drudgery under the same pestilential influences. We have confined ourselves thus far to excess in in-door physical labor and have taken the worst instance in which all others are included. In many cases undoubtedly the air may be pure and the temperature moderate, but the work usually required is, from its nature, too much and the time too long. The workman will be utterly fatigued, his sleep unrefreshing, and his health will fail. All these causes uniting will make it impossible for him to bring a perfect body and cheerful disposition to his task, and these are the only conditions under which he will meet with success.

If the mind after refusing to work be continually forced to it, the result is insanity. This will be readily admitted, and instances are within the recollection of all. But we further insist that if the mind be persistently and exclusively confined to the consideration of a particular subject, or class of subjects, their relative importance is lost, they grow out of all proper proportions, and the judgments of the mind itself become erroneous, which is to all effects and purposes insanity. To this class belong fanatics of all creeds and isms. The difference between this and confirmed insanity is only one of degree.

We have now arrived at the last step of our analysis, viz.: the consideration of excessive spiritual work. The soul steeped in avarice of social, political or spiritual power, whose every feeling is enlisted in the prosecution of ambitious enterprises, even though it does not meet with failure and disappointment on the way, is appalled by the utter insufficiency of such rewards when obtained, and sinks back into hopelessness and asceticism. If the Christian philanthropist, notwithstanding the dejection which results from efforts that seem to meet with but little success, persists in his spiritual labors without refreshing himself with spiritual rest, the consequence is despair. A melancholy instance in which these feelings so preyed upon body and mind that death ensued, has come within our own notice during the past year.

Thus work and play, having the same origin, viz.: love of gratification, when carried to excess result in the same discords, viz.: disease, insanity and despair. In man the physical, mental and spiritual so overlie and intermingle, that seldom is any motive or its results wholly in either nature. It is only by arbitrarily separating these, that we can consider each distinctly.

Human nature is surrounded by immutable laws, which become impregnable defenses against disease and misery, to him who observes their limits.

The problem which at the present day most earnestly urges a solution is: What proportion should play bear to work? or, what is the greatest amount of labor that the average man can perform most advantageously to himself and to his employer-for the interest is one-in a day? Obviously this will much depend upon the nature of the labor, some kinds being more exhausting than others. That kind which, in excess, most deteriorates mankind is purely mechanical. Mental labor comes next in its evil results, and spiritual labor last. Labor which employs body, mind and soul is least injurious; hence spiritual labor comes last in the above category.

The three natures, when working together, seem to supplement each other, as in a less degree do two of them. Morbid conditions of air and temperature are better resisted by work of this kind. This is the reason why physicians and nurses are comparatively so secure from the contagious diseases among which they work. Mechanical labor dwarfs both body and mind. The type of this is factory work. The hands are so many machines, mere machines, working after a pattern and forever doing the same things. Indeed, their labors, more than any other, are from time to time superseded by machines. Perhaps it is in this way that this question will be solved at last. Thus in persecutions like that of Jacquard, we have additional instances of the madness which at times drives men to attempt the destruction of their greatest benefactors. Undoubtedly the crowding, and consequent ill-ventilation and high temperature, as well as the injurious substances with which the machinery fills the air, are efficient factors, but the chief cause is the wholly mechanical nature of the work. Without doubt, twelve or fourteen hours of this work every day are too much. Let us here briefly refer to the annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, a carefully written and clear exposition of this system as it now exists in that State. Children are worked in the factories; they sometimes walk many miles a day while tending their machines. Laws, wherever they oppose this, are easily evaded by the parents. The condition of the hands seems continually changing for the worse.

We

are told that the average pay of some sixteen thousand work-people is eighty cents a day. After from eleven to fourteen hours' labor, they are compelled to attend to their various home duties. Their dwellings are often damp, dark, comfortless and unclean. How could they be otherwise? They do not build them, and after the long monotonous day's work there is not enough life left for the proper household labors.

now.

They seek an ephemeral refreshment by consuming quantities. of wretched coffee and tea, and, alas! of drinks stronger than these. These sad details were once new, but they are scarcely so But what is the moral condition of a factory town? Here we are brought face to face with the significant fact that a diseased body is predisposed to vice, and especially is this true where a vital organ is affected. How much more is this the case when the mind is uneducated, and the legitimate wages insufficient. We believe that eight hours' labor of an intelligent, healthy factory man or woman would bring the employer more profit than fourteen hours of the present incumbent. But where can we find a sufficient number of such to make a fair test, and who would have the hardihood, not to say the humanity, to attempt it. Such labor, inasmuch as the condition of the workers would thus become greatly ameliorated, would be more cheerful.

Education is a great promoter of national prosperity, not only by giving intelligent labor, but also by indicating where the supply is not equal to the demand, and by suggesting means for carrying out the changes thus made desirable.

One of the chief evils of the factory system is the putting children to work where they must work under the greatest physical and moral disadvantages. The causes of this are, firstly, the low wages of adults, which makes even the smallest contribution to the family store most important; and, secondly, the want of proper education in the parents, and their consequent ignorance of its moral and physical value. We have learned to economize the flesh and blood of the brute creation, have discovered that by using them with reference to the laws of their nature, and harmoniously with them, the result is not only creditable, but profitable to humanity.

It is now admitted that when animals are put to labor before their development is complete, during the processes of growth,

and the formation of bone and muscle, that the functions are disturbed, and that labor instead of exercise results, not in comeliness and health, but in deformity and diseace.

The average amount of work also, from a life thus used, is much less than from one that is allowed first to mature. All this is equally true of human flesh and blood, which includes brain. In the immature organization, whether of animal or plant, growth is the substitute for labor. The faster the growth the more should the muscles be exercised in play, but not in work, for in the former they cease their exertions at the coming of fatigue, while in the latter they must continue them, and it is just here that the harm commences. The appropriate play of animals is running, leaping and the like. In man, it is games, which exercise both the physical and mental. Hard study is also injurious to the young, whence the advantages of the Kindergarten and of object lessons. By these means the body and mind grow harmoniously, mutually assisting, and their food is supplied without begetting weariness or dislike. That which is exercise to the plant is the swaying of its branches and the fluttering of its leaves in the wind, as well as the alternating influences of sunshine and shade. These do not earnestly commence their productive labor, which is fruit-bearing, until their organizations are complete. It is nearly impossible to estimate the great injury which body and mind sustain when the young have too little play, too little food, and too much work.

Most of the mining interests are in a similar condition, and with certain obvious modifications, what we have said and shall say, is equally true of them. Of the evils which prevail in this direction, the recent disturbances and their far-reaching effects are painful illustrations.

We may now legitimately conclude that the most remunerative work is that which is cheerful and intelligent. Work can only be cheerfully and intelligently done when body and mind are in a normal and healthy state. This state cannot exist except the laws which condition it be strictly observed, and this observance perpetuated. Let us now examine the obstacles which seem to prevent the consummation of the conditions for the most remunerative work.

The operatives say that their pay is too small to support them.

The

The employers say they cannot afford to give them more. first, the assertion of the working people, is for the most part true, and the proofs of this are so numerous that the investigator can scarcely escape conviction. Most assertions to the contrary, if traced to their sources, will be found to be ex parte statements. As for the second, we believe there are those whose short-sighted policy it is to extort gain from all circumstances, careless of the condition of their work people. These, however, are few, and probably most employers make the above answer sincerely, and are in a great measure sustained in it by facts. Still, they seem to lay themselves open to blame in certain things. They are mostly accustomed to extravagant living, hence, when they answer they cannot afford to pay higher wages, we are to understand that they cannot, not that they will not, deprive themselves of certain luxuries of life in order to supply more of its necessaries to their laborers. Many of them, undoubtedly, believe this, although they do not put it in precisely this manner. The per centum of profit with which this class were formerly content, by no means satisfies them in these days of fabulous metal-mining and railway dividends. They do not consider the immense sums of money that have been lost in these enterprises. Men will exhibit the greatest eagerness in trumpeting their gains, for this advances their business interests, and brings them credit and influence among their fellows, but they are prone to evince equal solicitude in concealing their losses for opposite reasons. It is more than probable that the amount of labor money that has thus been thrown away, far exceeds that which has been won-we say won, advisedly. But in the manufacturing interests, the case is precisely the reverse of this. The vast profits do not, however, here stand out in such strong relief, by reason of the far greater population among which they have been distributed, and the much more temperate maanner in which they have accrued.

But when the ground of their answer is well taken, why is it that they cannot afford to pay wages which shall bear a better proportion to the wants of the working classes? The chief reason is that the law of supply and demand has been infringed and misunderstood, greatly to the detriment of the working people, and measurably so to that of their employers. During our late war, in consequence of the large increase in the con