thoroughly acquired and assiduously followed, a trade is something to be held at arm's length. I can illustrate what I mean by placing, side by side, two horses,-one, fresh from the stall, with every hair in its right place, his head up and mane flying, and another that has been worked in the same harness every day for three years, antil the skin is bare on each hip and thigh, an inflamed abrasion glows on each side of the back-bone where the hard saddle-pad rests, a severe gall-mark spreads its brown patch under the breast collar, and all the other marks of an abused horse abound. Now a trade, or a profession, will wear into a man as a harness wears into a horse. One can see the "trade mark on almost every soul and body met in the street. A trade has taken some men by the shoulders and shaken their humanity out of them. It has so warped the natures of others that they might be wet down and set in the sun to dry a thousand times without being warped back. Thus, I say, a man's trade or profession should be kept at arm's length. It should not be allowed to tyrannize over him, to mould him, to crush him. It should not occupy the whole of his attention. So far from this, it should be regarded, in its material aspect, at least, only as a means for the development of manhood. The great object of living is the attainment of true manhood-the cultivation of every power of the soul and of every high spiritual quality, naturally inherent or graciously superadded. The trade is beneath the man, and should be kept there. With his idea in your minds and you may be very sure that it is the correct idea-just look around you, and see how almost everybody has missed it. You and I both know physicians whose mental possessions, beyond their knowledge of drugs and diseases, are not worth anything. We are acquainted with lawyers who are never seen out of their offices, who live among pigeon-holes and red tape, and busy their minds with quirks and quarrels so unremittingly, that they have not a thought for other subjects. They are not men at all; they are nothing but lawyers. Often we find not more than five whole men in a town of five thousand inhabitants. Those who pass for men, and who really do get married and have families, are a hundred to one fractional men, or exclusively machines. Elihu Burritt cultivated the man that was in him until his trade and his blacksmith's shop would not stay with him. They ceased to be useful to him. He could get a living in a way that was better for him. Benjamin Franklin was an excellent printer, but he used his trade only as a means. The development of his mind and his manhood went on above it. Printing with him was not an end of life. If it had been, we should have missed his words of wisdom; some one else would have built the kite that exchanged the first kiss with electricity, and less able men would have been set to do the work which he did so creditably in the management of his country's affairs. It is not necessary that you be learned blacksmiths or philosophical and diplo. matic printers, but it is necessary that you be a man before your calling, behind your calling, above your calling, outside of your calling, and inside of it; and that that calling modify your character no more than it would were it your neighbor's. If I have made my point plain to you, you can readily see that I attach very little value to the distinctions in society based on callings, and still less to those based on office. If a man be a man, let him thank his stars that he is not a justice of the peace. Of all the appetites that curse young men, the appetite for office seems to me to be the silliest and the meanest. There is nothing which fills me with greater disgust than to see a young man eager for the poor distinction which office confers. An office seeker, for the sake of honor, is constitutionally, necessarily, mean. I have seen men begin at twenty-one as prudential committees in small school districts, and stick to office until everybody was sick of them. Whether it rained porridge or potatoes, paving stones or pearls, their dish was always out. They and their families always had to be cared for. Office always brings obligation and a certain kind of slavery. It brings something more than this-it brings insanity. A young man who allows himself to get a taste of it very rarely recovers. It is like tobacco, or opium, or brandy, producing a morbid appetite; and we need all through the nation, a new society of reform. There should be a pledge circulated, and every. where signed, promising total abstinence from officeseeking. To this every young man should put his name. There are chronic cases that may be considered hopeless, but the young can be saved. Do not let me be misunderstood; I have spoken of the thirst for office for the sake of office. My belief is that office should neither be sought for nor lightly refused. The curse of our country is that office-seekers have made place so contemptible that good men will not accept it, but so far keep themselves removed from politics that all the affairs of government fall into un worthy hands. When a young man is sought for to fill a responsible place in public affairs—sought for and selected on the ground of fitness-he should decide whether he owes that duty to the public, and perform it well if he does. Office was properly regarded in the "good old colony times." Then it was considered a hindrance to business, and almost or quite a hardship; so much so that laws were passed, in some instances, |