of every man 
 of business, but it will also often exceedingly 
 enhance and multiply the perplexities of his 
 pursuit of trade. 
 
 All these perplexities come within the range 
 of honorable traffic, and involve, in the general 
 sources from whence they arise, nothing that is 
 morally destructive. But beyond these, and 
 perhaps occasionally connected with them all, 
 there is the difficulty which arises from the 
 prevalence of surrounding fraud in every branch 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 83 
 
 of trade. The honest and upright man of 
 business often iinds himself placed in temporary 
 disadvantage, by the greater immediate facilities 
 for success, which others derive from a fraudulent 
 pursuit of the same course of occupation. Des- 
 titute of conscience and honor, and indifferent 
 to the law of God and the claims of truth, they 
 can make false representations without hesita- 
 tion, and take advantage of ignorance without 
 remorse. The habits of deception often produce 
 wonderful adroitness and skill in the management 
 of the deceit. The alacrity of the pickpocket 
 in the use of the nicely concealed knife in his 
 finger-ring, often renders him more than a match 
 for any vigilance. The skill of the counterfeiter 
 sometimes almost defies the most practised power 
 of detection. And the unprincipled and violent 
 portion of men seem for a season to triumpli 
 easily over the honest and the upright in their 
 pursuit of the gains of earth. The likelihood of 
 success appears thus to place a premium upon 
 fraud. The contest between honesty and 
 knavery, amidst the varied apparent disadvan- 
 tages which attend upon the former, is often for 
 a time extremely unequal. The upright man 
 who struggles forward in the faithful and assid- 
 uous employment of his lawful and honorable 
 
34 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 opportunities for gain, resolving to maintain, in 
 all liis transactions, a conscience void of offense 
 towards God and towards men, appears to have 
 but little chance of success, in competition wifli 
 a fraudulent neiglibor, wlio buys without con- 
 cern whether he shall ever pay, and borrows in 
 enormous disproportion to his own ability, of 
 the funds of others, reckless whether they shall 
 ever be restored. To the one a failure without 
 the means to redeem the sacred pledges of his 
 honest debts, is not only a dishonor in trade, 
 but is also a violation of his own conscience of 
 right, a result which inflicts far more pain upon 
 a sensitive and upright mind, than the mere 
 pressure of outward disgrace. To the other, 
 the failure of payment is but a source of gain. 
 He readily secretes from his creditors the stolen 
 property in his possession, and settles his con- 
 science and his debts at the lowest possible per 
 centage of payment, and then chooses to repre- 
 sent himself as honorably discharged from obliga- 
 tion, and authorized to commence a new career 
 with an entire oblivion of the past. A country 
 merchant who had purchased a large amount of 
 goods from some city houses, failed in his pay- 
 ments, and made a proposition to his creditors 
 for his release on their receipt of 50 per cent, on 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 35 
 
 his obligations. The proposition was accepted, 
 in ignorance of the real state of his affairs. He 
 subsequently appeared at some of the same es- 
 tablishments to ask for a new credit, and when 
 questioned as to his ability to pay, boldly al- 
 leged that he had now a handsome cash capital, 
 for which he accounted in the statement that 
 the assets in his hands from his former failure, 
 had turned out far better than he expected. 
 And all this advance he considered as a profit 
 to which he was justly entitled, though there 
 was still unpaid the half of every debt he owed 
 before. The difficulties of active business, in 
 such circumstances of competition, become very 
 great. The man of conscience, honesty, and 
 truth, must often be content with small gains 
 during the period of such a contest, in the con- 
 stant assurance of the compensating fact, that 
 the ultimate result of his operations will show 
 him to have been no loser by his fidelity to 
 truth, and his maintenance of an incorruptible 
 integrity in the sight of God. 
 
 These various perplexities of the man of busi- 
 ness involve the pressure of increasing tempta- 
 tions to sacrifice the claims of honor and truth 
 to the mere promises of a temporary expe- 
 diency. But let it never be forgotten that 
 
36 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 tliere is a principle of honor in tlie discharge of" 
 human business which "beams with just as keen 
 a defiance on the most accumulated power of 
 temptation, and shines with an undimmed lustre 
 in the most secret darkness of concealment. 
 There are men who shrink with a noble abhor- 
 rence from the contact of deceit, and turn their 
 backs with instant loathing from all the delusive 
 promises of ill-gotten gain. They neither look 
 upon the tempting cheat, nor hearken to its most 
 honeyed solicitations. The interests and proper- 
 ty of others are as safe in their hands as in the 
 hands of the owners thereof. Their word of true 
 and candid statement of facts realizes the yea and 
 nay of the divine description of truthful com- 
 munication. Their promise is a sure security, 
 and those who rely upon them, never find 
 themselves deceived. Their friendship is the 
 very soul of fidelity, equally an honor and a 
 pleasure to those to whom it is extended. Such 
 men are the nobility of trade. The community 
 rejoice in their success, and multitudes par- 
 take of the benefits which flow from it. In 
 influence, in example, and in direct efforts for 
 the welfare of their fellow men, their inter- 
 course with others is like the genial dew of 
 heaven, everywhere descending, and descending 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 3T 
 
 only to fertilize and bless. The walks of liber- 
 ality are distinguished by their presence ; hu- 
 man wretchedness blesses their life ; the Church 
 of God commemorates their benevolence ; and 
 science and literature, and all the great inter- 
 ests of humanity and the public welfare, com- 
 bine to acknowledge their merits and to en- 
 rol their reputation. What an example and 
 excitement are such competitors to the young 
 and rising man of business ! And how " like 
 the shining light, which shineth more and more 
 unto the perfect day," is the path of guidance 
 and encouragement which they lay open, and 
 in which they walk ! 
 
 But the perplexities of business often bear 
 hard upon this principle of unblemished and 
 unrelaxing honor, and men of feebler principles, 
 and with a conscience less stern in its demands, 
 are in constant danger of yielding to the evil 
 influence, and of being carried away by the 
 current of mere covetousness and love of the 
 world. This principle of personal honor, of in- 
 herent and unchangeable integrity, is daily 
 tried, and either becomes daily strengthened 
 by a successful contest with temptation, or, 
 yielding in little things, perishes by little and 
 little ; and many an Hazael who scorns the warn- 
 
38 PERPLEXITIES AISTD TEMPTATIONS 
 
 ing against possible crime, as an insult wMch f e- 
 proaches him as if lie were " a dog," finds him- 
 self reduced by his heedlessness of the tempta- 
 tion, to a condition of disgrace and ruin which 
 dogs might pity. The first sacrifice of honor 
 and truth in the walk of business is, as Solo- 
 mon describes the starting of strife, " as when 
 one letteth out water." It is a neglected chink 
 in the dam ; a leak which will hourly grow in 
 its power and certainty of destruction ; which 
 is only to be met successfully when it is first dis- 
 covered, and win soon attain a powel- that will 
 mock at vigilance, and defy restraint. 
 
 The temptation comes in a thousand varied 
 shapes, and no man of business, young or old, 
 rich or poor, in trade, or profession, or handi- 
 craft, can feel himself exempted from its ap- 
 pearance, or assured of security against its 
 power. The sacrifice demanded, is of this in- 
 ward principle of conscience and truth in the 
 sight of God. The prize which is offered is 
 present immediate expediency and gain. The 
 urgency to compliance is from the necessities of 
 the condition, the difficulties of mere duty, the 
 pressure of the perplexity of present circum- 
 stances, the impossibility of applying the princi- 
 ples of mere abstract morality to the exigencies 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 89 
 
 of trade, the certainty that others will adopt 
 the expedient proposed, the general employment 
 of similar deceptions in the business of life, and 
 finally, the alleged impossibility of transacting 
 the business of the world in any other way. It 
 seems to offer no other alternative than com- 
 pliance with conscious falsehood and crime, or 
 exclusion from the chosen walks of professional 
 trade. 
 
 It may come in the shape of false representa- 
 tions of the value and usefulness of articles for 
 sale ; or of delusive trade in furnishing the ma- 
 terials which are desired and demanded. The 
 specimen may be far better than the stock 
 which it is claimed to represent, or the light in 
 which an article is arranged, or the artificial 
 and special advantage which is given to its ap- 
 pearance, may delude the purchaser into the 
 bargain, while the seller triumphs in the gain 
 which he has received, though perfectly con- 
 scious of the cheat and the loss which he has in- 
 flicted upon another. A young druggist of our 
 acquaintance, whose conscience was quick in its 
 sensitiveness to truth and honesty, once applied 
 to an older Christian friend, with the statement, 
 " I am required to sell three different articles as 
 medicines, under three different names, to pur- 
 
40 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 chasers wlio suppose tliem to be distinct things, 
 and wlio buy tliem as sucli for distinct purposes. 
 And yet I take tliem all out of tlie same vessel, 
 and they are identically the same thing. How 
 can I honestly practise a deception like this ?" 
 And yet there seemed no way of escape, but in 
 the sacrifice of his place and all the advantages 
 of his trade. A youthful agent in a large gro- 
 cery establishment once presented to us a simi- 
 lar case. "I am required to pack barrels of su- 
 gar with a small proportion of sugar of a finei* 
 quality at each end, and the whole of the cen- 
 tre filled up with an inferior kind ; how can I 
 do it V Yet such an adulteration of goods, and 
 such schemes of delusive trade, are so extensive, 
 that the honor and honesty of multitudes of 
 our young men are destroyed in their mer- 
 cantile education. Their integrity of heart 
 and nature is ground completely out between 
 the stones of example and necessity ; and dis- 
 honest masters of trade thus inoculate their 
 agents with a virus too accordant with the selfish 
 spirit of maturing man, not to be effective and 
 powerful in its influence upon their succeeding 
 and independent life. But Christian integrity 
 and honor can never sanction these false repre- 
 sentations in traffic, whether they are verbal or 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSmESS. 41 
 
 material. No authority or example can make 
 them right, and no success or accumulation of 
 gain can make them finally lucrative. There 
 may be losses in the path of uprightness. 
 The way of deception may seem right in a 
 man's eyes for the occasion. Violence and dis- 
 honesty may banish the agent whose honor re- 
 fuses compliance. But after all is done, it will 
 be found better to have suffered for a season 
 with a good conscience, than to increase our 
 riches, or maintain our stand in outward life, by 
 the perpetration of conscious crime. The man 
 of business who has faithfully withstood this 
 whole array of varied temptation, and who can 
 survey all his gains as the gifts of God to his 
 unwavering integrity, usefulness and truth, will 
 have an enjoyment in the retrospect of his 
 days, that prospered crime can never gain; 
 while the divine testimony will be sustained by 
 the whole history of human traffic, " he that 
 getteth riches and not by right, shall leave 
 them in the midst of his days, and at his end 
 shall be a fool." 
 
 The temptation comes also in the shape of a 
 false representation of personal responsibility. 
 The former course led to an unlawful accumula- 
 tion by deceitful sale. This leads to the same 
 
42 PERPLEXITIES ATTD TEMPTATIONS 
 
 resnit by a withholding of honorable and just 
 obligations. Perhaps there is no shape in which 
 the temptation to deception more habitually 
 arises in business than this. It constantly oc- 
 curs in a failure in trade — ^it comes in a false 
 representation of the value and availability of 
 assets ; in the assertions of personal ability on 
 the basis of which settlements with creditors 
 are to be made ; in the assumption of the suffi- 
 ciency of a forced settlement, as a legal and just 
 discharge of the obligation of a debt. There is 
 an habituation to this species of transaction in 
 business, which makes it a subject of expecta- 
 tion when embarrassments and difficulties arise, 
 and which almost blinds the conscience of the 
 debtor to the reality and permanency of the 
 obligation. But how can a man be honest in 
 such a transaction? He compounds with a 
 trusting creditor for ten per cent, perhaps, or 
 fifty per cent, of his debt, often upon the basis 
 of a false statement of his affairs; and thus 
 holds himself honorably released. He subse- 
 quently engages in successful trade, or is em- 
 ployed in office at a large salary, or gains remu- 
 neration for some employment of talent or of 
 time, and considers himself free and prosperous. 
 He builds him new houses ; sets out with new 
 
OF THE 3IAN OF BUSINESS. 43 
 
 furniture and display ; and often meets tlie men 
 whose hopes lie has broken, and whose families 
 he has ruined, with an unblushing front, and a 
 self-satisfied smile of welcome, while he honestly 
 owes them it may be ninety per cent, of all 
 their claim, with interest accruing. Can he be 
 honest ? Can he be religious ? Is such a course 
 to meet the approbation of upright men ? Can 
 it ever deceive a God of truth and justice ? We 
 answer, nevee. And every dollar that the man 
 subsequently earns is the righteous property of 
 others, until his whole obligation is discharged. 
 The Romans called debt, ces alienum^ which 
 may be translated, " another man's money," or 
 " stolen copper." Their rigid sense of justice 
 would not allow that any thing which the debt- 
 or held was his own. It was all " stolen copper." 
 It must always be so. And no honorable or 
 conscientious man can be satisfied, "until he has 
 paid the uttermost farthing of his just obliga- 
 tions ; and no position ought to give a man re- 
 spectability among men, or restore the confidence 
 of a community in his integrity, while he with- 
 holds from others, the goods which are so justly 
 and entirely their own. Most certainly all that 
 he may thus appear to gain will be under the 
 the curse of emptiness of satisfaction, and fickle- 
 
44 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 ness of possession in his future years. His 
 money will he held, in " a bag full of holes ;" 
 and " the sweet remembrance of the just," can 
 never adorn the record of his life. 
 
 The same temptation comes habitually in the 
 dealings of the individual with the public. As 
 a member of a community, the man of business 
 owes " tribute to whom tribute is due ; and cus- 
 tom to whom custom." His amount of obliga- 
 tion depends upon the value of the property 
 which he holds. The social estimate of the 
 value of his property must habitually rest upon 
 their confidence in the truth of his own state- 
 ment. It is fearful to think of the amounts and 
 varieties of fraud which are practised under this 
 one shape of an attempted escape from public 
 burdens; the false oaths and deceitful state- 
 ments which are made to avoid the impositions 
 of the public revenue, so that the Custom House 
 might often ahnost be called the temple of per- 
 jury ; the hiding of legal property from public 
 taxation, and the deceitful asseverations which 
 are made of the value of property legally as- 
 sessed, to avoid the equitable impost thereon ; so 
 that fraudulent men of large possessions often 
 entirely escape, and a disproportionate amount 
 of taxation is thrown upon the honest and up- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 45 
 
 right portion of the community — whose integ- 
 rity and honor must be burdened to meet the 
 frauds and deceptions of less conscientious men. 
 We doubt whether any temptation to false re- 
 presentations in the pecuniary affairs of the com- 
 munity of business is more common than this. 
 By some strange delusion in their medium of 
 perception and calculation, men often consider 
 such frauds far less guilty than those which 
 might occur in the mutual transactions of indi- 
 viduals. Many a man who could not be per- 
 suaded to swear falsely in a court of justice, or to 
 utter a deliberate lie in private to his neighbor, 
 or to steal from the property of another in the 
 least amount, somehow finds his conscience far 
 less imperative and strict, when he deals with 
 his country at a custom-house desk, or with his 
 State or city at the office of an assessor or re- 
 ceiver of taxes. But the purity of mercantile 
 honor, and the unvarying rule of Christian mo- 
 rality, can never be made to depend upon the 
 changing circumstances of individual relations. 
 Truth and justice are eternal and unchangeable. 
 Their claims alter with no circumstances. And 
 no man can be in principle an honest or consci- 
 entious man, who can make his own regard to 
 their demands vary with the contingencies of 
 
46 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 his situation, or with the varying character of 
 the persons with whom he deals. And the 
 more pressing and habitual and undervalued is 
 the kind of the temptation, the more circum- 
 spectly and sternly will the upright man of 
 business resolve to walk in the strait and nar- 
 row way of perfect rectitude and unchanging 
 truth. 
 
 The temptation which a life of business pre- 
 sents to an undue occupation of time must also 
 be considered. The gain of wealth, and the 
 transaction of the business which its varied em- 
 ployments demand, will always be a life of toil 
 and labor. To rise up early and late take rest, 
 must be everywhere the habitual condition of 
 its success. The combination of all the ele- 
 ments of perplexity in trade of which we have 
 spoken, bears upon this necessity for the in- 
 creased and often excessive occupation of time. 
 Family duties, relative domestic obligations, 
 personal intellectual improvement, and all the 
 refining relaxations of social life, are often sacri- 
 ficed in this one pursuit of gain. The father 
 and the husband lives in almost entire separa- 
 tion from the family whom he is bound to bring 
 up for God, and while he has been occupied in 
 a fancied accumulation for their benefit, the 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 47 
 
 whole prospects and interests of tlieir character 
 and welfare, may have been made a part of the 
 price which he has paid for gain. It would he 
 well if this were all. But there is a deeper and 
 more precious interest still, which is just as 
 habitually sacrificed in the same course of trade. 
 We speak of the interests of the soul. Its 
 hour of communion with God in prayer — 
 the morning and evening refreshment of a la- 
 borer weary in his toil, and the rest of a pilgrim 
 in his daily journey — ^is carelessly thrown aside. 
 It becomes first formal and perfunctory in the 
 process of this decay, and then ceases even in 
 the form. The word of God, the great armory 
 of the Christian's strength in the warfare of the 
 earth, is neglected, laid aside, and forgotten ; till 
 at last, in the regular and unremitted descent of 
 the soul from its high relations, God is no more 
 remembered, and the man learns to live without 
 him in the world. Easily, then, the time of the 
 six days' labor is found inadequate for the pur- 
 poses which are proposed. The rest of the 
 seventh is coveted and stolen. When the soul 
 is no longer alive to God, the repose of the 
 Sabbath is transformed from improvement to 
 idleness. It may be that amusement and dissi- 
 pation will be seized upon as a means to hurry 
 
48 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 its wearisome passage. The excess of the ex- 
 citement of the week is often found to make 
 the quietness of the Sabbath an intolerable 
 contrast; and the man whose nervous system 
 has been on the stretch in all the preceding 
 days of toil, finds himself perfectly languid and 
 wretched unless he can, by some varying of the 
 earnestness of occupation, keep up the unnatural 
 and overwrought condition. The home is desert- 
 ed, the church despised, and the roadside tavern 
 or the noisy joviality of some country assembly 
 of similar tastes and habits, is made the substi- 
 tute for that heavenly rest in social life, which 
 the Lord, who made the Sabbath for man, has 
 appointed as his " tired nature's sweet restorer." 
 The excess of the weekly labor becomes a suffi- 
 cient excuse for the Sabbath idleness ; or the 
 Sabbath desecration becomes a part of the price 
 which deluded man is tempted to pay for gain. 
 Often the same cause demands also the employ- 
 ment of the Sabbath in the continuance of the 
 weekly labor ; and the hours of God's holy 
 time are robbed for the writing up of bool^, or the 
 maintenance of a correspondence, for which no 
 adequate time is found beside. The divine com- 
 mand is nothing. The welfare of the soul is no- 
 thing. The hopes of the future world are nothing. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 49 
 
 The religious life and character of a family are 
 nothing. The traditional effect of example is 
 nothing. The holiness and happiness of the 
 community are nothing. But gain is every 
 thing. And the man of business finds the 
 temptation press him on every side, to make 
 his gold his god, the present world his all, and 
 earthly accumulation the Moloch to whom he 
 makes at last the ready and cheerful holocaust 
 of all that is dignified in his nature, happy in 
 his condition, or hopeful in his prospects. And 
 what has he gained, when God takes away his 
 soul ? His birthright sold for a mess of pottage 
 — his blessing bartered for an hour's enjoy- 
 ment, or a life with no enjoyment — ^his hope in 
 God sacrificed for gains which have perished in 
 the using — and himself left to the prospect of 
 a gloomy and unprovided departure, a dying 
 hour with no comfort or hope; while of all 
 that he hath gained he can carry nothing away 
 with him — ^but naked as he came, must he also 
 go, and look forward to an account before a 
 Being whose eyes of truth will not be mocked, 
 and can not be deceived. 
 
 Are such sacrifices as these demanded by a 
 life of business? May not man fill up the 
 measure of his personal and relative responsi- 
 
50 PERPLEXITIES AND TEMPTATIONS 
 
 bility at a price less than this ? Has Ms Crea- 
 tor placed Mm where lie can not be honest 
 without ruin, or prosper without crime ? Let 
 us go back to our first and fundamental princi- 
 ples. Life must be regarded in its real charac- 
 ter and relations ; and the comparative value 
 of the objects for which it was given, be justly 
 and proportionately valued. 
 
 **It is not all of life to live, 
 Nor all of death to die." 
 
 There is something in the life more than meat, 
 and in the body more than raiment, and this in- 
 valuable something, this heavenly trust, with all 
 its issues and responsibilities, must be kept in 
 view. There is a soul which God hath loved, 
 which his Son hath redeemed, which his Spirit 
 would sanctify, and for which he has prepared 
 an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens. It 
 must never be forgotten. Sin is its destruction. 
 And sin is to be measured, not by the ways 
 and thoughts of man, but by the law of God. 
 Life is the scene and place of the education and 
 trial of this immortal soul in preparation for an 
 eternal being. Every lawful occupation of 
 man is the appointed place in which this edu- 
 cation and trial are individually to be carried 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 51 
 
 out, and every act or duty which makes up a 
 part of that occupation, exercises an undying 
 influence upon the destinies and hopes of this 
 immortal being. Thus must man estimate and 
 thus must he regard the elements of his condi- 
 tion here, the portions of his lot on earth. 
 Every hour and every act may be a step on- 
 ward to his crowning glory. Every occurring 
 perplexity is an appointed test of his faith and 
 his obedience. Every changing relation is 
 bringing out a new aspect of his progressive tui- 
 tion and exercise, and each day as it passes, he 
 is laying up the foundation against the time to 
 come, either of increasing virtue that has con- 
 tended without injury through its successive 
 trials, or of vain and deluding selfishness which 
 wiU leave him helpless and empty and despairing 
 in the end. By all the value of these imperish- 
 able interests, and by all the dangers and con- 
 tests to which they are exposed, would we 
 entreat the young man of business to use the 
 world as not abusing it ; to make the tried and 
 unchanging word of God his constant guide, 
 bringing every gain, every employment, and 
 every temptation, to its holy and unrelaxing 
 standard ; and so to press onward through all 
 
52 THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 the cares and temptations of his varied life, that 
 they shall all be made to stand as living wit- 
 nesses of his proved fidelity, before the judg- 
 ment-seat of an unchangeable and compensating 
 God. 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS 
 
 THEIR HOME KESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 ISAAC FERRIS, D.D. 
 
HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 OP THE 
 
 MAN OF BUSINESS, 
 
 It is not long, since tlie sweet voice of the 
 Swedish choralist sent home, with thrilling 
 power, to many hearts, " Home, Sweet Home."" 
 Though heard often, when did that song seem 
 half so sweet as then ? and when did the heart 
 so swell with joyous emotion and with love of 
 home ? 
 
 We Anglo-Saxons speak of the true idea of 
 home as peculiarly our own. "Whether this be 
 true or not, we can not well exalt too highly the 
 value of home, nor watch too tenderly over its 
 character and interests. 
 
 Home : it is a little world ; it has its own in- 
 terests, its own laws, its own difficulties and sor- 
 sows, its own blessings and joys. It is the 
 
2 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 sanctuary of tlie heart, where tlie affections are 
 clierislied in the tenderest relations — where 
 heart is joined to heart, and love triumphs over 
 all selfish calculations. It is the training-school 
 of the tender plants which in after years are to 
 yield flowers and fruits to parental care. It is 
 the fountain whence come the streams which 
 beautify and enliven social life. 
 
 If any man should have a home, it is the man 
 of business. He is the true working man of the 
 community. The mechanic has his fixed hours, 
 and when these have run their course he may, 
 ere the day closes, dismiss all anxiety as his 
 labor ends, and seek the home circle. Compar- 
 atively little has been the tax on his mind, and 
 not much more on his physical system, as he 
 learns to take all easy. But the man of busi- 
 ness is under a constant pressure. His is not a 
 ten-hour system, with an interval of rest ; but 
 he is driven onward and onward, early and late, 
 without the calculation of hours. He must be 
 employed. In the earnestness of competition — 
 in the complexity of modern modes of business 
 — in the fluctuations which frequently occur — in 
 the solicitous dependence on the fidelity and in- 
 tegrity of others — ^he has no leisure moments 
 during the day. With a mind incessantly under^ 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 6 
 
 exciting engagements, and a body without its 
 appropriate nutriment, lie may well pant for 
 home, and hail the moment when he may 
 escape from his toils to seek its quiet, and its 
 affection and confidence. 
 
 But that home should not be an Hotel horns. 
 The arrangement which carries so many families 
 to rooms in a hotel, must be sadly deficient ip 
 meeting the w^ants of the toil-worn. Its forms 
 and ceremonial coldness — its gaudy dress re- 
 quirements and its heartlessness — its tendency 
 to social dissipation — ^its whole artificial charac- 
 ter, with its deteriorating influences on the child- 
 ren and youth of a family — ^make it any thing 
 but a home. Many regard it as a refuge from 
 the trouble of " help " management ; but, while 
 this may be doubted, dearly do they pay for the 
 want of a little courage and decision, in being 
 deprived of many nameless comforts which an 
 old-fashioned home furnishes. 
 
 The man of business should have a home ; 
 not a mere dormitory, Alas ! what an abuse it 
 is to call the mere lodging-place, which a man 
 reaches after dark, and which he leaves after a 
 breakfast taken often by candle-light, a home. 
 Mr. X. L. M. has a superb property, eight miles 
 from town, on the main thoroughfare out of the 
 
4 HOME KESPONSIBILITEES 
 
 city ; every passer-by admires it. But wliat is 
 it to him, as lie scarcely sees it by daylight, ex- 
 cept on Sunday ? To what does all his outlay 
 in garden statuary, and beautiful flowers, and 
 picturesque rivulets, amount in his case ? It is 
 his own, it is true ; this gives him a feeling of 
 independence ; but what delight does he drink 
 in, and what participation has he with his fam- 
 ily, in that which should be a common source 
 of enjoyment? To them there is little of real 
 enjoyment, as the feehng of loneliness mars all ; 
 while he is very much as the man who puts up 
 for the night at the house opposite, called " The 
 Traveller's Home." They both tarry for a 
 night. 
 
 It is a very grave question whether a man in 
 all this is doing himself justice, either mentally 
 or physically — whether he is meeting, or is in a 
 condition to meet, the claims which the members 
 of his family have on him; and, especially, 
 whether he thus meets or can meet his responsi- 
 bility to God, who places the solitary in fami- 
 lies ; or to society, which must receive its con- 
 trolling influences from his and similar circles. 
 It is to be feared that we are degenerating in 
 our ideas of home, as we are growing in wealth 
 and multiplying our luxuries — ^that just so far 
 
.OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 5 
 
 as we depart from the view of home which our 
 fathers cherished, so are we removing from our 
 true interest, and throwing ourselves on what is 
 superficial and ephemeral. 
 
 There are views to be taken of this important 
 subject which lead directly to a very different 
 course from that now pursued, and which, while 
 they raise our estimate of home, show that 
 great duties are involved, and that our happi- 
 ness is identified with their discharge. 
 
 It is proposed to trace some of these under 
 the general designation of tlie husiness man at 
 home. 
 
 What is the business man's relation to home ? 
 
 He is its Governor ; he is its Provider ; he is 
 its Educator ; he is its Priest. 
 
 THE HOME GOVEENOE. 
 
 The business man — ^the head of influence, 
 th^ controlling, regulating power of the home 
 circle — first claims our attention. 
 
 It was said of a family of peculiar idiosyn- 
 cratic character, where waywardness and self- 
 will had sway, " Oh ! they came up, they were 
 not brought up." How much of cutting rebuke 
 was expressed in those words, and what a key 
 
6 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 it furnislied to tlie errant courses of those it 
 characterized ! This remark tells in brief the 
 tale of many a family circle, and at once devel- 
 opes the source of many evils we deplore. 
 
 Government is a divine principle, and we are 
 so constituted that it can not be dispensed with. 
 It must be found wherever living creatures are 
 found. It is the grand preservative against con- 
 fusion, disorder, and the domination of evil pas- 
 sion. Let the reins be thrown on the neck of 
 the young steed, and what unhappy consequen- 
 ces will follow. Let infirm childhood and youth 
 have its way, and sadder still will be the issues. 
 On this point we have much to regret. In 
 the land of our forefathers, domestic govern- 
 ment and control have not been sacrificed to 
 mere theories on the development of juvenile 
 manliness and independence. The junior mem- 
 bers of a family know and keep their place, and 
 are submissive to a legitimate and necessary 
 authority in the hands of the parent. 
 
 It is said by experienced teachers that they 
 can tell, ordinarily, what is the influence and 
 what the checks at home, and that there is a 
 great want of home government, as indicated 
 by the views and feelings shown by their pu- 
 pils. Children among us very early are led to 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 7 
 
 feel that every thing must be subservient to 
 their wishes — ^that no labor must be imposed, 
 even in preparation for life, which would be 
 irksome, and that the checks must be silken and 
 soffc. 
 
 What would the gardener say to the policy 
 of suffering his plants to grow as they will, 
 with no trimming, no training, no weeding — all 
 luxuriance, wildness, entanglement, confusion? 
 What hope would he feel warranted in cherish- 
 ing concerning the flowering and the fruitage ? 
 But in the case of children, there is something 
 beyond mere luxuriance — ^there is a nature 
 whose tendencies are to evil; and unchecked, 
 ungoverned, they are developed in various 
 grades of depravity, and must end in ruin, if a 
 gracious Providence does not interfere. 
 
 There must be government, and that in the 
 hands of the father. " God hath set him to be 
 the head of his house," and holds him respon- 
 sible. For this there is no just substitution. A 
 mother has a most important place, and her 
 hand must be felt always ; but she should not be 
 left alone. The burden is not primarily or just- 
 ly hers. Invaluable, blessed, thrice blessed 
 auxiliary, she leads and moulds, while the au- 
 thority which has chief control is one step be- 
 
8 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 yond. It is unkind to constrain her to go be- 
 yond this. If called by bereaving providences 
 to unite both in one, she has been found ade- 
 quate. If maternal influence must be regarded 
 as secondary, where authority is concerned, with 
 all the nearness and affection involved in her 
 relations, then, certainly, the judgment must go 
 against the transfer to those who sustain the 
 position of an employed governorship. It re- 
 mains to be shown that a father may give to 
 tutors and governesses the exclusive direction 
 and control of his sons and daughters. Im- 
 perative necessity may sometimes force this 
 upon a man, and then his circumstances 
 exculpate him. in the sight of God; but he 
 is not allowed by the divine constitution of 
 the domestic circle, from mere fashion, or 
 unwillingness to bear the trouble of it, to put 
 off on another what belongs to himself. The 
 violation of the law here will be as certainly 
 followed by its appropriate penalty, as in other 
 cases. If a man's numerous engagements pre- 
 vent a fulfillment of this duty, he has something 
 to reform. He has no right to entangle him- 
 self so as to be thrust out of his proper 
 course. Here are primary, vital duties, and they 
 should give a shaping to other out-door mat- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 9 
 
 ters, and not take it from them. A man must 
 " make time," and if lie has the right spirit, he 
 will find time. If he must be more with his 
 children, he can and he will curtail, or so modify 
 other demands, as to be with them. The want 
 of time, so much pleaded, perhaps in more 
 cases than it would be pleasant to confess, grows 
 out of a morbid appetite for business and gain. 
 Is it not true that multitudes plunge into mul- 
 tiplied and oppressive engagements, simply be- 
 cause they are in haste to be rich, and cannot 
 wait the prudent and slower process of their 
 fathers ? 
 
 If the business man must be the governoi' 
 over his own home, the next inquiry is, What 
 should be the character of his administration ? 
 
 A ready answer can be given. It should be 
 distinguished Inj the spirit of hindness and love., 
 mingling with authority. Some seem to think 
 that a stern, cold, formal, authoritative manner 
 becomes the father — ^that his dignity and influ- 
 ence may be lessened in proportion as he un- 
 bends to his children. Such a course has its 
 influence ; but it is far from desirable — ^indeed, 
 positively hurtful. It tends to chill the young 
 heart, and keep at a cold distance, and induce 
 rather a feeling of fear and dread, than of re- 
 
10 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 spect or regard. It is mucli to be deplored, tliat 
 any man should so use his position as to make 
 liis absence a grateful relief, and Ms returning 
 step and voice watched with a feeling of trepid- 
 ation. Such a man can never expect the 
 young heart to bring its troubles to him for his 
 counsel and his sympathy; but it will seek 
 beyond his own circle for what it needs, making 
 friends of the sympathizing without, and com- 
 mitting itself to auspices which may lead astray. 
 Such a man, with austere manner, and positive, 
 absolute, master-like voice, throws away the 
 admirable advantages his position and relation 
 offer to carry his children with him in the path 
 they go. If he claim to be a good man, with such 
 a manner, he will induce the feeling of delight in 
 the bosoms of his children to get into scenes 
 where they may throw off restraint, and indulge 
 feelings which have been only dammed up by 
 necessity, but never directed or modified. 
 
 The period of childhood is that of warm, 
 gushing feeling — of confiding love — of ready 
 imitation of what it loves. He who would 
 manage his charge wisely and successfully must 
 not place the authority foremost. A ready 
 sympathy; the allowance of full play for all 
 the endearing actions of a little one ; the mani- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 11 
 
 fest influence of warm love and solicitude for its 
 welfare, even in small matters — will secure, 
 from the earliest years, that regard and reliance 
 which, will make his word, his nod, his look 
 effective, as character is developed. Then 
 government will he easy, restraints will be 
 cheerfully submitted to, and he will become the 
 preferred counsellor and the chosen friend, 
 when such are most needed. It does not follow 
 from this that a man must become indulgent, 
 and yield to the vain wishes and imaginary 
 wants of his children : this would not be true 
 love, but weakness. Such indulgence is one ex- 
 treme, while the overbearing, despotic air is the 
 other. When the law of love is the law of the 
 house, home becomes the sweet retreat it was 
 intended to be by our beneficent Creator. And 
 what but thiB law should obtain, where the 
 relations are so tender and the interests so 
 momentous ? 
 
 His administration should be intelligent and 
 reasonable. A man should seek to understand 
 what is duty, in his circumstances, and what is 
 right, and look carefully into all his relations, 
 and understand what belongs to each. As he 
 is not infallible, his decisions may be wrong, and 
 his requirements unjust. It is not enough, in 
 
12 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 order to make an act right, that a father requires 
 it, though that may claim for it filial attention 
 and regard. A man may make his require- 
 ments on an imperfect or wrong view ; his mind 
 may have been biased, or the tone of his own 
 feelings may be affected unfavorably, and then 
 he may act unadvisedly, and subsequently will 
 regret the course pursued ; but then to correct 
 what was wrong may be beyond his power. 
 Home government should be eminently reason- 
 able, not asking too much nor too little — ^not 
 unduly magnifying all little things and making 
 them subjects of rebuke ; and yet not omitting 
 such little things as obviously prepare the way 
 for other matters of high moment. 
 
 Some deem it necessary to give a reason for 
 every thing required. . This may be and is well, 
 to an extent; but there are many things oc- 
 curring in reference to which it may be im- 
 practicable, or even unwise. A child may not 
 be capable of understanding or appreciating it ; 
 higher interests may require that a good and 
 sufficient reason should be assumed to influence 
 the matter ; and sometimes positive evil might 
 result if the reason for every thing be commit- 
 ted to a child. Where the training is right, it 
 will, in such cases, satisfy the juvenile inquirer 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 13 
 
 tliat father wishes and directs him to do a cer- 
 tain thing, and therefore he will do it. 
 
 His administration should be firm and uni- 
 form^ and not fitful, impulsive, and excited. 
 
 One of the most unhappy things which could 
 occur with a group of little ones would be that 
 of having a varying, vacillating head, in whose 
 decisions no reliance could be placed. A man- 
 agement which to-day approves and to-morrow 
 disapproves an act — which to-day rebukes a 
 trifle sharply and to-morrow passes over a se- 
 rious misdemeanor without a remark — which 
 to-day draws the check strongly and to-morrow 
 throws the way open to any indulgence — which 
 is rigid before company and indifferent when 
 the circle are alone — only tends to undermine 
 all regard, and leaves necessarily an unhappy 
 impression on a child's mind. It resolves all 
 government into parental whim, or parental 
 weakness, or sheer policy. It is without prin- 
 ciple : no desirable habit can be formed under 
 it ; and youth emerging from its influence can 
 have no just conception of what they ought to 
 be or to do. 
 
 It is not assumed here that no man may 
 change his mode of government at any time ; 
 for he is ever learning, and may come to see that 
 
14 HOIirE RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 he has fallen into some mistakes ; or he may, in 
 new circumstances which arise, find one regimen 
 preferable to another ; or special cases may con- 
 trol his mode of action. But allowing all this, the 
 hand should be firm, and the application of rules 
 steady and uniform, while corrections of modes 
 should not be violent or great. There is no 
 department in life m which the character given 
 by the dying patriarch to Reuben, " unstable as 
 water," is not to be deplored. What would it 
 be in a general, what would it be in business 
 itself, what in friendship, what in the various 
 relations of affection, what anywhere and every- 
 where, but an evidence of weakness ? Child- 
 ren are copyists, and of those most nearly allied 
 to them especially ; and in copying such a 
 character, or, in other words, nurtured to go on 
 with no fixed, settled views of the duties of 
 life, and seeing daily nothing uniform in the 
 head of the home circle, how unfitted must 
 they be for the relations of mature years, and 
 what but undesirable influences can society ex- 
 pect from them ? He that holds a firm hand, 
 and is calm, and keeps under impulsiveness of 
 feeling, is a wise man. He may be conceived 
 of as a charioteeer, guiding a spirited pair over 
 a narrow road, dangerous for its rocks or pre- 
 cipices on either side. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 15 
 
 His administration at home should be U7i- 
 affected hy ilie vexations and disappointments 
 ivithout. 
 
 Why should they who await a father's return 
 with sunny faces and sparkling eyes, suffer for 
 the uncomfortable things which may have over- 
 taken one in the conflicts and vicissitudes of 
 business ? or why, if at home some dark cloud 
 may have come over the scene, should the de- 
 pression be deepened, or the sadness be increas- 
 ed by a brow made sullen by some act of in- 
 justice or villainy "down in town," or by a 
 discouraged, desponding air, because some loss 
 has been, sustained ? The first is clearly unjust 
 to those at home : for why should they be visit- 
 ed for what is not their fault ? and the latter is 
 unkind and unwise : for why make the sad sad- 
 der, and why double one's own troubles and 
 unfit one's self for the duties to be performed ? 
 It is remarked that some fathers are painfully 
 sensitive to the natural vivacity and playfulness 
 of their children — cross, severe, and can bear 
 nothing when business has gone iH ; and all soon 
 learn to stand out of the way and shun the risk 
 of some unkind word or act. How unwise for 
 a man to put away from him the panacea for 
 what he has suffered — ^the affections warm, ten- 
 
16 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 der, most entire, whicli would be a balm to Ms 
 wounded spirit ! Such a course almost puts a 
 man on a par witL. the hard drinker, who noto- 
 riously abuses those at home, on his return from 
 his carousal, however good-natured he may be 
 at other times. Home should be a sanctuary, 
 over whose threshold, and into whose shelter, 
 such things should not be allowed. 
 
 The home administration should be imj^artial. 
 The children and youth of the home circle 
 have an equal claim for such regard, and in- 
 terest, and care, as their circumstances require. 
 Some may be infirm or sickly, or overtaken by 
 an afflictive stroke, or be more juvenile — ^then, 
 particular forms of care may be called for ; but 
 a difference in fundamental regard can not be 
 justified. One man makes pets of his girls, 
 another, of his boys ; one, of his oldest, or first- 
 born, another, of his namesake ; one, of the 
 children of a first wife, another, of those of a 
 second. Now what can be the effect of these, 
 or any similar partialities, but to build up walls 
 of separation between children — engender un- 
 kind feelings, where all should be union and 
 harmony? What depressions and discourage- 
 ments must be felt by the neglected, or the less 
 favored ; and, on the other hand, what liberties 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSLD^SS. 17 
 
 taken, what domination exercised, by the favor- 
 ed and caressed! 
 
 The history of Jacob illustrates the evils of 
 such partiality in most touching details, and 
 shows how it recoils on the parent guilty of it. 
 
 How can you avoid being drawn more to a 
 child that is kind, attentive, docile and obe- 
 dient, than to one that is restive, gives you in- 
 cessant trouble, and is at every opportunity dis- 
 obeying ? says one. Our present comfort may 
 be abridged by the naughty one ; but that is no 
 just reason for difference of regard, and certain- 
 ly none for showing a preference. If any feel- 
 ings arise inclining to one rather than another, 
 they should be jealously watched, lest their 
 influence prevent the proper discharge of duty 
 towards a wayward one, who, by the very fact 
 of his peculiarity, needs special attention and 
 care. If a man will drive away to greater ex- 
 tremes the little one who taxes his patience, let 
 him show partiality, let him forego kindness to 
 him, and he will sow seeds of discomfort, whose 
 product will be, to himself, a heart full of 
 sorrow and trouble. ISTo : this a conscientious 
 father will not do ; he will find some ground of 
 hope ; he will labor more assiduously to win the 
 erring one. 
 
18 HOME eespo:n^sibilities 
 
 The liome administration should be fully ap- 
 preciative of what is right and wrong — ^what is 
 well or what is ill done on the part of a child. 
 Justice is an essential ingredient of good gov- 
 ernment. Two things are contemplated here : 
 proper visitation for deviations, and the perpe- 
 tration of wrong ; and, on the other hand, the 
 reward of well-doing. Concerning the former, 
 it may be remarked, chastisements are of many 
 kinds. The extreme, last resort, is the personal 
 infliction of the rod ; and, while the juvenile 
 nature is what it is, this must, in circumstances, 
 be employed, if a man will not spoil his child. 
 There is a sickly sentimentality prevalent with 
 some on this point, perhaps the result of an ex- 
 cessive use of the rod in some injudicious hands, 
 and they will have it abandoned, as too horri- 
 ble. But the most observant know that it is 
 wholesome that the errant one should under- 
 stand that there is one at hand, if necessity re- 
 quire. The use should not be frequent, else it 
 loses its effect, or only developes the spirit of a 
 slave — of all things, to be deprecated. But 
 that it is to be the last resort, should be the 
 rule. The father has a heavy hand, and should 
 try every other mode of correction first. There 
 is a wonderful virtue often in a breakfast on dry 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 10 
 
 })read, with cold water — ^in the loss of the priv- 
 ilege of a walk, a ride, a visit, or company ; or 
 the sending to bed before dark ; or deprivation 
 of the gifts which the other members of a circle 
 enjoy, etc. Never, never ^ however, should a 
 recreant child be shut in the dark closet, or the 
 cellar, if a man will not injure the nervous sys- 
 tem of a child for life ; and never should it be 
 punished by being forced to commit portions of 
 the Bible to memory. If a man wish his child 
 to love that precious volume, its associations 
 should be with all that is pleasant and desirable. 
 As to the other side of the account, a man 
 should be most careful and punctilious. A 
 word, even a look and smile of approbation, 
 have a special charm. lie who is ready to re- 
 buke a wrong act, should be as ready to ex- 
 press his gratification with what is well done. 
 Indeed, it should be a part of his regimen to 
 introduce to his family every proper thing 
 which will tend to make his flock happy in 
 right doing, and raise in their minds, to a high 
 point, the desire to meet a father's wishes. It 
 has been urged by some that it is the business 
 of good government to see that a people have 
 their holidays, regarding the occurrence of these 
 as grand agencies in making laborious pursuits 
 
20 HOME RESPOKSIBILITIES 
 
 less burdensome, and as tending to better order 
 and better bealth. However tbis may be, it 
 must be conceded tbat it is an important part 
 of a wise domestic administration, for a father 
 to break away, from time to time, from tbe 
 yoke of business, and escort bis children to such 
 recreations or exbibitions as connect profit witb 
 pleasure — as tend to elevate and expand the 
 mind, and improve the taste, while they gratify 
 the curiosity. The exhibitions of the Crystal 
 Palace — of paintings — of natural objects — of 
 the Abbott Egyptian Museum, with concerts 
 and lectures, are abundantly at hand, while the 
 improvements of the city — ^the large manufacto- 
 ries — ^tlie public institutions — ^the various views 
 around our harbor, give all desirable variety. 
 
 In a word, the home government should be 
 administered in tlie fear of God, The position 
 which a father occupies is not that of an ab- 
 solute head, but of a steward. There is One 
 above him, to whom he is accountable ; and 
 from Him should he seek his rule for every 
 day's walk, and by it shape all his acts. One 
 of the greatest auxiliaries in his discharge of 
 duty will ever be found to be, his cherishing 
 and strengthening, in the hearts of his children, 
 the conviction that he is governed, in all his re- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 21 
 
 quirements, by tlie fear, in his own heart, of 
 Him who is above all and over all. 
 
 THE HOME PKOVIDEE. 
 
 If we may, in any case, deduce the will of 
 God from his visible works, we may draw 
 man's duty to the home circle from the physical 
 system given him — ^in comparison with which, 
 that of the female is weak. His is strength of 
 muscle, power of labor and of endurance — ^his, 
 all the capabilities for the wear and tear and va- 
 rious encounter of life : and in this we certainly 
 may see the will of Him who makes nothing 
 for naught, that the stronger should have the 
 charge of the more frail. No special reasoning 
 nor special training is called for here. Men fall 
 into it naturally, spontaneously ; and its fufill- 
 ment constitutes one of the sources of their 
 cheerfulness and enjoyment in laborious pursuit. 
 In the analysis of the influences which nervo 
 the brawny arm — which carry forward in dis- 
 heartening circumstances — which raise above 
 losses, and which renew the courage, how mucli 
 we shall be called to set down to the depend- 
 ence of, and the love for, the fireside circle ! 
 How much are they in a man's thoughts— how 
 
22 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 enthroned in Ms affections — ^how constant the 
 reference to their wishes?, their expressed desires, 
 their recurring wants ! This is beautiful and 
 right ; and beautiful, especially, because it is in 
 harmony with our relations, and the arrange- 
 ments of Heaven. 
 
 Cases of exception there are. Sometimes 
 painful bereavements devolve on woman the 
 double responsibility of provision and training. 
 When God has been pleased to take away the 
 father and husband, bravely has she been seen 
 bearing up under exhausting toil, most disin- 
 terestedly sacrificing her own comfort and health 
 for those dependent on her, under God. The 
 careful observer is filled often with amazement 
 and admiration when noting what is accom- 
 plished by feeble woman, as we call her in re- 
 ference to her slender form, though a heroine in 
 fact, and owns with gratitude the delightful 
 confirmations of the truth that God is the father 
 of the fatherless and the God of the widow. 
 
 There are some who would force woman out 
 of her place. Now and then one meets with a 
 poltroon — a mean animal, who has not the 
 spirit of man, and who thrusts his wife for- 
 ward to bear unnatural burdens, he being only 
 ready to strut in broadcloth her toils have 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSESIESS. 28 
 
 earned, and feast on dainties for wliicli slie has 
 sacrificed lier liealtli, and play tlie cockney gen- 
 tleman, with his cigar in his mouth, lolling in 
 the fashionable saloon. Such men are domestic 
 vampires. Others, again, have with great ear- 
 nestness argued that it was woman's right to 
 compete with man in all the pursuits and 
 honors of life ; though few, probably, have 
 yielded to the plea. The sentiment of Miss 
 Hannah More will be esteemed as especially 
 true. She makes her Urania, the personification 
 of wisdom, say : 
 
 *' Let woman, then, her real good discern, 
 And her true interests of Urania learn. 
 As some fair violet, loveliest of the glade. 
 Sheds its mild fragrance on the lonely shade. 
 Withdraws its modest head from public sight, 
 Nor courts the sun, nor seeks the glare of light, 
 Should some rude hand profanely dare intrude, 
 And bear its beauties from its native wood, 
 Exposed abroad, its languid colors fly. 
 Its form decays, and all its odors die : 
 So woman, born to dignify retreat. 
 Unknown, to flourish, and unseen, be great. 
 To give domestic life its greatest charm. 
 With softness polish, and with virtue warm, 
 Fearful of fame, unwiUing to be known. 
 Should seek but Heaven's applauses and her own. 
 Hers be the task to seek the lonely cell 
 Where modest want and silent anguish dwell ; 
 Raise the weak head, sustain the feeble knees, 
 Cheer the cold heart, and chase the dire disease. 
 
24 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 The splendid deeds, which only seek a name, 
 Are paid their just awards in present fame ; 
 But know the awful, all-disclosing day. 
 The long arrears of secret worth shall pay ; 
 Applauding saints shall hear, with fond regard, 
 And He who witnessed here, shall there reward." 
 
 As Home provider, the man of business will 
 give his primary attention to wliat is necessary. 
 He will tlien discuss how far he shall go in the 
 way of luxuries ; but by all means should make 
 pecuniary provision foi^ Ms family^ in anticipa- 
 tion either of losses in husiness or his decease. 
 
 As to what is deemed necessary for a family, 
 it is very difficult to decide. If the question 
 referred only to bare sustenance, one might 
 readily come to a conclusion ; but it is not so 
 limited. In our artificial social state, a man 
 would be considered unpardonable, if the home 
 supply did not have due regard to the position 
 of the family circle, and bear a fair comparison 
 with the usages of his neighbors. Time was 
 when it was sufficient for a comfortable liver to 
 have half a house, or to have one spare front- 
 room for company : now, the same man must 
 have a whole house, and the first story must be 
 thrown into parlors. Not very long since, one 
 servant, for general purposes, was all that was 
 deemed necessary : now, the requirement is ex- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 25 
 
 tended to two certainly, witli special aid for 
 extra occasions, and a nurse for the little ones. 
 It is surprising to see how, with the great in- 
 crease of facilities for domestic work, still the 
 demand is for an increasing number of " helps." 
 It is not many years since the class spoken of 
 were only occasionally favored with a piano : 
 now, that instrument must be set down as a re- 
 quisite to parlor equipment. The same is true 
 of the dietetic department, of our social en- 
 tertainments and modes of dressing — great 
 changes have occurred with our so-called ad- 
 vancing civilization. These, with other things 
 in proportion, make it almost impossible to say 
 what is embraced in the necessary provision for 
 home. 
 
 It is, perhaps, true that the question is very 
 much affected by the locality in which one 
 lives, or the society he keeps ; and then, too, by 
 the person who pronounces in the matter, whe- 
 ther a judicious, well-balanced, or an ambitious 
 housewife, or daughters whose education is of 
 the intellect and higher qualities, or of the ex- 
 tremities of hands and feet. 
 
 It was said that the business man will discuss 
 how far he shall go in the way of luxuries. It 
 is conceded that there is to be an allowance of 
 
26 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 outlay in many things, wMcli are not among the 
 indispensables, if a fair regard to a man's pecu- 
 niary condition will permit it. No man and no 
 family are bound to live on the stinted provision 
 of food and raiment, which a straitened condi- 
 tion at the outset of life sternly required. If 
 his labor has been successful, he is entitled to 
 the increased comforts and enjoyments which he 
 has earned. He may gratify his taste, he may 
 consult appearances, he may fall in with the 
 times, in all, to a certain extent. What shall 
 be the limitation ? Several things indicate it. 
 
 I. Whatever may do prejudice to, or put in 
 jeopardy, the pecuniary interests of a man's 
 creditors, is beyond the outlay of propriety. 
 The relation of a man of business to the party 
 who gives him credit, or advances him pecu- 
 niary means, or is upon his notes, is of the most 
 solemn character. It belongs to common 
 morality, as well as mercantile reputation, that 
 a man should not allow such party to suffer in 
 the least degree, or be placed in danger by any 
 of his acts. Reckless speculation not only is 
 prohibited, but a nice conscience would say, all 
 unnecessary outlay, and every thing which may 
 impair the ability honorably and fully to meet 
 all claims. In the progress of business, much 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 27 
 
 is necessarily afloat, and tlie results are much 
 affected by contingencies wMcli can not be fore- 
 seen. Hence, it is a difficult point to decide 
 wliat a man can withdraw and put by in a 
 form wHcIl will yield nothing in the great mat- 
 ter of pecuniary obligation. The dictate of 
 wisdom is, to be sure to be on the safe side, 
 which is the side of honor and integrity. The 
 neglect of this has done much to bring reproach 
 on business men, and to make mercantile 
 morality a burlesque. There is often cruelty, 
 as well as disingenuousness, in the manner in 
 which men waste in luxurious expenditures 
 what belongs to other men's wives and children, 
 and by their consequent insolvency bring loss, 
 and often misery, on those whom every dictate 
 of humanity and common honesty should bind 
 them to sustain, by securing to them their dues. 
 Men might almost as well rob on the highway, 
 or break open one's counting-room safe, as de- 
 fraud such by a great crash, brought on by ex- 
 travagance and folly. In this day of costly 
 edifices and rich furniture, and a style of living 
 to correspond, it takes no insignificant amount 
 to make up the proper style of a merchant 
 prince ; and if the man has not reached a point 
 beyond uncertainty, he may leave other people 
 
28 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 to pay for his ambitious notions. It requires 
 but a moment's reflection to satisfy an ingenu- 
 ous mind tliat the first step towards such an 
 issue should be most cautiously watched and 
 avoided ; and if any family tendencies lead ad- 
 versely to such course, it will only be necessary 
 to show how much is involved, in order to quiet 
 a rising desire for increase of style. Wives and 
 children have hearts, and they will respond to 
 the well-put claim of other men's wives and 
 children, who stand in the relation of creditors. 
 Perhaps the want of frankness here, not unfre- 
 quently leads to the persevering solicitations 
 which at length overcome a prudent man's 
 decisions. 
 
 II. "Whatever may abstract injuriously from 
 a man's necessary business operations, is beyond 
 the proper outlay. What has been said relates 
 to others ; now, the reference is to the man him- 
 self. Capital, and skill to use it, are among the 
 important elements of success; and no man 
 should abstract from the former, relying on his 
 wits to work out of any difficulties which may 
 arise. The ready control of capital puts within 
 a man's reach the means of availing himself of 
 favorable circumstances which offer, as well as 
 of being prepared for the business fluctuations 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 29 
 
 whicli occur. If a man of a compact, snug con- 
 dition, has embarked, for instance, in a property 
 improvement, and locks up tlius what may con- 
 stitute a material portion of his capital, calcu- 
 lating on the continuance of a thrifty business, 
 he exposes himself to whatever vicissitudes may 
 take place. The first billow of adverse charac- 
 ter is very likely to overwhelm him, or certainly 
 the second shock will. The cases are not few 
 in which, in some such way, men doing a neat 
 and an increasing business, make inroads on 
 what is needed to maintain their favorable posi- 
 tion, and in a little time make wreck of every 
 thing. One can visit scarcely any of our thriv- 
 ing towns or cities, without having his attention 
 called to fine edifices which have passed into 
 second hands, they who began to build having 
 gone into dependent retiracy, through such an 
 unwise course. 
 
 III. A man's outlay for luxuries is beyond 
 the rule of propriety when its direct tendency 
 is to injure his children. He must not merely 
 study what will please and gratify, but what 
 will benefit — what will cherish aU those traits 
 of character which shall fit them for the future. 
 Now it is not to be concealed that the outlay 
 of many parents in their style of living, house 
 
30 HOJVfE RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 adornments, and tlie various paraphernalia and 
 trappings, and indulgencies, is most deleterious 
 to their children. A false taste is cherished, and 
 what is merely incidental comes to be regarded 
 as essential. A false standard of personal valu- 
 ation is set up in the mind, and real, available 
 solid worth is made secondary to tinsel and 
 mere gew-gaw. The whole view taken of life 
 will be false, as its great purpose will be that of 
 the old Epicureans, " Let us live while we live." 
 All personal energy, all self-helpfulness, will be 
 sacrificed to a sickly effeminacy which must ever 
 be waited on. The parent must die : he may 
 die before his children ; and how does he leave 
 them — ^with what controlling feelings, and de- 
 sires, and aims ? And with what preparation to 
 encounter the stern realities which must come 
 upon them? As the inheritance divided, will 
 not give each what the father used, and they 
 can not " begin life where the father left off," 
 how miserable must be their condition ! Happy 
 is that man who makes his expenditure such as 
 to secure present gratification, without ener- 
 vating the character ; whose liberal use of the 
 avails of a successful business shall raise the tone 
 of the mind, enlarge the views, and cherish aspi- 
 rations after something: better than mere show. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. &1 
 
 IV» "WTien an outlay for luxuries is such as 
 to prejudice tlie benefactions to important pub- 
 lic and social interests, it is beyond tlie rule of 
 propriety. Bound together as society is, and 
 constituting, in one form or another, a combina- 
 tion of mutual dependencies, it is the law of 
 our condition that we should contribute to the 
 welfare of the whole. Now it may be in the 
 way of taxation, on the principle that the bene- 
 fited should bear their share of the burdens 
 of society, and then it may be in the way of 
 pecuniary donation to the necessitous, and 
 wretched, and outcast, as they are parts of the 
 brotherhood, and aid to them is a part of the 
 curative process which social weal demands. 
 Apart from the views of the duty of benevolence 
 presented in the "Word of God, it is clear that a 
 man is doing himself a service in just so far as 
 he is the patron of all the institutions which re- 
 lieve want, instruct the ignorant, take care of 
 the young, reclaim the erring, reform evils, cul- 
 tivate and diffuse sound learning and piety 
 through all grades of social life. The more in- 
 telligence is diffused, and principle is inculcated, 
 and industry is cherished, and the means of self- 
 support are placed in the way of men, the more 
 the young are trained, are separated from bane- 
 
32 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 ful example, are Ibrouglit under healthful in- 
 fluences — ^the more society is raised and the 
 more certainly are peace, good order, public 
 security, and by consequence private benefit, ad- 
 vanced. These influences or modes of opera- 
 tion to rectify social evils or cut off their 
 sources, may be called, collectively, the moral 
 police of society, and they are efficient for good 
 just in the degree in which they are faithfully 
 and perseveringly pursued. They have done 
 good. They have repaid the benevolent many 
 fold, and the reason of their not yielding greatei* 
 and wider results, is found in the fact of a lim- 
 ited use. 
 
 Keference has been made to the Word of God. 
 Here the course of duty is made plain and very 
 imperative : " Do good unto all men as ye have 
 opportunity," "omit no opportunity of doing 
 good," " be merciful," " feed the hungry, clothe 
 the naked," "freely ye have received, freely 
 give," are among the divine injunctions. Then, 
 the most glorious and moving of all examples, 
 that of our blessed Lord, is employed to lead 
 in the way of an enlarged benevolence. What 
 thrilling, heart-moving words are those of the 
 Apostle Paul, " for ye know the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSIIiTESS. 33 
 
 for your sakes he became poor, that ye through 
 his poverty might be rich." 
 
 It is necessary, then, if a man would make 
 out a fair claim to a sound humanity, to a 
 Christ-like Christianity, indeed, to a sound so- 
 cial philosophy, to hold himself bound to act a 
 liberal part in public, social, religious, educa- 
 tional, and industrial benefaction. He should 
 charge himself with it just as decidedly, and 
 make it a part of his plan of life, as he does the 
 payment for any other beneficially reactive 
 matter. The true reasoning, accordingly, is, that 
 positive claims must take precedence of mere 
 luxuries, and as these are such, no business man 
 ought to allow his expenditure for luxuries to 
 impair, certainly not to prevent, his contributions 
 to the public good, any more than he would to 
 prevent the payment of his taxes. The plea of 
 inability is often heard, even when the case ask- 
 ing aid is most important, when that inability 
 proceeds from a violation of this rule — so much 
 has been vainly and unwisely lavished in luxu- 
 rious expenditure, that selfishness and vanity 
 are pampered at the expense of the primary 
 claims of benevolence and piety. 
 
 Again : An outlay for luxuries which prevents 
 proper investment for the future, is beyond the 
 
34 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 rule of wisdom and duty. It is a common maxim 
 tliat a man should live within his income, and 
 thus have something to lay by, for the sear of 
 life. So much uncertainty hangs over our con- 
 dition here, so many events which to us seem 
 contingencies dash human hopes, and then we 
 are so liable to various disabilities, that we may 
 well look to the future and learn a lesson from 
 the diminutive creatures that always prepare for 
 stern winter. It argues no want of trust in 
 God to do so any more than any form of prepa- 
 ration for a future event does. The evil is in 
 undue solicitude, and accumulating burdens of 
 care — ^not in any fair exercise of the foresight 
 of prudence. If a man is not governed by 
 such a policy, it is apparent how easily in pro- 
 vidence he may be made to feel and bitterly re- 
 gret the folly of wasting on sheer frivolities what 
 might have made old age, or a state of continued 
 bodily infirmity, comfortable. They who have 
 recklessly gone on, will, in the day of necessity, 
 find every vestige or remnant of gaudy display 
 not only a memento but a sharp reprover of 
 their improvidence. The mode in which a pru- 
 dential investment for the winter of life may be 
 made, is well understood. 
 
 It was said that as the Home pro\dder, the 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 85 
 
 man of business should, by all means, make 
 provision for Ms family in the day of his pros- 
 perity, in anticipation either of losses in husi- 
 7iess or his decease. This is taking new ground, 
 but it is believed to be fair and only just to the 
 parties to be benefited, and not in any way in- 
 jurious to any. Let the matter be looked at 
 with care. It will be conceded that it is both 
 desirable and important that a man should 
 guard those who are dependent on him from 
 adverse circumstances so far as he can honora- 
 bly, and at the earliest moment. The actual 
 history of the mercantile community, shows 
 many painful records of unexpected depressions 
 and disappointed hopes. How often has the 
 sun risen in splendor, but as day has advanced, 
 dark clouds have obscured the sky, the tempest 
 has followed in its fury, and shipwreck and ruin 
 have closed the scene. The fluctuations of bu- 
 siness life are proverbial, until it has become a 
 notable fact that so few who have carried on a 
 large and apparently prosperous business, have 
 left any thing comparatively, on their decease, 
 as the avails of a life-long labor. Serious mis- 
 takes may have been committed ; even the pru- 
 dent may have been induced to embark on the 
 sea of speculation; a dishonest partner may 
 
36 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 have involved a man in heavy losses ; the gains 
 of years may have been swept away hy the too 
 great confidence in some one of even established 
 character ; a man may have been drawn down, 
 without any fault of his, by the fall of his 
 neighbor, as the smaller trees, able to stand if 
 left to themselves, are crushed by the crash of 
 the larger under whose branches they have 
 grown ; he may have become too old to vary 
 his modes of business as the times require, for 
 there is such a thing as '''' fogyism)'' in business, 
 which, because it can not trim to the changing 
 winds, is left behind, and custom seeks new 
 channels ; indeed, it would be tedious to describe 
 the modes in which fair hopes, yes, the fairest 
 hopes, may, in the progress of years, be frus- 
 trated. And in this uncertain course, expenses 
 have been increasing ; the family is larger — is 
 older ; bills are necessarily greater ; new rela- 
 tions are to receive attention, and the man him- 
 self is approximating the period when his ener- 
 gy is less, his hopefulness less, and he needs re- 
 pose, but with the harness on is wearing out 
 rapidly. Then how quickly is the product of 
 more vigorous years consumed, and especially 
 if through a protracted decline in which he is 
 incapacitated for labor, according to the familiar 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 37 
 
 remark, "all goes out and nothing comes in." 
 It is painful to contemplate tlie condition of 
 those who are left, who from having high hopes 
 and having been habituated to every comfort, 
 and probably luxury, are thrust by stern neces- 
 sity into the struggle with depressed, perhaps 
 dependent circumstances. What melancholy 
 hours are the portion of many such ; how is the 
 small pittance which may have been saved, eked 
 out ; what sighs are heard after many things 
 which in the day of prosperity were thrown 
 away ; what melting tales are heard of the man- 
 ner in which one article after another, remnants 
 of former days, are sold at a sacrifice to furnish 
 the requisites of life. It is often said that truth 
 is stranger than fiction — ^if anywhere, it is often 
 here. Looking forward on life, the possibility 
 of such a lot for those nearest and dearest to 
 him, should move a business man to do what 
 he can to anticipate it. The question is, sup- 
 posing he desires it, how shall it be accomplish- 
 ed ? Only in perfect integrity to all to whom 
 he is indebted. A man must be just ; every 
 claim must be provided for, otherwise his ar- 
 rangement would be a fraud. It is very rare 
 that a business man, devoted to his proper pur- 
 Huits, does not reach a point when he has some- 
 
P)8 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 thing, more or less, over and above all claims ; 
 that after a liberal calculation of all precarious 
 circumstances, at that given point of time he 
 might lay aside something with the approbation 
 of all parties. The law defines when he may 
 make a settlement on his wife and on his child- 
 ren. Let him avail himself of it. Then some 
 have said the end is answered by an insurance 
 on his life ; this is well, and should be much 
 more resorted to ; but it is exceptionable in this 
 point of view, the annual payment may become 
 inconvenient — winsome instances impossible — and 
 thus the whole be put in jeopardy. So a gross 
 amount may be paid to secure an annuity ; but 
 to make this sufficiently valuable, too large a 
 sum must at once be taken out of one's business. 
 The most feasible mode is to make an invest- 
 ment in some approved form, selected with judg- 
 ment, for the exclusive benefit of named persons, 
 and give it all the accretions of annual interest 
 and dividends or other increase. This would 
 be effectual, and meet almost all contingencies. 
 And it is not an unnatural stretch of imagina- 
 tion to picture the time when the man who 
 could do this in the day of his prosperity, may 
 be made comfortable by it in the day of his ad- 
 versity — those dearest to him, whom he has 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. ot) 
 
 placed beyond the reacli of his own depressions, 
 being the disbursers. By such a process how 
 many who have gone to the grave in sorrow, 
 would have been saved from the mortification 
 which has broken their hearts. 
 
 If a man has married a wife with a property 
 at her command, or who has inherited it subse- 
 quently, the mode of accomplishing his provi- 
 sion, so far as she is concerned, is easy. If they 
 live where the law does not make it hers abso- 
 lutely, or, in other words, if under the system 
 where all hers, with her person, becomes his, 
 common honor demands that he should release 
 it to her, and sign off all right which circum- 
 stances may have given him. That property 
 he has not earned, nor has it been donated to 
 him : only incidentally has he a control of it. 
 The usage opposed to the course now suggested 
 is barbarous, and has done more to provoke the 
 cupidity of fortune-hunters than it has done 
 good to the right-minded. Had this been the 
 established mode always, untold miseries would 
 have been prevented. In numerous cases such 
 a mode of procedure would secure all that is 
 required, and the question of provision be easily 
 settled. But if there be no such opportunity, 
 the voice of painful experience calls most ear- 
 
40 HOME EESP0N8IBILITIES 
 
 nestly on every man to do for Ms family in his 
 prosperity what a due regard for all Ms liabili- 
 ties shall allow him to do honorably, in anticipa- 
 tion of losses or of his decease. 
 
 THE HOME EDUCATOE. 
 
 This view of the man of business, in its wide 
 range of duties, is second to none other — bear- 
 ing most directly on his own comfort and that 
 of those under his care, and most emphatically 
 on the well-being of society. It is due, accord- 
 ingly, to himself, to the home circle, to society, 
 to give special attention to all that is involved 
 in it. Besides, there is every thing to encour- 
 age his effort, for our nature is the most educa- 
 tible. The results of faithfulness here are early 
 seen, and they abide, and in turn become the 
 seeds of similar fruits in succeeding relations, 
 and thus, if good, go on blessing society inter- 
 minably — ^for right influences never die. The 
 relation of Home educator can never be 
 thrown off, while a man has imitating beings 
 around him, or those in any way to be influenced 
 by him. Indeed, he is always educating others, 
 whether conscious of it or not, and thus, as his 
 influence tends, is either a means of good or of 
 evil. 
 
OF THE M^VN OF BUSINESS. 41 
 
 Education is too frequently taken in tlie lim- 
 ited, scholastic sense, but this excludes some of 
 its most important aspects and agencies. Pro- 
 perly speaking, every thing which draws out the 
 constituent elements of our nature — developes, 
 strengthens, and trains them — ^is educational. 
 The man of business may say he is not a school- 
 master ; but he is nevertheless playing the pai-t 
 of one whenever within the family group, and 
 he can not prevent it. The moment he crosses 
 the home threshold, his step, his voice, his glee 
 or his sourness, his smile or his frown, his warm 
 and affectionate greeting of each little one or 
 his coldness of manner and distance, his tender 
 interest in all troubles which may have occurred 
 or his indifference to all, are so many lessons to 
 every member of the group looking up to him. 
 All hearts are drawn to him — ^for is he not the 
 father ? In the recognition of that relation and 
 the feelings drawn out by it, how natural the 
 conclusion of the young mind, what my father 
 does is right, and I will do like him. Does he 
 fly into a passion ; does he pronounce hasty judg- 
 ments; are his, wholesale condemnations; are his, 
 injudicious freedoms with the characters of oth- 
 ers ; is he negligent of duty ; are his, unseemly in- 
 dulgences — it is most probable that his boy will 
 
42 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 do the same. Does father smoke, and chew, 
 and drink a little, Jolm will reason, " my father 
 does it, and I may do it; it never hurt my 
 father, it will not hurt me." And so it is through 
 all the detail of life. A growing family will 
 not fail to be docile learners of those to whom 
 their nature teaches them to look up. Very 
 few realize how constant and how decided the 
 impressions made on the minds of children, and 
 how conduct, conversation, temper, looks, and 
 omissions are treasured up, and mould, and train, 
 and educate the group, which thinks it merito- 
 rious to be the counterpart of father. Let a 
 man watch narrowly, and he will find more 
 than he is aware the likeness, nearly the fac 
 simile, of himself, in more respects than physical 
 features or characteristics. "What a guard should 
 a man have over himself; what care should be 
 exercised that his children should see and hear 
 nothing which he would not wish repeated; and 
 beyond this, how desirable that he should so 
 train himself that the doing and being what he 
 would have them to be and to do, should be a 
 second nature. 
 
 A man himself educates, and he educates by 
 others. This is true of all the associations to 
 which he introduces his children — of all the 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 43 
 
 details of social intercourse wMch. lie deems it 
 important to observe, and of tlie location of 
 home. The whole management of home is 
 educational. Can it be a wonder, then, that so- 
 ciety is not more pure, more elevated, more vir- 
 tuous ? The solution of very much that is to 
 l^e deplored in social life is simply this : the home 
 training was sadly defective and negative, or 
 positively evil. 
 
 In reference to the education in the stricter 
 sense which a man gives his children, it is to be 
 remarked in general, that it is often the best 
 portion he can bestow on them. That man 
 spoke wisely who said, he would make sure to 
 give them this inheritance, whether he could 
 leave them any other or not. Money laid out 
 in a careful education is an admirable invest- 
 ment, and should be most cheerfully made, and 
 is bestowed on the parent's most important aux- 
 iliary. Some men speak disparagingly of edu- 
 cation and of the men who devote themselves 
 to it, from sheer meanness and avarice. " I have 
 succeeded in making money without it," says a 
 swelling ignoramus, who can not spell correctly 
 the bills he sends to his customers, " and my 
 children can do as I have done. Your teachers 
 are mere drones." What is the truth, as verified 
 
44 HOJUE EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 by constant observation ? The office of a teacher 
 is one of the most important in social life, and 
 he who is really a good teacher is the common 
 benefactor, and deserves all honor and favor. 
 The pecuniary compensation paid him is at best 
 a meagre return for the toil and anxiety which 
 are the price of his success. He who treats his 
 claim as a charity, who defrauds him of his due, 
 who thrusts him aside as a menial, ought to 
 know that he is ignoring his best friend, and 
 treating unworthily the hand which, out of the 
 crude mass, is to form the ornaments of his 
 house. 
 
 Several questions require an answer to him 
 who seeks to do his duty here. 
 
 I. What shall the education given his child- 
 ren embrace ? 
 
 II. Through and by whom shall it be given ? 
 
 III. Where shall it be given ? 
 
 IV. When shall it begin, and how long shall 
 it continue ? 
 
 I. What shall the education embrace ? There 
 is much of an elementary kind which is indis- 
 pensable, which in all cases is the same. The 
 clear common sense of the community decides 
 about this, without any pretense to philosophy. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 45 
 
 and it pronounces tlie tliorougliness of tliese 
 the basis of all subsequent progress. ISTo parent 
 should allow bimself to be led away by tinsel 
 and ornament while any deficiency exists here. 
 Proceeding from this onward, there can be no 
 just limit, for in the training of our nature God 
 has nowhere said, Thus far shalt thou go and no 
 farther. If a man's means enable, he should 
 give all the child will take, with special condi- 
 tions — ^namely, all should be useful ; every thing 
 should be in due order and proportion ; nothing 
 should be forced, either taking into account the 
 nature of a study or the quantity of work re- 
 quired ; the variety should not be such as to dis- 
 tract the mind ; all should be made as attractive- 
 as possible ; all should be in harmony ; and the 
 mode pursued should be adapted to cultivate 
 all the faculties — ^the memory as well as the 
 judgment, the imagination and the taste as well 
 as the understanding, the affections as well as 
 the mind — and not any one at the expense of 
 the others. And especially should the physical 
 system be attended to. What is all intellectual 
 and sesthetical education worth, if the body be 
 enfeebled and sickly ? A parent should see to 
 it, that good, wholesome air circulates in the 
 place of instruction, and that scholastic duty is 
 
46 HOllilE RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 relieved by invigorating exercises. In tlie case 
 of boys, there is in their exuberant feeling and 
 love of fun mucli to induce free exercise and 
 muscular development, tliougL. even with, them 
 a regular system of gymnastics is always valua- 
 ble. But with the girls it is different. The 
 usages of society keep them within such limits 
 that physical growth and expansion take place 
 rather in defiance than by the aid of social 
 arrangements. It is very much to be regretted 
 that every educational system for females has 
 not, integral to its daily operations, a place for 
 the graceful and invigorating calisthenics which 
 are so well known and prized at the Mount Holy- 
 oke Institution. 
 
 When speaking of the range of education, a 
 question has been asked, whether a parent 
 should be governed by the present direct bene- 
 fit of a given study ? The answer is, he can 
 not be so governed, for in the whole course of 
 our well-arranged institutions, there is nothing 
 which does not minister to desirable mental 
 training, and is accordingly important, though 
 how the benefit resulting may be applied in 
 a particular case may not be at once apparent. 
 The work is for the future. And then, as no 
 one can anticipate Providence, a man may find 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 4? 
 
 that what lie pronounced against as being value- 
 less would have been the greatest blessing to 
 his child. What shall be done with a study, 
 say some, for which a child has no natural 
 adaptation ? A fair and full experiment should 
 be made to settle the fact that this is so ; some- 
 times what may be called want of adaptation 
 may prove mere inattention, willful neglect, 
 opposition, or the effect of bad associations ; or 
 all difficulty may be set down to the manner in 
 which a child is treated, or the mode in which 
 a subject is taught. It may be the fault of the 
 teacher as decidedly as it may be that of the 
 pupil, that no fondness for a study is cherished, 
 and no proficiency is acquired. There is great 
 force in the little narrative which prefaces Col- 
 burn's Fii^st Lessons of Intellectual Arithmetic, 
 But when the point of want of adaptation is 
 satisfactorily settled, the answer is to be decid- 
 edly this : an eclectic course must be pursued, 
 or certain studies must be less pressed, if not 
 omitted. Ordinarily the entire curriculum of a 
 well-arranged educational course may be taken, 
 (not perhaps with the same success in every 
 branch, but with fair proficiency in all and spe- 
 cial in some,) but in many cases it is wise and 
 encouraging to allow a choice, under the advise- 
 
48 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 ment of a judicious friend. It is a great waste 
 of means and time to force upon a scholar wliat 
 lie or slie can not acquire. Thousands of dol- 
 lars are thrown away on musical education, 
 when there was no natural fitness for it, and 
 upon various branches of study, under similar 
 disability. It must be allowed that all men can 
 not be linguists or mathematicians or rhetori- 
 cians or naturalists or all together ; with a general 
 conception of each department, they slide into 
 that for which their preferences have been grow- 
 ing stronger and stronger in a preparatory career. 
 
 II. Through and by whom shall it be given ? 
 It is true in education, as in other matters, that 
 the lowest priced is not the cheapest ; while it is 
 not true, on the other hand, that the most costly 
 is either the dearest or best. Some things are 
 dear at any price. So it is among teachers ; and 
 a man may better pay to have them retire. Yet 
 there are persons who are ever seeking low- 
 priced tuition, and such must not be disappoint- 
 ed if they find it, according to the price, very 
 poor. Among teachers are persons also who 
 can puff loudly and put their wares very high, 
 apparently on the principle that there are pa- 
 rents who have more money than brains, and who 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 49 
 
 love, wlien they are " gulled," to have it done 
 handsomely. The man who respects himself 
 will avoid both extremes, and will ask a com- 
 pensation according to the work done. So the 
 parent should select, as the agent to whom he 
 commits his child, the man of integrity, who is 
 just to himself and to his patron. 
 
 A large convention of practical men, a few 
 years since, gave it as their opinion that lady 
 teachers were preferable for boys up to nine or 
 ten years old, and even older. The grounds on 
 which such a policy would be based, would be 
 these : that that period is one which calls for 
 sympathy, for tenderness; that it is one in 
 which the heart must be especially cultivated ; 
 and, particularly, because the influence of a 
 cultivated lady teacher would keep down the 
 asperities and rudenesses which under other 
 treatment would not be noticed. A proper di- 
 rection, given under such influences, is likely to 
 be felt through life. And no scholarship is 
 sacrificed under it ; for well-taught females, as 
 gifted as any of the other sex, may be obtained. 
 
 No man should intrust his children to a 
 person deficient in principle, or given to a single 
 bad habit. The drinker, the profane, the libi- 
 dinous, the vulgar, the frivolous, the gambler. 
 
50 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 the dishonest, tlie irreligious, should in no case 
 be intrusted with the charge of the hopes of a 
 family. "What can a parent expect from such ? 
 And even if the book instruction be sound, 
 what will be the effect of the example? and 
 what estimate of character will be implied on 
 the part of the parent, in their employment ? 
 
 As children and youth are passing through 
 the most in-firm period of life, and when the 
 judgment is imperfectly developed, they should 
 only be placed in the hands of teachers of de- 
 cided lieart^ and great patience. The place of 
 youthful training is not the one for the petu- 
 lant, peevish, passionate, the frivolous or stoical 
 temperament. There will, of course, be much 
 to try one, and sometimes very aggravated 
 cases may call for treatment ; yet these will 
 not justify the ebullitions of passion against 
 which frequent complaints are made. If 
 there be any position in which a man should 
 cultivate control over his own spirit, it is that 
 of the teacher. He who has it not, loses the 
 respect of those under his care, and they will 
 despise him, or fear him as a tyrant ; and the 
 advantages derived from any eminence of talents 
 he may possess will be more than compensated 
 by the unhappy exhibition of his passions. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 51 
 
 Aptness to teach, should be sought as an in- 
 dispensable quality. It is not mere learning 
 which constitutes a proper trainer of tlie young 
 mind. A man may have vast stores laid up in 
 the intellectual repository, and if he has not the 
 faculty of communicating, he is comparatively 
 useless. A parent who seeks the best interests 
 of his children should aim to secure those who, 
 though they may have less shining attainments, 
 provided adequate, understand how to interest 
 youth, and impart, in an intelligible manner, 
 what they have acquired. 
 
 To a certain extent, the teacher is the fatter : 
 he personates him ; is, as the technical phrase is, 
 "in loco parentis." In the settlement of the 
 question, Wbo shall represent him ? a father will 
 then certainly insist on having a conscientious 
 teacber — one whose higb sense of honor, wbose 
 feeling of deep responsibility, will induce him to 
 identify himself fully with parental wishes and 
 plans, and merge self in their accomplishment — 
 to whom it win be a matter of greater delight 
 to secure the best advancement of his charge, 
 than any individual results which may accrue 
 to himself. A conscientious teacher will draw 
 his standard of duty from the word of God, 
 which, while he commends it to his pupils. 
 
52 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 he will seek to follow himself, and will feel 
 that his accountability is to God, as well as to 
 him who honors him with the training of the 
 objects of his dearest affections. Only snch are 
 worthy the teacher's place. 
 
 III. Where shall the education be given? It 
 has become quite a fashion of late to send child- 
 ren, away from home for education. What are 
 we to think of this practice? is the question. 
 That there are cases where this should be done, 
 and would be best to be done, is not to be 
 doubted ; and where such necessity exists, it 
 will be regarded by the sensitive parent with 
 regret. The inability to obtain suitable advan- 
 tages near home may be a cause. The loss of 
 the female head of a group of children, and the 
 unfavorable position of the remaining parent, 
 does often lead to it. An infirm state of health 
 at home may make a transfer to a more salu- 
 brious atmosphere desirable ; and other circum- 
 stances, not specially complimentary to family 
 management, can be readily conceived, in which 
 the obvious propriety of the measure meets all 
 inquiries. But without some special controlling 
 consideration, which will justify it to his own 
 conscience, no man should allow himself in such 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 53 
 
 policy, and do tlie violence which the young 
 heart suffers on separation from home. In the 
 first place, he has no right to transfer his re- 
 sponsibilities to other hands, without a sufficient 
 reason. God holds him directly amenable. His 
 duty is primary, and it is of such a nature that 
 no one else can really perform it. And then 
 the risks he runs are of the most serious char- 
 acter. Among these are, the loss of a home 
 feeling on the part of his child ; the diminution 
 of interest in his own heart ; the sacrifice of all 
 the enjoyment connected with having his flock 
 around, and watching their progress and cheer- 
 ing them on; the casting of his child into a 
 circle of influences which he can not control, and 
 a training in sly trickery and various indul- 
 gencies, which have been complained of in the 
 most carefully managed boarding-schools, and 
 which have only come to light when the evil 
 was done ; in a word, thrusting a child almost 
 entirely on mercenary services. 
 
 Some men use glowing terms in depict- 
 ing the disadvantage of raising boys in a 
 city; and one would suppose the city-bred 
 boy must of necessity be ruined. But it 
 is mere talk — a cover, in many cases, for a 
 fashion which the parental heart should shrink 
 
54 HOME RESPaNSIBILITIES 
 
 from. The truth is, there are evil influences 
 everywhere ; in various situations various 
 forms of evil, ajnd all tend to the downward 
 road ; but who better adapted to ferret out the 
 danger than a father ? and where can a child be 
 safer than under a father's eye daily ? It may 
 be confidently said, that if proper care is taken, 
 the safest place for boys is in the home circle, 
 where the ten thousand nameless but felt forms 
 of good influence, are brought to bear, and will 
 operate now to check and then to cheer, and 
 constitute a lever of incalculable power. How 
 much of the practice spoken of may be set 
 down to mere selfish desire to get rid of care 
 and to secure more uninterrupted opportunity 
 for the slavery to money-making, we do not say. 
 Men complain of want of time to give proper 
 attention to the oversight necessary ; but where 
 is their warrant for overriding one of their most 
 important duties ? That excuse, want of time, 
 is equivalent to a confession that something is 
 wrong. If a man must have relief, why not 
 seek it by some auxiliary in his business, and 
 not in sending off his children ? Is it true 
 that his money affairs are nearer his heart 
 than his care for those whom God has given 
 him? 
 
OF THE MAN^ OF BUSINESS. 55 
 
 Again, say some, it is not good to have 
 children grow up in so mucli society as we 
 have, and amid such distractions. The sim- 
 ple reply is, have less. Will you indulge in 
 the giddy round of social indulgence, without 
 calculating the cost, in the necessary results, to 
 the home group ? Still others say, it is better to 
 send children from home to learn the way of 
 the world, and to cultivate their own resources, 
 and not follow a parent's leading. What! is 
 there not enough of the world before their eyes, 
 passing to and fro daily ? and as for resources, 
 had they not better get them before they rely 
 on them? Bo we send a frail bark on the 
 ocean without pilot and ballast ? Shall a man 
 send his sons abroad ere their principles and 
 character are formed ? Let it not be supposed, 
 while this argument tends to keep children 
 at home for education, that therefore the 
 boarding-school system, as such, is undervalued. 
 By no means ; it has an important place, and 
 that has been in the outset noted ; it is only the 
 abuse in the case against which a voice is raised. 
 One must have little acquaintance with it, who 
 does not know cases where the boarding-school 
 training has been crowned with the richest 
 blessings ; still it must be said the domestic has 
 
56 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 a more blessed potency ; and we tMnk it must 
 have because it is tlie original, divine plan, for 
 wMch tlie other occupies the place of a partial 
 substitute. 
 
 Happy man he, who places first among the 
 objects of domestic interest, the proper cultiva- 
 tion of the minds and hearts of his children, 
 keeps them around him, observes the progress 
 of each, cherishing with warm affection every 
 stage of onward struggle, drinks in delight, as, 
 when the shackles of business are thrown off, he 
 notes the work of the day and the earnest pre- 
 paration for the morrow ; watches all the asso- 
 ciations formed, and encourages what is in har- 
 mony with his own aims, and has the pleasing 
 consciousness as he lays his own head on his 
 pillow, that each member of his house is in his 
 and her place of repose, safe from evil. 
 
 IV. "When shall the education begin, and how 
 long shall it be continued ? In the proper sense 
 of training, never too early; in the scholastic 
 sense, not by any means as early as is the com- 
 mon practice. It is a cruelty practised on a 
 little one to sit it down to book-labor at four 
 and five years of age — ^shut it up in a school- 
 room for four and even six hours per day, and 
 restrain its little limbs in a fixed position, and 
 
OF TIIE MAT^^ OF BUSINESS. 57 
 
 the body in a starcliy perpendicular posture, with 
 all the horrors of a school-dame's anger in ter- 
 rorem over it. It is absurd ; it is unnecessary. 
 Common sense says, let it run ; nature says, let 
 it run ; common humanity says, let it run. 
 The ambition to show off the book attainments 
 of a little one, at the expense of its health, is 
 disreputable. The early years belong to the 
 physical system, to air, to exercise. And no- 
 thing is lost ; for nature — every thing around 
 is teaching, through the eye and the ear. It is 
 object teaching, the true basis of sound and 
 healthy progress. It is this which awakens the 
 mind, and at the proper time will make the ac- 
 quisition of the contents of books to be eagerly 
 sought after. "Whatever may be communicated, 
 in an amusing way, may be done ; but the first 
 consideration is health. 
 
 Having well begun, the completion of educa- 
 tion, if the phrase may be suffered, should not 
 be hastened. It is a great mistake to limit the 
 preparatory course to a fixed age, as many do. 
 A most deplorable thing it is that children must 
 be turned out finished men and women, as we 
 turn out the various articles of household furni- 
 ture, by a short, patent process, as if mind, and 
 character, and intelligence, may be done to 
 
58 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 order. Every thing is in a hurry among us, 
 and tlie results savor of the forcing process. 
 
 It is painful to see the eagerness of parents to 
 hurry the uninformed mind into society and 
 business, at the point of most critical character, 
 and when in a state to make the most desii^able 
 improvement. In a commercial community 
 our "business men commit a capital mistake by 
 their policy of abbreviating the course of in- 
 struction, and inflating the minds of their sons 
 with the notion of rushing into money-making, 
 and early realizing fortunes. It is simply un- 
 true that a complete education is of no use to a 
 man of business. Through every step of an 
 important business he must have enlarged 
 views, or he must fee the intellect that has 
 them. And when his money is made, what is 
 it to him if he has not intellectual resources to 
 fall back on, or cultivation to enjoy it ? The 
 confessions and regrets of not a few retired 
 men, their ennui, their premature senility, tell 
 most painfully of the want of a culture which 
 early education only could give. Much might 
 be said here to meet the tendencies to break off 
 an education, at its most important stage, for 
 the pursuits of the shop and the counting-room, 
 and much to show that after his course is ac- 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 59 
 
 complislied, a lad is not unfitted for the details 
 of business. Facts in abundance sbow that if 
 there be frippery, wastefulness, expensive habits, 
 mad and ruinous speculation, they will be most- 
 ly found among men whose minds have not en- 
 joyed the benefit of a sound education. Every 
 successful man of business owes it to the future 
 of his children, and the character of his class, 
 to lay his plans for as extensive an education as 
 his opportunities will allow. 
 
 THE PEIEST OF THE HOME CIRCLE. 
 
 The man of business the priest of the Home 
 circle ! Yes : and let not any startle at this 
 combination. Let him hear Paul : " Diligent in 
 business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 
 This is the most important, the most honorable, 
 the most blessed of his relations. The term 
 priest is here used in the sense of a leader, oi- 
 guide, or teacher in religion. Before an official 
 priesthood was instituted, the father was the 
 priest, ministered in holy things, and performed 
 the sacrificial services — and since an office has 
 been perpetuated for instruction in what per- 
 tains to eternal life, the father is not and can not 
 be exonerated from what falls naturally within 
 his province. To him comes home the charge 
 
60 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 to bring up his flock in tlie nurture and admo- 
 nition of tlie Lord. Fidelity here is beyond 
 any governing ability be may possess — any 
 temporal provision be may make — any educa- 
 tion be may secure. It bas to do witb tbe 
 interests of bis children in two worlds, to the 
 latter of which tbe present is less than a mo- 
 ment to a lifetime. The duty here is inalien- 
 able. He may have auxibary agencies, and he 
 is blessed witb them, in the form of an ample 
 juvenile rebgious bterature — ^in the form of the 
 Sabbath-school and Bible-class teacher, and 
 especially in tbe person of a pious wife, tbe 
 godly mother of his children ; but still, tbe 
 special, direct duty is his, and he may not, as he 
 values the interests committed to him — as he 
 values his own peace of mind, allow business to 
 interfere with it. It can be no satisfaction to him, 
 yes, it can only be a subject of bitter reflection 
 to his last moment, if bis children have grown 
 up irreligious, worldly-minded, reckless of eter- 
 nal things, and have so gone from his circle 
 upon the broad area of the world beyond, 
 through his neglect and failure to do his duty ; 
 through his allowing tbe business of the world 
 to shut bis eyes and bis heart against their best 
 interests. 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 61 
 
 Is the inquiry made, What shall he do for 
 them ? The proper answer is at hand. 
 
 I. Set them an example of personal regard for 
 religion, and all that pertains properly to it. 
 This, presented daily before them, will make an 
 appeal which will tend, more than arguments, 
 to fix attention and captivate the heart, and 
 especially may this be hoped in the case of boys. 
 This example should be comprehensive. The 
 habitual reading of the Bible, the careful ob- 
 servance of the holy day of God ; (not making 
 it a day of feasting, of pleasure-walking, visit- 
 ing, correspondence, overlooking old accounts, or 
 general reading :) the faithful attendance on the 
 house of God, the pure conversation, the living 
 a life of integrity, all of which speak directly 
 to the heart, should characterize it. 
 
 II. The faithful observance oi family \oorsTiip 
 has a blessed, influence in leading the young 
 heart aright, while it is to be commended, as 
 is in itself an important duty. It is marked in 
 the sacred word as a melancholy thing to be of 
 the families that call not on God. What more 
 natural, more proper, than that, in anticipation 
 of the uncertainties of the night watches, the 
 parent should commend the family circle to the 
 care of Him who never slumbers nor sleeps ; and 
 
62 HOME EESPONSIBILITIES 
 
 when the morning comes, that grateful returns 
 should go up to the Divine Shepherd, and that in 
 all the ex]30sures of the day his care should be 
 sought ? In the habitual observance of such ser- 
 vice, the young heart has brought before it, in 
 touching form, its dependence and its obligations, 
 and the thoughts and general views and conduct 
 of the day are most likely to be viewed in refer- 
 ence to God. All the exercises of such occasions 
 should be brief, cheerful, comprehensive. 'No man 
 need feel a diJBBlculty here for want of gifts ; for 
 there are within his reach various auxiliaries, in 
 the form of books of family devotion, which he 
 may use. 
 
 III. He should carry his children to tJie 
 lumse of God. To send them, is one thing ; to 
 take them with him still better, and the true 
 course. God has eminently honored fidelity in 
 this respect. The fact of Divine institution, re- 
 gard for his children, respect for the minister, 
 the influence on society, as well as desire direct- 
 ly for religious benefits, unite to urge it. Kegu- 
 larly, punctually, uniformly and always when 
 the sanctuary is open, should be the rule. 
 
 IV. The furnishing a carefully selected reli- 
 gious literature is of immense moment. Time 
 was when this was out of the question ; but not 
 
OF THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 63 
 
 SO now. From the earliest to the most ad- 
 vanced in the family, choice adaptations may be 
 found. The matter of most difficulty now is se- 
 lection ; but this need not leave any man at a loss. 
 Biography, missionary research, narratives and 
 allegories are at hand, as well as the more di- 
 rect religious exposition. 
 
 V. A man should have special rega/rd to the 
 associations of Ms cliildren^ the whole arrange- 
 ment of social intercourse^ and the gratification 
 furnished to his young flock. These, if not 
 attended to, may undo all he has done, and per- 
 veii: and alienate the heart he would win. 
 
 While these particulars are stated, it is not 
 to be supposed they are exhaustive of the sub- 
 ject. Unconsciously the Home responsibilities 
 are in danger of occupying too large a share of 
 this work, and therefore other points must be 
 left out, while even the above cannot be properly 
 expanded. Let, however, what has been stated 
 be properly regarded, and it is confidently be- 
 lieved good will result. 
 
 That man of business who sustains a family 
 relation, lives under heavy responsibilities. His 
 children have claims on him, society has claims 
 on him — above all, God has claims on him. As 
 the Home Governor, the Home Provider, the 
 
64 HOME RESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 Home Educator, and especially as the Priest of 
 Home, lie needs to look personally for tlie di- 
 vine aid. Favored lot, Ms ! He has every en- 
 couragement to commit himself and all his to 
 the hand which places the solitary in families. 
 Before him opens a future full of hope. The 
 promise is, our "labor is not in vain in the 
 Lord." Successful in securing the object of his 
 deep solicitude, what a circle, in advancing years, 
 may he hope to gather around him, to cheer the 
 mellow decline of life, and what a glorious re- 
 union will that be when he and they shall meet 
 before the throne of God and the Lamb ! 
 
MEN OF BUSINESS 
 
 THEIR INTELLECTUAL CULTURE, 
 
 JONATHAN F. STEARNS, D.D. 
 
INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 
 
 OP THE 
 
 MAN OF BUSINESS. 
 
 IiTTELLiGET^CE IS an essential requisite to riglit 
 action. It is tlie source of power. It serves to 
 develop and advance to their proper maturity, 
 all tlie faculties with wMcli God lias endowed 
 us. It is tlie nurse and instrument of virtue. 
 It \b tlie handmaid of religion. We can scarcely 
 over-estimate it, though we may assign to it a 
 disproportionate value ; and this we shall do if 
 we exalt it above moral and rehgious attain- 
 ments, or admit that it can accomplish much 
 good, either for individuals or for the commu- 
 nity, when these are neglected. 
 
 But the cultivation of the intellect, based 
 upon moral and rehgious principles, and sub- 
 ordinate to them, exalts our nature and enlarges 
 
2 INTELLECTUAL CULTTJKE 01* 
 
 all our capacities for enjoyment and usefulness. 
 It is not the privilege only of the few. In dif- 
 ferent degrees, varying according to capacity 
 and circumstances, it is the common boon of 
 humanity. All classes ought to be admitted to 
 its benefits. And yet it can not be denied that 
 they especially require and are entitled to them, 
 on whom devolve the leading parts in the great 
 drama of human action and advancement. 
 
 The social state requires for its well-being a 
 great variety of services. Society is not a mere 
 aggregation, a quantity to be estimated by the 
 relations of more and less, better and worse, but 
 an organic whole — a system in which the indi- 
 viduals are all members, each needful for each, 
 and all for all. A heap of grain may be larger 
 or. smaller. A bag of money may contain a 
 greater or less number of coins, and these may 
 be severally of greater or less value. Take one 
 away, and there is but just so much less remain- 
 ing. But it is not so with human society. That 
 resembles rather an engine or a watch. Every 
 wheel or spring or valve has its appropriate use. 
 A thousand pistons could not supply the place 
 of one safety-valve, nor a thousand mainsprings 
 that of one balance-wheel. 
 
 In a low state of civilization, the diversities 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 8 
 
 of employment are comparatively few. Men's 
 habits are simple, and they liave few wants. But 
 as improvement advances, wants multiply. Tlie 
 demand for superior products creates a neces- 
 sity for more concentrated application. Society 
 gets distributed into various classes, each occu- 
 pying its own allotted sphere, and doing its own 
 work, with an exclusiveness which, at first view, 
 seems totally indifferent to the pursuits of others. 
 And yet, if you look narrowly, that very exclu- 
 siveness shows the existence of a most extensive 
 and closely connected inter-dependence. 
 
 In such a system, no one of the legitimate 
 employments can well be dispensed with. There 
 are, it is true, vicious employments and vicious 
 distinctions in society, whose continuance and 
 success we can not but regard with dread. 
 They are the evil growth of a diseased state of 
 the body politic. Plato thought it wise to ex- 
 clude from his theoretic commonwealth several 
 arts and professions which, in the present state 
 of the world, are held in high esteem. So would 
 the Christian statesman, looking over the com- 
 munity as it now is, see occasion to deprecate 
 and discourage not a few, which hold a place 
 among us only as the instruments of men's vices. 
 But not of this character are those various trades, 
 
4 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 professions or vocations, by wMcIl virtuous men 
 obtain tbeir livelihood ; those, namely, which 
 supply some real want, avert some dreaded evil, 
 or promote some valuable improvement of hu- 
 manity. These may be looked upon as but so 
 many limbs or organs of the body politic — ^in- 
 struments of its well-being or well-working. 
 Take any of them away, and what remains is 
 not merely a diminished quantity, but a disor- 
 dered, maimed, and crippled whole. Our civil- 
 ization — ^to wit, such civilization as Christian 
 influences have developed — ^requires for its sup- 
 port and advancement just such branches of 
 physical and mental industry as we see flourish- 
 ing around us. And it is a matter of interest 
 to the entire community, not only that each 
 class should be sustained, but that to each should 
 be given the best possible training to fit them 
 for their several callings. 
 
 Among these classes stands prominent the 
 MAN OF BUSINESS. In claiming for him a large 
 share of intellectual culture, we have regard to 
 the important character of his functions, and the 
 leading position which he is to occupy among 
 the forces of society. We include in this class, 
 not the merchant or the trader only, though 
 these may be regarded as the type of the class — • 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 5 
 
 they are among its most prominent specimens, 
 and the pursuits of the man of business, in all 
 departments, partake more or less of the mer- 
 cantile character : we include in it all those 
 whose vocation it is to organize and direct the 
 industrial forces of the community — the manu- 
 facturer, the master mechanic, the contractor, 
 or the superintendent, in the various enterprises 
 of production, accommodation or improvement. 
 All our higher wants require complicated pro- 
 cesses and combined skill. The man of business 
 undertakes to bring about the requisite com- 
 bination — to provide for its facilities, and to 
 furnish to the various classes of society, each 
 according to their wants, the finished results. 
 
 To this class every other in the community is 
 a debtor. The laborer, the artisan, the artist, 
 the traveller, the statesman and jurist, the cler- 
 gyman, the physician, the devotee of science, 
 and the man of literary leisure — what could any 
 of them accomplish, but for the reliance they 
 are allowed to place on the skill, energy, activity, 
 and faithfulness of the man of business? His 
 enterprises farnish employment to thousands 
 who could not otherwise have employed them- 
 selves ; and the little dowry and patrimony on 
 which the widow and orphan rely for their daily 
 
6 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OP 
 
 bread, finds its entire productive value in tlie 
 profitable uses to wMcli lie is able to apply it. 
 This class forms tbe very sinews, ligaments, and 
 conducting arteries of all social organization. 
 He acts as mediator between tlie individual and 
 tlie community, and by bis agency alone the 
 possessions, talents, and achievements of one 
 acquire a real value for all. 
 
 We are looking witb great interest to tbe 
 improvement of society. But there has never 
 been any considerable social advancement, whe- 
 tlier in ancient or modern times, wherein this 
 class has not, first or last, played a prominent 
 part. China and India, as their earliest records 
 show, distinguished themselves as mercantile 
 nations, from the earliest antiquity. Assyria, 
 Phoenicia, Carthage suggest the idea of com- 
 mercial greatness, on the bare mention of their 
 names. One of the earliest notices we have of 
 ancient Egypt, is that of companies of merchants 
 travelling from Gilead, to bring " spices, myrrh, 
 and balm," and carry them down thither as 
 articles of traffic. Greece, the most accomplished 
 of the ancient nations, owed all her great supe- 
 riority, her laws, her commanding influence 
 among the nations, her philosophy, her refine- 
 ment in art, literature and manners, in no small 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 7 
 
 degree, to the stimulus given to her once rude 
 people, by commercial enterprises. These old 
 heathen civilizations, such as they were — and 
 none can doubt they were a great improvement 
 on the barbarism that preceded and surrounded 
 them — ^grew up not so much under the shades 
 of leisurely contemplation, as in the dust and 
 stir and jostling competition of business. And 
 the nation of Israel — ^though their civilization 
 was designed to bear a peculiar character, less 
 dependent than that of others upon this class 
 of influences — show plainly, in the days of their 
 greatest prosperity and glory — ^the days of Solo- 
 mon — a very remarkable development of busi- 
 ness enterprise and activity. 
 
 If we turn to the civilization of modern times, 
 we find there a very marked illustration of the 
 point before us. It took its beginnings amidst 
 scenes of violence and confusion. The wreck of 
 former grandeur and opulence was strewed over 
 the waves of centuries. The providence of God, 
 having in view some better product, had broken 
 up all the old systems of social organization, and 
 ground them into shapeless masses, so as to pre- 
 pare them to receive a new principle. There 
 they lay, heaving and fermenting, over an entire 
 continent. Business men, at that period, scarcely 
 
8 INTELLECTUAL CULTUKE OF 
 
 existed as a class. War exhausted tlie talents, 
 the energies, and the resources of the superioi* 
 classes, and hopeless servitude was the fate of 
 the inferior. The feudal chieftain, the successful 
 soldier, and the wily ecclesiastic, held in their 
 own hands the forces of the world, and dealt 
 out its resources as they chose, to their depend- 
 ent retainers. Then the intercourse of nations 
 did not lie in the exchange of commodities. 
 The gathering of wealth was a matter of whole- 
 sale robbery or of cunning extortion. The 
 banker was a Jew ; the lender of money was a 
 usurer ; the merchant was regarded a^ one who 
 extorts a kind of tribute from the luxury oi' 
 necessities of his fellow men. And hence we 
 find, among the acts of ecclesiastical councils — 
 those most potent engines of power in the mid- 
 dle ages — a decree condemning the employment 
 of the merchant, as one which no virtuous 
 Christian could pursue. 
 
 But the fabric of society could not always 
 remain in this confused and broken state. A 
 principle was at work tending to reorganize it 
 on a nobler plan. Christianity began to work 
 its way among the social elements; and now, 
 the appropriate agent of advancing civilization 
 began anew to acquire dignity and importance. 
 
THE MAN OF BUSmESS. 9 
 
 Business became an essential function of the 
 social system. The earth was found to contain 
 inexhaustible riches fitted to man's use, intellect- 
 ual and physical. Princely magnificence did 
 not comprise all the magnificence of the world. 
 The cabinets of kings did not contain all the 
 gems, nor their treasuries all the silver and gold, 
 nor the rich cathedrals of those other lords, the 
 rulers of the Church, all the marbles and pre- 
 cious stones, nor the broad land, seized by the 
 swords of the one or donated to the other as 
 the bribe of salvation, all the productive soil 
 given to man by the divine bounty as his ample 
 inheritance. Caravans crossed the desert, and 
 came back loaded with the wealth of distant 
 India — gold and gems from its mines, pearls 
 from its oceans, sweet odors from its forests, silk 
 from its looms. Adventurous mariners pushed 
 their way into unknown seas, and opened ne^^ 
 channels for the intercourse of traffic. They 
 crossed the wild and hitherto mysterious ocean, 
 and added new lands — a new world, as it was 
 appropriately called — ^to the habitable earth 
 known to their fathers — ^lands richer than fable, 
 and beautiful, even in their native wildness, as 
 the garden of Eden. To bring these new lands 
 into use and occupancy, to develop and apply 
 
10 INTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 to useful purposes resources wliicli had been 
 locked up since creation, to make tlie superfluity 
 of one land supply tlie deficiencies of another, 
 to increase wealth as well as make it exchange 
 hands, to make money as well as to get it, now 
 woke into the most eager exercise powers 
 and faculties which had hitherto lain dormant. 
 Thus cities rose. Freedom was felt as a neces- 
 sity, and was claimed and vindicated as a right. 
 Invention was stimulated, art began to put forth 
 her beautiful creations, knowledge increased, 
 genius and talent were called forth, civilization 
 advanced. 
 
 When we look back over a period of ^ve 
 hundred years, and compare, or rather contrast, 
 the condition of the world then and now, how 
 great is our astonishment ! And what has ac- 
 complished this change — science? art? general 
 intelligence ? free government ? Yes ; all these 
 unquestionably have had their influence. But 
 there has been another force steadily operating, 
 without whose aid and instrumentality none of 
 these could have accomplished what they have 
 done. It is trade. This has given to science 
 one of its most effective stimulants. It has 
 been an engine of freedom undermining feudal- 
 ism, diffusing intelligence, elevating the people. 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 11 
 
 Even religion owns its services, and has found 
 in it, on tlie whole, a most effective instrument 
 of its purposes. The Reformation, humanly 
 speaking, could not have taken place without 
 it ; the standard of the cross, waving benignly 
 amidst Christian homes and the rich products 
 of Christian civilization, could not have been 
 erected on these new shores ; nor could Christ- 
 ian missionaries, bearing messages of salvation, 
 have gone forth into the four corners of the 
 earth. 
 
 From these facts, it has followed as a matter 
 of course, that the class of men engaged in 
 managing this agency, have assumed a very dif- 
 ferent position from that which they once occu- 
 pied. History tells us how it was at a very 
 early day. The Medici of Florence, those mer- 
 chant princes, whose financial operations con- 
 trolled the march of armies, and made and 
 unmade kings — ^whose palaces were the seat not 
 of wealth and power only, but of taste, of art, 
 of refinement, of all sorts of intellectual culture — 
 were but a prominent specimen among many 
 who filled the cities of Italy with learned men, 
 and wrote chapters in the book of history, over 
 which modern eyes linger with admiration. 
 Nor was it these riches only that gave them 
 2 
 
12 mTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 this elevation. It was tlie functions they dis- 
 charged. The baron and the king, the bishop 
 and the pope, saw a mighty rival — not in respect 
 to wealth and splendor only, but to power, to 
 control over the actions and destinies of men, to 
 whatsoever gives authority and dignity to man 
 in the eyes of his fellows — ^in the owner of rich 
 argosies. A while they strove to patronize the 
 new nobility, give to a few of its chiefs a certain 
 place in their own ranks, and make it receive 
 at their hands its privileges and honors. Hence 
 merchants became princes, and merchants' sons 
 generals, prime ministers, or high ecclesiastics. 
 But this could not last always. The new j)ower 
 was not long a child. It had a giant's strength 
 and a giant's proportions. There was in it a 
 spirit not of independence only, but of authority. 
 Gradually it won its way against the opposing 
 force of older dynasties, fighting and yielding, 
 fighting and yielding under the pressure of in- 
 fluences long dominant, until at length it became 
 an established and well-recognized power among 
 the nations; and, taking its seat side by sido 
 with the most legitimate, sways a sceptre which 
 not a government in the world would venture 
 to disregard. 
 
 Were the question asked. What is at this 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 13 
 
 moment tlie strongest power in operation for 
 controlling, regulating, and inciting tlie actions 
 of men ? what lias most at its disposal tlie con- 
 dition and destinies of the world ? we must an- 
 swer at once, it is that business, in its various 
 ranks and departments, of whicli commerce, 
 foreign and domestic, is the most appropriate 
 representation. In all prosperous and advanc- 
 ing communities — advancing in arts, knowledge, 
 literature, and social refinement — ^business is king. 
 Other influences in society may be equally in- 
 dispensable, and some may think far more" digni- 
 fied, but business is king. The statesman and 
 the scholar, the nobleman and the prince, equally 
 with the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the 
 laborer, pursue their several objects only by 
 leave granted, and means furnished by this po- 
 tentate. 
 
 And if this is true as a characteristic of the 
 age generally, it is preeminently so of our own 
 country: because it being a new country, all 
 that is valuable in it is preeminently in a pro- 
 gressive state. We have our fortunes yet to 
 make, intellectually and socially, as well as phy- 
 sically. Our mansions are to be built, our institu- 
 tions founded, our facilities of intercourse perfect- 
 ed, our treasures dug out of the earth, and all the 
 
14 INTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 resources of tlie land discovered and developed. 
 You may set a soldier to guard an old cabinet of 
 crown-jewels, valued chiefly as tlie relics of an- 
 cient kings, or you may lock tkem up in a strong 
 box and inclose tliem witMn the massive walls 
 of a strong castle. But it requires enterprise, 
 systematic and well-organized industry, and the 
 skill and courage to lay out^ as well as to lay wp^ 
 in order to discover, bring forth, and mould into 
 new forms of beauty, the riches which lie hid 
 where God hoarded them in the jewel-cabinets 
 and treasuries of nature. Old conservatism, 
 looking only to the past, may afford to dispense 
 with business, and perhaps affect to despise it ; 
 but young and hopeful progress, never. In 
 such a country as ours, business must stand in 
 relations of peculiar intimacy with every pursuit 
 and calling that deserves a place in the social 
 economy. Even the products of the mind — 
 ideas, principles, sentiments, moral and religious 
 truths — ^if ever they are to become parts of the 
 common inheritance, working forces in the action 
 of the community, elements of its character, and 
 guides of its life, must make their way to such 
 commanding influence under its banner. You 
 can not build a school-house or a college, you 
 can not publish a book, without its intervention. 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 15 
 
 The book must be one tliat will sell, or who 
 does not know that, for all the purposes for 
 which books are intended, it might just as well 
 not have been written ? A pulpit can not be 
 maintained without the same agency. 
 
 Now, from all these considerations, who does 
 not perceive the vast importance of looking well 
 to the character, intellectual as well as moral 
 and religious, of our business men ? They con- 
 stitute a claim on their behalf to a high order 
 of intellectual attainments. That a class occu- 
 pying so leading a position, managing interests 
 of such vast importance, and standing in such 
 vital relations to the community and the age, 
 should be a mere race of drudges, incompetent 
 to understand their own position, and the signi- 
 ficance of their own operations, is a disgrace and 
 wrong not to be tolerated. We have said, busi- 
 ness is king. A burning shame would it be, in 
 such an age as this, that the ministers who stand 
 by the throne and execute the behests of this 
 sovereign, should be any other than intelligent 
 men. Narrow and low views, vulgar concep- 
 tions, ignorance of the true nature and destiny 
 of mankind, and of the great principles of truth 
 and righteousness which ought to govern the 
 world, if they prevail here, will be sure to extend 
 
16 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 their influence to the corruption and degrada- 
 tion of the entire community. No learned class, 
 no efforts either of the pulpit or the press, could 
 do more than check the progress of deterioration 
 against such influences. 
 
 We have been looking hopefully for a higher 
 type of men to arise among us, under the influ- 
 ence of a purer and more fully developed Pro- 
 testant Christianity. "The age of chivalry," 
 said an illustrious British statesman, " is gone." 
 Gone it is, even in Europe. You can never 
 recall it. Here, it never had an existence ; and 
 it would be equally vain and foolish to attempt 
 to produce it. Society has taken a new shape, 
 and the energies of the race have passed over 
 into a new field. But what if, with the more 
 sterling and practical virtues which seem natur- 
 ally to belong to this field, we could reproduce, 
 and that in a purer form, the very qualities that 
 gave attractions to the old — the bloom, and 
 verdure, and freshness of the ancient knighthood 
 in the quiet, measured gardens of modern in- 
 dustry and enterprise ? Are war and lawless 
 violence, and the semi-barbarous relations of 
 lord and vassal, really a better state for the 
 development of some . of the nobler virtues of 
 humanity, than peace, order, social equality, and 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. liT 
 
 the pursuits of industry ? Then has the Gospel 
 of peace left defects in the culture which it offers, 
 to be supplied only by its antagonist ! Then the 
 wolf must not, always and everywhere, dwell 
 with the lamb, nor the leopard lie down with 
 the kid ! We shall be very slow to admit such 
 a conclusion. We venture, on the contrary, to 
 affirm, that all that heroic energy, that cour- 
 ageous prudence, that independent deference, 
 that self-reliant self-devotion, that high integrity, 
 "that sensibility of principle, that chastity of 
 honor which felt a stain as a wound," so eminently 
 characteristic of the ancient chivalry in its best 
 specimens, may be reproduced on an improved 
 plan, in what are deemed by many, the dull, 
 unpoetical, and selfish walks of a life of business ; 
 yes, even " the unbought grace of life, the cheap 
 defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment 
 and heroic enterprise," in an age and nation of 
 " economists and calculators." 
 
 But if this be true, if the very thought be not 
 a romantic dream, the result can only be accom- 
 plished by elevating the character, intellectual 
 as well as moral and religious, of our business 
 men. Fortunately, we have some noble exam- 
 ples of what may be accomplished in this respect. 
 But these examples must be emulated, to a de- 
 
18 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 gree far surpassing wliat we have liitlierto wit- 
 nessed. Our business men, as a claes^ must feel 
 it to be, not their privilege only, but their sacred 
 duty, to cultivate their minds, and furnish them, 
 in as large measures as possible, with the plea- 
 sures and advantages of knowledge. 
 
 As to the direct preparation of the man of 
 business for the duties of his calling, some may 
 doubt whether intellectual culture, proj^erly so 
 called, is of any material importance. Leave 
 that, they say, to scholars, to men of leisure, to 
 the learned professions. Business is a practical 
 matter : it requires experience rather than study. 
 The sharpening of the faculties by exercise, the 
 skill and insight which are derived from the 
 actual doing of the work, the training afforded 
 by the homely and practical duties of an appren- 
 ticeship, are worth more to the formation of a 
 good business character, than all the studies of 
 the school or the college. And possibly this is 
 true, if we must speak comparatively, if we must 
 choose one of the two, and dispense with the 
 other. There are certain parts of the business 
 man's duties, certain details, a certain routine, 
 the qualifications for which can be obtained only 
 in the shop or counting-house. And these qual- 
 ifications are indispensable ; they must be ac- 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 19 
 
 quired so thoroughly as to become a matter of 
 habit. But this is equally true, though perhaps 
 in a less degree, in what are called the learned 
 professions. The young lawyer must have an 
 office-training as well as a school-training. The 
 young physician must attend at the hospitals or 
 visit the houses of the sick in company with his 
 teacher, as well as attend courses of lectures at 
 the medical college. But if, in these latter cases, 
 theory is necessary in order to illuminate and 
 guide practice ; and practice, in order to be suc- 
 cessful, must consent to be the executor of a 
 well-studied theory, so in the former. There 
 are theoretic truths applicable to business ; there 
 are principles, there are fixed and general laws, 
 determining its aims and regulating its processes, 
 just as truly as in matters usually denominated 
 scientific. The man who is capable of reflection, 
 of induction and deduction, who has facts wisely 
 gathered in his possession, and can see their bear- 
 ings and relations, who understands general 
 principles and is able to apply them in all ex- 
 igencies, must have an immense advantage, even 
 in the common matters of gain and loss, over 
 the man of blind processes and stereotyped 
 maxims. 
 
 It is very true, that many a learned man has 
 
20 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 utterly failed in tlie attempt to be a man of 
 business. And, on the other hand, many an 
 ignorant man has had what has been deemed 
 great success in conducting extensive business 
 operations, and amassing property. Some ex- 
 amples of the latter sort are familiar in story. 
 In a small but flourishing seaport of New-Eng- 
 land, there lived, fifty years ago, a man so igno- 
 rant that he could not spell correctly the com- 
 monest words in his language. All his acquaint- 
 ance regarded him as only half-witted, although 
 the wit he had was, in some of its characteristics, 
 peculiarly shrewd. This man amassed a fortune. 
 Whatever he touched turned to a profit, and 
 even his most ridiculous blunders were among 
 his most productive speculations. We have all 
 heard of, or been acquainted with, cases of the 
 same sort, only perhaps less marked. But these 
 are mere matters of accident. They are no ex- 
 amples to be imitated. Men have won fortunes 
 many a time in a lottery ; but that does not 
 show that Chance is the best reliance in accumu- 
 lating property. According to all experience, 
 she cheats her votaries far oftener than she 
 prospers them. 
 
 We readily admit that the department of 
 business is among the most practical of all the 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 21 
 
 departments of life. Without insight, experi- 
 ence, systematic habits, and practical energy, 
 a man is totally disqualified for its duties. And 
 yet this does not hinder us from believing that 
 the man who superadds to all these qualifica- 
 tions study and thought, is better qualified, even 
 for the most practical of these duties, than he 
 who dispenses with them. 
 
 There is a vast extent and variety of T^now- 
 ledge which may be made directly available, first 
 or last, in business operations. Profit and loss 
 are often determined by it. A man, for exam- 
 ple, is engaged in supplying some one or more 
 of the wants of mankind. He needs to know 
 what those wants are; in what circumstances 
 they arise ; which among them are permanent, 
 and which of a temporary nature ; in regard to 
 the latter, in what qircumstances they are likely 
 to cease, or what may turn them aside into some 
 new channel ; how far he may or may not count 
 upon the continuance of their demands amidst 
 the fluctuations of the times; what articles are 
 best suited to the supply in the particular locality 
 which he has selected for his operations ; where 
 the best and most suitable of those articles can 
 be most advantageously secured ; what quantity 
 is required ; what the fluctuations are to which 
 
22 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 the price may be subject ; the physical influ- 
 ences to which they are liable, either for dete- 
 riorating or improving the value; how long 
 they may be allowed to lie on hand without 
 danger of loss ; to what degree he may safely 
 extend his transactions with the amount of capi- 
 tal he is able to command ; what are the ap- 
 proved rules of intercourse between the buyer 
 and the seller, or the dealer in wholesale and re- 
 tail ; the laws of the land affecting such transac- 
 tions as his own ; and what changes in the public 
 policy, either of his own or other countries, are 
 likely to promote or thwart the success of his 
 undertakings. Questions of this nature may be 
 multiplied to almost any extent, in connection 
 with the simplest operations. And they run 
 out, as may be seen at a glance, into almost 
 every department of knowledge — to history, to 
 geography, to natural science, to political econo- 
 my, to mercantile ethics, to finance, to jurispru- 
 dence, to politics. He who has made himself 
 acquainted with these matters — ^who has no 
 occasion to go and study them out, or to depend 
 upon the opinion of others, or guess the result 
 which he would ascertain from such vague signs 
 a^ he may be able to discover, or run his risk 
 and take his luck for want of power to form an 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 23 
 
 intelligent opinion — ^lias an advantage, even on 
 tlie direct question of gaia or loss, of no mean 
 value to its possessor. 
 
 To this, perhaps some one will reply : Oli ! I 
 can not take time to go into all these considera- 
 tions ; I must follow my practical judgment. I 
 judge of the goodness of an article by its look, 
 its taste, its smell ; I judge of the profitableness 
 of buying and selling by inquiring into the state 
 and tendencies of the market ; I get a liahit of 
 judging. Yes, but suppose you might obtain 
 the power to judge where the habit and the 
 signs would not serve you. Suppose you could 
 anticipate the state of the market — anticipate 
 all its apparent tendencies, by a true knowledge 
 of the causes to which all its variations are sub- 
 ject. You need not take time in order to put 
 this knowledge into use. If it is really yours, 
 it will come to the aid of your practical judg- 
 ment just as readily as the knowledge furnished 
 by experience. You spend time now ; you stop, 
 and hesitate, and inquire, and after all get de- 
 ceived in your conclusions, when, if you only 
 had at your command such knowledge as we 
 are now recommending, a simple glance at the 
 newspaper, or the slightest consideration of the 
 signs of the times, might have enabled you to 
 
24 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 determine the question at once, and that with 
 decision and certainty. 
 
 But if these remarks may be applied to the 
 more simple and limited departments of the 
 pursuits in question, how much more when we 
 come to the more extensive and complicated — 
 to commerce in the larger sense — ^to the opera- 
 tions of the importer, of the banker, of the ma- 
 nager of large manufacturing interests. When 
 we consider how these operations spread them- 
 selves over the world, and are connected, either 
 directly or indirectly, with all its interests, expe- 
 riences, and events — ^that a revolution in China ; 
 a failure of the opium crop in India^ or the cot- 
 ton crop in the United States ; the embarrass- 
 ment of financial affairs in France or England ; 
 the curtailment or expansion of a banking-house 
 three thousand miles off; the tone and temper 
 of a speech in the British Parliament ; a change 
 in the tariff; an alteration in the terms of land 
 sales ; the annexation or organization of a new 
 territory ; the opening of a new channel of com- 
 munication ; the chartering or refusing to char- 
 ter a new railroad, may make the difference of 
 success or failure, prosperity or ruin — ^that all 
 these events are to be anticipated, provided for, 
 turned to account — ^the range of knowledge of 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 25 
 
 wMch men engaged in such pursuits find it con- 
 venient to avail themselves, seems scarcely to 
 admit of a limitation. 
 
 We do not forget, indeed, that even the most 
 extensive business has its own department or 
 speciality, to which the knowledge necessary 
 for its management may be thought chiefly to 
 be limited. But then no department, however 
 narrow it may seem, is without its relations. 
 And if those relations are not understood — ^if 
 the collateral departments on which they hinge 
 are not taken into the account, a man is in no 
 condition to conduct well even the most limited 
 speciality. Every man's own particular path 
 must be the middle line of his knowledge ; and 
 subjects which lie contiguous to it form the fore- 
 ground of the picture which he is to study. 
 But then there is a background altogether 
 essential to the character and completeness of 
 the whole, which stretches far away in every 
 direction, to unlimited distances. 
 
 We have spoken thus far of knowledge, and 
 that with reference to its immediate uses. But 
 this is but a partial view of the matter. The 
 man of business, especially in its higher depart- 
 ments, needs to possess a well-furnished, well- 
 disciplined, and well-cultivated mind. 
 
26 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 The object of education is not by any means 
 chiefly tlie use to wMch tlie acquirements of tlie 
 student are to be directly put. Wliy is tlie 
 young aspirant for the profession of law kept 
 in school and college, studying, year after year, 
 dead languages and abstract problems in mathe- 
 matics ? Not because he is expected to use the 
 one in his professional intercourse, or the other 
 in calculating professional questions. A large 
 part of what he learns may be forgotten pre- 
 sently, as to any use which he has to make of 
 it. It has done its work in the very getting of 
 it ; in the fact that it has once been in the mind, 
 and left its impress upon other faculties besides 
 the memory — upon the judgment, upon the 
 power of abstraction and reasoning — upon the 
 capacity for acquiring other knowledge hereaf- 
 ter to be learned. And, as for the rest, by far 
 the larger part has only an indirect bearing 
 upon practical matters. Education aims chiefly 
 at the formation of the mind itself. It has its 
 chief use, so far as practical matters are con- 
 cerned, in the fact that a mind well trained and 
 well informed, acts with the same power, cer- 
 tainty, and effect, upon whatsoever particular 
 object its faculties are exerted. 
 
 Now the pursuits of the business man, at 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 27 
 
 least in tlie liiglier departments, require a wide 
 range of higli mental qualifications. He must 
 have energy, activity, promptness, regularity, 
 system, punctuality, exactness, decision, self- 
 reliance, penetration, integrity, honor. And 
 these are qualities, practical as they may seem, 
 which are greatly promoted, every one of them, 
 by a careful training of the mental faculties. 
 Some of them are the very same which the 
 scholar by profession aims most assiduously to 
 acquire — ^the very same, indeed, for which the 
 course of studies usually dignified with the 
 name of liberal, were designed. 
 
 Besides, the value of such studies to this class 
 of men in enlarging the field of intellectual 
 vision, can hardly be exaggerated. The world 
 itself is a very different thing to the man of 
 learning from what it is to the ignorant. The 
 relations which the one sees in it are broad 
 as the canopy of heaven; while to the other, 
 every thing is isolated, and he sees nothing but 
 what meets his outward eye. While the latter 
 fixes his attention on a single point, and is con- 
 fined to that, the former radiates his views all 
 round it, and sees in intimate connection with it 
 every other in the wide universe of space. This 
 comprehensiveness of vision, the man of busi- 
 
28 INTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 ness needs in a high degree. Tlie wide and 
 complicated relations of Ms vocation, and tlie 
 liability of his conclusions to be vitiated by a 
 slight mistake in any one of a thousand parti- 
 culars, indispensably require it. He must ad- 
 here diligently to his own proper employment, 
 refusing, doggedly, almost, to be turned aside 
 from it to the right hand or the left. But he 
 must be able to look, as with the keen eye of 
 the eagle, and the quickness of the hghtning's 
 flash, on every side at once, and to the remotest 
 distances. Staying constantly at home, occupy- 
 ing, as it were, year after year, the same spot at 
 the same desk, his mind must have its couriers 
 coursing through the world, and its posts hast- 
 ening to and fro to bring and bear intelligence 
 between the remotest corners of the domain of 
 knowledge. ISTor is this all. He needs to be 
 what has been called a many-sided man. With 
 a comprehensiveness which can grasp at once 
 the sum total of the most complicated problems, 
 he must be able to combine the minutest atten- 
 tion to even fractional details ; with a spirit of 
 enterprise which springs at once to results, and 
 grasps success, a patience which is willing to 
 take every intermediate step; with a boldness 
 which trifles can not intimidate, nor accidental 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 29 
 
 reverses discourage, a caution whicli looks to all 
 the probabilities and cbances of tlie case in hand, 
 counting carefully the cost. 
 
 And is it reasonable to suppose a mind, pos- 
 sessing such capacities, at once so telescopic and 
 so microscopic, can be formed without careful 
 training, and a large share of intellectual culture ? 
 Is it a fruit that ordinarily grows wild upon the 
 stock of humanity ? We do not say, that no 
 man is fit to be a man of business, who has not 
 enjoyed what is commonly called a liberal edu- 
 cation. But we do say, that an education based 
 upon the same principles, having reference 
 chiefly to the enlarging, finishing, and disciplin- 
 ing of the mind itself, would, if rightly directed, 
 be of vast benefit to men of this class, with at 
 least an indirect reference to the particular duties 
 of their vocation. Some such broad, and yet 
 exact and systematic culture seems indispensable, 
 in order to give them the required mental qual- 
 ities. They must be trained to steady thought. 
 They must be made to possess the full and free 
 use of all their faculties and powers. They must . 
 be in readiness for an incalculable variety of 
 unanticipated exigencies. And for this end no 
 narrow and superficial education will suffice. 
 They must have much and hard study. Science, 
 
30 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 literature, and art must at least tave introduced 
 tliem to their ample stores, and what they do not 
 know, in any department of the field of know- 
 ledge, they must at least have learned where to 
 search for, and by what methods to obtain it. 
 No mere routine of practice, however familiar, 
 no professional education, however thorough, 
 no system of rules, however excellent, will give 
 a man the same advantage. He must know a 
 great deal more than he wants to use in his pro- 
 fession ; he must have exercised his mind on sub- 
 jects with which his business has nothing to do, 
 or it is impossible that he should ever possess it. 
 It is undoubtedly in accordance with a very 
 common and long prevalent notion, that, in the 
 statement of occupations in Great Britain in- 
 serted in our Census Eeportfor 1850, "pursuits 
 requiring education " are made to include pro- 
 fessions — clerical, legal, medical, and "others 
 not specifically named," but not "persons en- 
 gaged in commerce." These are, by implica- 
 tion, persons whose pursuits do not require it. 
 But is not this notion a mere prejudice ? There 
 are subordinate parts to be performed, in this 
 as in every other department of action; and 
 those who are disposed to content themselves 
 with doing the mere drudgeries of a vocation, 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 31 
 
 may afford to dispense witli tlie qualifications 
 needful for its Mglier offices. So there are 
 places for men of the same stamp in what are 
 called the learned professions. But we speak 
 now of the qualifications necessary for the ac- 
 complished man of business — ^for him who wish- 
 es to perform its noblest work, and is prepared 
 to stand upon its proudest eminences. And 
 with this view, we think there is scarcely an 
 occupation, whether of the scholar, the philoso- 
 pher, or the man of professional practice, where 
 a wider scope of knowledge comes directly into 
 play, or which calls for the exercise of a wider 
 range of intellectual faculties. 
 
 The attainment of as large a share as may be 
 practicable, of intellectual culture, is a duty 
 which every business man owes to his profes- 
 sion. It is to the want of it that we must 
 ascribe the prevalent low views concerning 
 the proper aims and ends of business pursuits. 
 Many, for example, have no conception of the 
 profession of the merchant but as a method of 
 accumulating property ; nor of commerce, even 
 in its widest scope, but as a speculation upon 
 chances. The philosopher professes to devote 
 his powers to the enlightenment of mankind; 
 the statesman understands that the interests of 
 
32 IXTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 a nation are intrusted to his charge ; the law- 
 yer knows that, besides the obtaining of his 
 fees, he has a solemn responsibility laid npon 
 him to see that the rights of his client, who 
 might otherwise suffer wrong, are properly vin- 
 dicated; the minister of the Gospel dares not 
 enter upon his profession, or think of his salary, 
 without professing, not to his fellow men only, 
 but to his own conscience, that he is moved by 
 a supreme desire to serve God, promote virtue 
 and piety, and save the immortal souls of his 
 fellow men. True, they have all in view the 
 obtaining of a livelihood — some of them the 
 amassing of wealth. They pursue this object 
 often with more than justifiable eagerness. But 
 they understand perfectly, that, as a matter of 
 morality, it is to be kept subordinate to other 
 and higher objects of their calling. A man's 
 reputation as a lawyer does not depend upon 
 the rapidity with which he gets rich by his pro- 
 fession. His getting rich may or may not de- 
 pend upon the ability with which he defends 
 his clients, but it is the latter only, not the for- 
 mer, which forms the basis of his reputation. 
 In the case of the man of business, how fre- 
 quently is all this simply reversed ! Ask him 
 what is the object of his business, and he will 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 83 
 
 tell you, with, an unconscious frankness almost 
 ludicrous, that it is to make money. He is a 
 conscientious man, perhaps. He means to do 
 all honestly. He scorns to take an undue ad- 
 vantage, or transgress any of the rules of fair 
 and honorable traffic. But the getting of mo- 
 ney is his grand object. In proportion as he 
 gets money, he regards his business as success- 
 ful, and in proportion as lie fails of that, all Ms 
 operations seem a failure. This is the lust of 
 gain, that characteristic vice of the mercantile 
 world, stimulated to an absorbing passion, and 
 exalted almost to the rank of a virtue. The 
 constant inquiry is how he shall increase what 
 be denominates his worth. He struggles to at- 
 tain now this mark, and now that, in the ascend- 
 ing scale of accumulation, until the passion, gain- 
 ing strength by indulgence, eats out the very 
 life of the soul, and dries up all tbe fountains of 
 noble feeling and desire. 
 
 Now we see not what there is in tbe true nature 
 and enda of the business vocation, to justify so 
 debasing a conception. We admit that wealth 
 stands in closer relation to this branch of human 
 activity than to some others, because capital is 
 one of the main instruments of commerce. But 
 aside from this, we see not ho\f it is any more a 
 
84 INTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 legitimate end here, than in any other pursuit. 
 Business is an important function of society. 
 The man who engages in it accepts a trust. He 
 works for you, for me, for the king on his throne, 
 for the poor widow in her little apartment, for 
 the student in his study, and the traveller in his 
 distant journeys. His aim should be, chiefly, to 
 discharge his trust well, and so to benefit the 
 world. It is just as sordid, just as reprehensible 
 for him to be thinking merely of his gains, as 
 for the scholar, the teacher of science, or even for 
 the Christian minister. And yet, such are the 
 notions that prevail, that, while every other pro- 
 fession must talk of their gains with bated 
 breath, the man of business puts them forth in 
 the front ranks, and glorifies himself before the 
 world on account of them. 
 
 All this results, we apprehend, in no small 
 degree, from the low state of intellectual cul- 
 ture with which the class in question have in 
 general been satisfied. It is not due simply to 
 low morality, for there is, we believe, as high 
 moral principle here as elsewhere. But it is to 
 be attributed to a want of that broad and lib- 
 eral education which, by embracing at a small 
 view the world and all its vast and complicated 
 relations, would enable men to appreciate the 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 35 
 
 true dignity and liigli public importance of a 
 vocation connected, either directly or indirectly, 
 witli all the interests of mankind. 
 
 The attainment of such culture the business 
 man owes likewise to himself Next to the satis- 
 faction of an approving conscience, and of a 
 sense of peace with God, there is no enjoyment 
 of which the mind is capable, more pure and 
 satisfying than that which springs from the ap- 
 propriate exercise of the intellectual faculties in 
 the study and contemplation of God's works. As 
 an old Roman has very justly observed, " These 
 studies nourish our youth and delight our old 
 age; they adorn our prosperity, and are a re- 
 fuge and solace in adversity ; they please us at 
 home, and are no encumbrance abroad; they 
 abide with us by night, accompany us on our 
 journeys, and employ us in our country retire- 
 ment. Newton's nervous excitement, when the 
 proof of his new theory of gravitation dawned 
 upon him in the distance ; Pythagoras' heca- 
 tomb, offered up as a thanksgiving sacrifice to 
 his gods, when the solution of a long-studied 
 geometrical problem was discovered; Archi- 
 medes' shout, " I have found it ! I have found 
 it!" as, forgetting all proprieties of place and 
 circumstances in his eager joy at a scientific dis- 
 
Sij INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 covery, lie rushed naked out of tlie Latli — are 
 illustrations of the intensity of these pleasures. 
 The conqueror amidst the shouts of an admiring 
 nation was never half so delighted as were these 
 conquerors in the battle-fields of knowledge. 
 And if this be so, who has a better right to par- 
 take of the gratification ; who has more need of 
 the refreshment and exhilaration of soul to be 
 derived from at least sipping at the pure and 
 healthful fountains of literature and science, 
 than he who is compelled to drudge all day, in 
 dust, and noise, and confusion, among loaded 
 drays, and heaps of bales and boxes? Such 
 men need something to keep their hearts fresh 
 amidst the dragging, crushing, brain-distracting 
 toils, that come hourly upon them ; something 
 to reopen, from day to day, the choked-up foun- 
 tains of generous sentiment ; something to lift 
 the thoughts up out of the low and ruinous 
 circle in which they are in danger of losing all 
 proper freedom and vitality. 
 
 So much as this may be said, even on the 
 supposition that the pursuits of business were to 
 occupy a man's chief energies to the close of 
 life. But the time is coming, according to the 
 prevailing usage, when the successful man of 
 business will think it his privilege to retire 
 
THE MAN OF BUSIKESS. 3*7 
 
 and turn his long-burdened mind to something 
 less fatiguing and exhausting to his energies. 
 And what now is to fit him to enjoy his new 
 circumstances ? It is a lamentable fact, that, 
 simply from the want of a proper cultivation 
 of their intellectual faculties, multitudes of our 
 business men, when they come to retire to a 
 life of leisure, do not know what to do, either 
 with themselves or the fortunes they have ac- 
 cumulated. They rush, perhaps, into all sorts of 
 foolish extravagances; they make themselves 
 and their families absolutely ridiculous by their 
 absurd passion for show and parade ; they ruin 
 their children by the indulgence of desires which 
 should be sternly repressed ; and, after all, are 
 restless and uncomfortable themselves, and, by 
 their petulence or purse-proud insolence, dis- 
 turb the peace and enjoyment of all within the 
 circle of their influence. Having been mere 
 business men, during their whole active life, 
 they now discover that they have no capacity to 
 be any thing else. Having devoted their whole 
 souls to the mere pursuit of wealth, they find 
 themselves utterly ignorant of its uses, and in- 
 competent to derive from it the least real grati- 
 fication. 
 
 The deplorable consequences of such neglect 
 
38 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 are often strongly manifested in their effect upon 
 the "business man's family. If he is successful, 
 one of his first objects, generally, is to put his 
 children into a position of honor and influence. 
 Hence, he spares no pains in their education. 
 The hest schools are resorted to. Every advan- 
 tage which money couM give, is freely afforded 
 them. They stand side by side with, and often 
 surpass, by their attainments, the children of 
 the most cultivated. They are admitted into, 
 and perhaps courted by, the most cultivated 
 and intelligent society. And what is the re- 
 sult ? Why, just to make them painfully 
 ashamed of their father's ignorance. His want 
 of culture is a perpetual mortification to them. 
 His ridiculous blunders, his coarse and uncouth 
 manners, his utter want of all that constitutes a 
 gentleman, make them dread to meet him in 
 the same company, and be responsible for his 
 glaring deficiencies. 
 
 The attainments of which we speak, are a 
 duty which the man of business owes to the 
 community. By the successful pursuit of his 
 vocation, he is brought into new and more im- 
 portant relations to his fellow men. He has 
 persons, more or less numerous, in his employ, 
 or dependent upon his patronage. He comes 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 39 
 
 in contact, in Ms transactions, witli individuals 
 of a great variety of character and circum- 
 stances. Men of influence, men of education and 
 refinement, are likely to be brought, more or 
 less intimately, into connection with him. He 
 will be called upon to take part with others in 
 matters of public interest requiring knowledge, 
 taste, and discernment. 
 
 Many of our most successful business men 
 have begun life in great obscurity, and pushed 
 their way up into significance by the force of 
 their own shrewdness and energy. In their 
 new position they might exercise a large influ- 
 ence, and wield a commanding power over so- 
 ciety. But the difficulty is, that new position is 
 one for which they have made no sort of pre- 
 paration. Instead of anticipating it, as they 
 saw themselves from year to year rising towards 
 it, and endeavoring to qualify themselves for its 
 high responsibilities, they have suffered their 
 leisure hours to run to waste ; neglected the cul- 
 tivation of their own minds; sought for no 
 knowledge except what related directly to mak- 
 ing profitable bargains; and now they find 
 themselves in the extremely awkward and em- 
 barrassing posture of a man appointed to some 
 high office or trust, for the discharge of whose 
 
40 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 duties lie has neither knowledge nor capacity. 
 Of course their only alternative is, either to creep 
 away into obscurity and forego their opportuni- 
 ties, or, loj undertaking what they are in no 
 condition to accomplish well, do an injury to 
 society, and make their own incompetence the 
 more conspicuous. 
 
 There are numerous important duties which 
 this class of men owe to their country, which 
 can only he performed by men of intellectual 
 cultivation. We have already spoken of the 
 ultimate relations which the pursuits of the man 
 of business bear to the civilization of the age. 
 The policy of nations is, and ought to be, main- 
 ly conducted with reference to the interests 
 which they manage. The sinews of war, and 
 the arts and embellishments, are under their di- 
 rection. Of course, there is no class of men 
 better qualified than they, to guide the counsels 
 of the nation, if they were only among the most 
 intelligent. It has often been remarked that, in 
 our national assemblies, we have far too great a 
 proportion of the legal profession, and the busi- 
 ness interests of the country are too feebly repre- 
 sented. And why is this the case ? Simply 
 because the lawyers, as a general thing, are far 
 better acquainted with the condition and inter- 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 41 
 
 ests of the country, and the metliods by whicli 
 its needs are to be supplied. Business men ought 
 to qualify themselves in these matters, and not 
 leave to another profession the entire manage- 
 ment of affairs in which their own pursuits and 
 interests are most immediately and vitally 
 concerned. 
 
 They owe the attainment of this class of quah- 
 fication to the cause of humanity. They are 
 the men to whom the world looks to endow 
 literary institutions, to afford the means of carry- 
 ing forward enterprises of charity and benevo- 
 lence, and to give the impulse and the direction to 
 wise schemes for human improvement. Our 
 wealthy merchants are, and must be expected 
 to be, among the greatest benefactors of their 
 age. What princely munificence have some of 
 them exhibited ! And what an honorable and 
 endearing name have they won by it! The 
 Phillipses, the SewelLs, the Lawrences, the Coop- 
 ers, the Astoi-s. What noble institutions have 
 they founded ! What an impulse have they 
 been enabled to give to all the interests of learn- 
 ing, morals and religion ! The noble trees 
 which they have planted will be wa^dng their 
 refreshing foliage over our grateful country, and 
 bearing fruits for the sustenance of the nation. 
 
42 INTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 and of tlie world, wlien tlie names of many a 
 successful aspirant for place and power shall liave 
 faded into irrecoverable oblivion. We do not 
 wonder that our ricli merchants wish, to emulate 
 such examples. But if they would do it suc- 
 cessfully they must not allow their minds to be 
 absorbed, all their life long, in mere money-mak- 
 ing. They must attend carefully to their own 
 intellectual furniture and training. Ignorance, 
 indeed, can be munificent enough. But only in- 
 telligent munificence is likely to be of real bene- 
 fit to the world. 
 
 Such attainments' the man of business owes 
 to the Church, to the cause of true religion, and 
 to God. The Creator has endowed us all with 
 faculties capable of cultivation. And by so 
 doing he has imposed upon us the obligation to 
 pursue that cultivation to the extent of our op- 
 portunities. How much more useful, in all re- 
 spects, a man of enlarged and well-informed 
 mind, is capable of making himself, in the reli- 
 gious instruction of the young ; in his influence 
 over those with whom he associates, or comes in 
 contact; in organizing and carrying forward 
 schemes of benevolence; in guiding and sus- 
 taining all the enterprises and activities of the 
 Church — compared with one who is ignorant and 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 43 
 
 narrow minded, is too obvious to need a moment's 
 discussion. Hence tlie culture in question as- 
 sumes the character of a higli Christian duty, 
 and can not be neglected without bringing 
 down the censure which our Lord pronounced 
 upon the slothful servant, "Wherefore then 
 gavest not thou my money into the bank, and 
 then at my coming, I should have received mine 
 own with usury." 
 
 We have room only to offer, in conclusion, 
 a few brief suggestions as to the method and 
 practicability of attaining to this object. 
 
 It is very desirable that a broad and solid 
 foundation should be laid for it by a good early 
 education. Our youth who are looking forward 
 to a life of business, should be made to under- 
 stand that no narrow and superficial school 
 education, will fit them to act well their part, or 
 aspire to eminence in their chosen employment. 
 We do not say that a college education is ne- 
 cessary for all. We do not say it is the best 
 which could be devised for the attainment of the 
 desired object. But we say unqualifiedly, as 
 things now are, those who are in circumstances 
 to avail themselves of such an education, should 
 by no means neglect it ; and those who are not, 
 should secure the best substitute which their 
 
44 INTELLECTUAL CULTUEE OF 
 
 opportunities will allow. Go to school; put 
 yourself under thorougli mental discipline ; learn 
 to think, to study, to apply yourself. It is a 
 capital error of large numl^ers of our young 
 men, that they are in so much haste to get out 
 of school and into the counting-house. It is a 
 capital error, that they value so little the ad- 
 vantages of their school training while they are 
 under it. A gentleman, whom we knew, took 
 his son from school early, and transferred him 
 to a clerk's desk. On being asked why he did 
 so ; if he thought his son had acquired learning 
 enough, he replied dryly : " Oh ! no, but Henry 
 has got as much learning as will stick." Such 
 is the case with many. The education which is 
 given them at school, is of so little value in their 
 esteem, that it will not stick. They must learn 
 to appreciate it. It is fundamental to all subse- 
 quent attainments. Here it is that the strong, 
 deep, broad foundation is to be laid, on which 
 to build afterwards by study, reading, observa- 
 tion, and reflection. 
 
 Much of the mental culture of the business 
 man, is to be acquired practically. If he has 
 right mental habits, he will find food for thought, 
 and lessons for his instruction, in all* the daily 
 occurrences of active life. Man with all his 
 
 ^- 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 45 
 
 passions and pursuits, events with all their chan- 
 ges, and nature with its rich variety of beauti- 
 ful, sublime, mysterious, and glorious objects — 
 its operations and its laws — are ever his open 
 book. "With only the capacity to read such les- 
 sons, he might find everywhere, " tongues in 
 the trees, books in the running brooks, sermons 
 in stones, and good in every thing." But the 
 first requisite is to acquire that capacity. He 
 must have learned to observe, to reflect, to gen- 
 eralize, to reason. The uninstructed rustic hears 
 no voice when the trees whisper, and reads no 
 meaning syllables when the brooks reflect to his 
 eye the flowers that grow upon their margins, 
 or the sun glances his resplendent beams upon 
 their ripply surfaces. So does the illiterate 
 young clerk, or the ignorant old trader see, in 
 all the instructive events that pass in living 
 panoramas before his eyes and chronicle them- 
 selves in his ledger and his correspondence, only 
 the opportunity of making good bargains, or 
 the disappointment of his expectations of profit. 
 It needs an eye trained to penetrate beyond the 
 cold hard surface of mere gain and loss, debt 
 and credit, in order to obtain instruction from 
 these sources. 
 
 It must be owned that the ordinary duties of 
 
46 . INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 II business life are not favorable to a free and 
 well-proportioned mental cultivation. So little 
 leisure is enjoyed ordinarily ; so close and con- 
 stant is tlie attention necessary to keep all things 
 right, in an extensive business establisliment ; 
 so heavy is the weight of care that lies upon 
 the mind ; so many distracting interests clamor 
 all day long for its attention, that there is little 
 room left for reflection, and still less for reading 
 and study. The man who purposes to enjoy 
 this privilege has got to contend for it. He has 
 got to overcome serious obstacles. He has got 
 to exercise great resolution and perseverance. 
 And this will only be where there is a high 
 sense of the value of the attainment, and a keen 
 relish for the pursuit. 
 
 In order to this end, the method to be pur- 
 sued must be arranged as systematically as pos- 
 sible. One hour in a day, set sacredly apart 
 for study, will accomplish wonders, as the 
 months and years roll along. Let it be so set 
 apart, remembered, and kept sacred, as a kind 
 of Sabbath of the intellectual man. Who can 
 not at least do so much, even in the busiest 
 period of his life ? Let the employments of 
 that hour be regulated by a well-digested and 
 fixed plan, not to be swerved from. This year 
 
THE MAN OV BUSINESS. 47 
 
 and next, a course of Hstory is to be attended 
 to. Tlie following year, tlie subject of political 
 economy, or natural science, or Christian ethics, 
 is to employ the attention. The books are care- 
 fully selected. The thoughts and arguments 
 which they contain are thoroughly mastered in 
 succession. Whatever is learned, is learned, and 
 once for all. Let the plan embrace such variety 
 as may only exercise, and not weary the facul- 
 ties. Pursue it steadily, month after month, 
 with quiet perseverance, making the knowledge 
 you acquire the food for thought whenever your 
 mind is not otherwise occupied, and the theme 
 of conversation when you meet with those capa- 
 l^le of appreciating it or likely to advance your 
 attainments ; and, though it may seem that you 
 gain little to-day or to-morrow, the result at the 
 year's end will not fail to reward your persever- 
 ance. 
 
 In this pursuit some things are to be guarded 
 against. Leisure hours are very easily frittered 
 away in reading to no profit. Let the newsj)a- 
 pers occupy only their allotted share of atten- 
 tion. They are valuable helpers. But they are 
 thieves of time too. Let the trash stories witli 
 which the market is flooded be abjured steadily. 
 Let some ea^y, entertaining, and yet well-ap- 
 
48 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF 
 
 proved book, tlie product of some really gifted 
 and sound mind, lie always on your table, witli 
 your place in it accurately marked, not in the 
 book itself but in your own mind, to occupy 
 you in those loose moments which even the 
 busiest have occasionally at their command. 
 
 One suggestion we would here make with the 
 greatest earnestness. It is true, undoubtedly, 
 that high moral and religious culture are not 
 absolutely indispensable to intellectual attain- 
 ments. But it is equally true, that there are 
 close relations between them. There is a perti- 
 nent remark of one of the profoundest thinkers 
 of the last generation, which both the man of 
 business and the scholar by profession would do 
 well to ponder : " An hour of solitude passed 
 in sincere and earnest prayer, or the conflict 
 with and conquest over a single passion or a 
 subtle bosom-sin, will teach us more of thought, 
 will more effectually awaken the faculty and 
 form the habit of reflection, than a year's study 
 in the schools without them." And again we 
 have the assertion from the same high author- 
 ity : " Never yet did there exist a full faith in 
 the divine Word (by whom light as well as im- 
 mortality was brought into the world) whicli 
 did not expand the intellect while it purified 
 
THE MA^ OF BUSINESS. 49 
 
 the heart — wliicli did not multiply tlie aims and 
 objects of tlie understanding while it fixed and 
 simplified those of the desires and passions." 
 The Sabbath ought, especially, to be devoted to 
 such studies and occupations as will advance both 
 these objects in mutual harmony. The conse- 
 cration of one undivided day in every seven, to 
 the service of religion, is the best intellectual 
 boon ever offered to the business, as well as to 
 the laboring community. Let the pulpit on 
 whose ministrations you attend, be chosen with 
 reference to its adaptation to feed and stimulate 
 at once your intellect and your heart. Let its 
 instructions and persuasions be listened to, not 
 with mental passivity, or drowsy or wandering 
 attention, but so as to occupy your best mental 
 strength upon the thoughts presented from it. 
 Reproduce at least a portion of your know- 
 ledge, by that best of all methods of fixing it 
 deeply and indelibly in the mind, the instruc- 
 tion of the young. The Sabbath-school and the 
 Bible-class open one of the best facilities for 
 intellectual improvement, which the man of busi- 
 ness could desire. Let all his religious reading 
 (and to this class of books he ought on that 
 day sacredly to confine himself) be chosen with 
 reference to its intellectual as well as religious 
 
50 mi'ELLECTTTAL CULTURE OF 
 
 merit, its fitness to inform and expand tlie mind, 
 as well as to impress the heart. And above all, 
 let tlie glorious old Bible, that book of books — 
 the book whose language is the true " well of 
 English undefiled," whose style, in all the vari- 
 eties of composition contained in it, is unsur- 
 passed and unrivalled, whose conceptions are 
 the most grand and soul-stirring, and whose 
 sentiments the most pure and lofty— the book 
 of God, redolent with the fragrance of heaven 
 on every page, be made the nucleus of all his 
 reading, and the subject of profoundest study, 
 and most inward and prayerful reflection. 
 
 It is among the prophecies of inspiration con- 
 cerning the latter day — ^the day of glory, which 
 the Church has ever looked forward to with 
 longing eyes — ^that " many shall run to and fro, 
 and knowledge shall increase." The subject- 
 matter of all true knowledge, it must be borne 
 in mind, is God, and his works and ways. 
 Rightly pursued and apprehended, knowledge 
 is religion, is worship, is the communion of the 
 soul with its Maker. Our Saviour has assured 
 us, it is our highest dignity and happiness. For 
 " this is life eternal, that they might know thee, 
 the only true God." So is the cultivation of the 
 faculties to be invested with the same high dig- 
 
THE MAN OF BUSINESS. 51 
 
 nity. " Man's cliief end," declares a mucli ven- 
 erated autliority, "is to glorify God, and enjoy 
 him for ever." And how shall we better glo- 
 rify him ; how shall we more enhance our capa- 
 city to enjoy him, than "by cultivating and im- 
 proving, to the extent of our ability, those higli 
 capacities of our manhood, in which our privi- 
 lege is to resemble our Creator ? In the words of 
 that profound and rich thinker from whose ob- 
 servations we have already made two extracts, 
 " Let it not be forgotten, that the powers of the 
 understanding and the intellectual graces are 
 the precious gifts of God; and that every 
 Christian, according to the opportunities vouch- 
 safed to him, is bound to cultivate the one and 
 to acquire the other; indeed he is scarcely d 
 Christian who wilfully neglects to do so. What 
 says the Apostle ? ' Add to your faith know- 
 ledge.'" 
 
 
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