AN 
ADDRESS. 
I 
DELIVERED DECEMBER 9th, 1835, 
/ * • 
BEFORE THE 
OF 
POIGHKEEPSIE, 
AT THE OPENING OF THEIR FIRST COURSE 
OF LECTURES. 
BY A. POTTER. 
SCHENECTADY: 
Printed by S. 8. Riggs, No. IO, Pniou-Street, 
1836. Professor Potter : 
Dear Sir,-In behalf of the "Mechanics' Literary and Benevolent Associa- 
tion," of this Village, we are instructed to express to you our sincere thanks for the 
very able, interesting, and appropriate Address, delivered by you in the Episcopal 
Church, this evening, and to request at your earliest leisure, a copy for publication, 
Your ob't. servants. 
R. WILKINSON, 
J. VAN BENTHUYSEN, 
J. GRANT, Jr. 
W. OAKLEY. 
[The substance of the following Address was delivered some lime since, be- 
fore the Young Mechanics of Troy, and also before those of Schenectady; and 
the author yields with less reluctance to the present request for its publication, 
inasmuch as similar requests had been previously made from those places. He 
asks for its suggestions, the candid consideration of Young Mechanics and Ap- 
prentices ; and he sincerely hopes that it may contribute, in some slight degree, to 
animate them in their efforts at Self-Improvement. It is his intention to offer for 
their acceptance, at no distant day, two small volumes, designed especially to aid 
in such efforts. One on the Application of Science to the Useful Arts-and one on 
those Principles of Political Economy which are most interesting to the Industri? 
ous Classes.]  
Mr. President and Gentlemen- 
In accepting your invitation to appear here this evening 
and introduce your association to the notice of the public, I 
leel some regret, that the duty devolves on one who is almost 
a stranger. Years of absence have all but deprived me of the 
place which, as one of your residents and children, I once held 
in your remembrance; and I cannot approach a task like the 
present, without being forcibly reminded, how little claim 1 
retain on your regard-how poorly I am qualified to do justice 
to your present views and wants, and how much you have to 
regret in the loss of his valued services, * who was first se- 
lected to discharge this grateful and important duty. I reflect, 
however, that the objects for which you associate are neither 
local nor transient in their nature. The cultivation of the 
mind and the practice of benevolence, are duties of universal 
and enduring obligation, and he who comes among you to 
plead in their behalf, will be welcomed, I doubt not, as a 
friend and associate. 
In looking round for some topic appropriate to the occasion, 
I have concluded that I could in no way more effectually sub- 
serve your views, than by offering a few remarks on the intel- 
lectual improvement of Mechanics-its importance both to the 
*R. Wilkinson, Esq. who was prevented from delivering the Introductory Lee' 
ture, by unexpected professional engagements. 6 
public and to themselves, and the means by which they can best 
promote it. 
1 need hardly remind this assembly, that the commencement 
of such an enterprise, is an event of some public importance. 
Though composed, for the most part, of mechanics, and to be 
conducted with a special view to their improvement, it by no 
means follows that this association is interesting or important 
only to them. In contributing to their welfare, it must con- 
tribute in the same proportion to the welfare of all. For be it 
remembered, that the manufacturers, mechanics, and artizans 
of this place form its most numerous, and, I may add, its most 
useful and influential class. As the country supplies the raw 
materials of human subsistence, and is occupied principally by 
an agricultural population; so it is in towns and cities that these 
materials are worked up into articles of use and luxury, by me- 
chanics and artizans, who, with their families, constitute its 
principal inhabitants. They are the young Mechanics and 
Apprentices of Poughkeepsie, therefore, whose influence is to 
be most powerfully felt, a few years hence, on its industry and 
enterprise-at its local and general elections-in the support of 
its schools and churches, and on all occasions of public interest 
or emergency. If the town is to be improved, enlightened, 
elevated, who can do it so effectually as its most numerous and 
active citizens ?-and if it is to decline in morals, intelligence, 
and prosperity, believe me, that it is among this class that the 
leprosy will first break out, and its foul taint be most widely 
and fatally diffused. Tell me of any town, the intellectual 
and moral condition of its mechanics and operatives, and I 
will tell you what the condition of the town itself is. Tell me 
the character of its Apprentices, and I will tell you what its 
condition ere long must be. 
In view of these facts, I must profess my amazement, at 
the apathy which so generally prevails respecting the intel- 
lectual and moral welfare of mechanics-and my still greater 
amazement at the contempt, (worthy only of a dark age.) with 
which some are disposed to look down on this most useful- and in cities, most numerous and powerful class. Who can 
observe the workings of the social system, or peruse the records 
of the past, without feeling that theirs is a commanding influ- 
ence? What class, during the last seven centuries, occupies 
a more prominent place in the history of civilization and of 
constitutional liberty? Where amidst the dense darknessof the 
middle ages, first arose a taste for the comforts and refinements 
of life ? Who first taught the feudal lord to encourage industry 
instead of idleness-to substitute the improvement of his es- 
tate, and the embellishment of his castle, and the cultivation 
of personal refinement, in place of a coarse and prodigal hos- 
pitality? Who first supplied commodities for modern com- 
merce-thus opening friendly intercourse between distant, 
dissimilar, and hitherto hostile nations, and making the im- 
provements and discoveries of one, the common property of 
all ?-And, above all, who first rekindled the long-extin- 
guished spirit of civil liberty; or rather let me say, who, for 
the first time, lit up that glorious spirit which alone de- 
serves the name of civil liberty-a spirit which demanded writ- 
ten guarantees for individual rights, and taught that the state, 
instead of being what ancient Republicans considered it-a 
stupendous Idol, to whose honor and aggrandizement the free- 
dom and happiness of individuals were to be profusely sacri- 
ficed, was but an agent, or servant, appointed for the benefit 
of all, and responsible to all alike for its faithful steward- 
ship ? To these questions, History returns one and the same 
answer. It was from the free cities of Europe, founded, sus- 
tained, and enriched by mechanics and tradesmen, that these 
blessings took their rise.. It was these mechanics and trades- 
men who first conceived a taste for the arts and comforts of 
peace, w'ho communicated this taste to the higher classes, and 
supplied commerce with its rich freights of wealth and utility. 
It was they who first taught the lesson, not yet fully learned 
in Europe, of systematic and successful resistance to arbi- 
trary power. Enterprizing and intelligent-knowing what 
was due to their industry and skill, and feeling that royalty 
7 8 
itself looked for protection against the insolence of haughty 
and restless barons to their prowess and wealth, they claimed 
to be represented in the councils of the state. Thus arose the 
Tiers Elat, or third estate of the realm, which has for so many 
ages held the balance of power in Europe between the monarch 
and his nobles-and which, as the commons, qx middling class, 
has been infusing more and more of freedom into the consti- 
tution of every civilized people. 
In this land, above all others, it becomes us to make grateful 
and respectful mention of the services which Mechanics have 
rendered to the cause of liberty. Their enterprise, be it re- 
membered, was among the causes which first excited the jeal- 
ousy of the mother country towards her American colonies. It 
was by her oppressive and unnatural efforts to strangle that 
enterprise, that she contributed to weaken the ties of affection 
which bound them to her, and awoke on these shores a cry for 
independence. In the fearless remonstrances which were laid 
at the feet of royalty-in the negotiations which were opened- 
in the measures of retaliation which were concerted and put in 
execution-in the firm and enlightened policy which saw dis- 
tinctly its object and moved right on to its attainment, wrho 
w'ere more active or influential than the mechanics ? And 
when, at length, the die was cast, and the tidings from Lex- 
ington and Bunker's Hill proclaimed that there was no hope, 
but in arms and in the God of Battles, who stood forth con- 
spicuous in the field, in the cabinet and at foreign courts ? In the 
army of the Revolution, I can recall no name, Washington's 
only excepted, which occupies a prouder place in the memory 
and affections of a grateful people, than that of Nathaniel 
Greene-the Blacksmith. In the deliberations of Congress, 
and in the negotiations with foreign powers, I see no worthier 
representatives of the cool, sagacious, inflexible, upright, and 
far-reaching statesman, than Benjamin Franklin, the Printer. 
and Roger Sherman, the Shoemaker. I need not add the 
names of others, scarcely less honored. If we would know 
what mechanics were at the era of the Revolution-and what, 9 
in point of influence, they must over be in a country like ours, 
let this suffice.-Of the committee of five, appointed to draw 
up the Declaration of Independence, two were mechanics. Of 
the brave men who led our armies, he, whom Hamilton, while 
he honored Washington as "the first man of the country," 
did not hesitate to style even " the first soldier of the Revolu- 
tion"-was a Mechanic.* He who was the first choice of his 
country as her representative at imperial courts, and who, sent 
to baffle the arts of practiced diplomatists, and face the me- 
naces of exasperated power, did it all, and did it triumphantly 
-was a Mechanic. And, finally, he, who in congress and in 
conventions, by the mere force of intellect and knowledge, 
without any gifts of eloquence or external show, could still 
command the confidence and sway the opinions of the 
wisest; the man who, to use the language of Jefferson, "ne- 
ver said a foolish thing in his life," and whom another col- 
league described, as "a slow-spoken and almost tongue-tied 
man, but with a head as clear as light," he, also, was a Me- 
chanic. 
I shall not be suspected, I trust, of recurring to these facts 
for purposes of flattery. I recur to them, that I may show the 
young men to whom I speak, what may be expected of those 
who have such models. I recur to them, that 1 may exhibit 
to all who hear me, the true position both political and moral, 
in which mechanics stand; and the deep interest which it 
becomes us all to feel, in their welfare and improvement. 
And above all, I recur to them to prove that manual labor 
and study, are not, as they are generally thought to be, in- 
compatible-that it is perfectly practicable for a young man to 
be cultivating the highest talents, nursing the noblest purposes, 
drinking deeply from the purest springs of knowledge, while 
he still pursues with diligence and zeal, his daily task in the 
forge, or at the work-bench. Young men, it is time to do 
'This fact is stated by Mr. Verplanck, in his Address before the New-York Me- 
chanics' Institute, in 1833, on the authority of the late Col. Marinus Willett. 10 
away that unworthy prejudice, which has so long tended to es- 
trange from each other, the laboring man and the student; 
which serves to perpetuate that distinction between working- 
men and gentlemen, which in a country like ours, where there 
are no hereditary prerogatives, and where every man must be 
at last the artificer of his own fortune-is, I do not hesitate to 
say, of all distinctions, the most absurd and pernicious. How- 
ever it originates ; whether as formerly in a disposition to stig- 
matise all labor; or whether, as more recently, in a wish to 
exalt manual labor at the expense of that which is intellectual, 
it merits only execration. I give but utterance to the spirit of 
our institutions, and to the views of all good and wise men, 
when 1 say, that in this land, we are, or at least ought to be, 
all workingmen and all gentlemen. If there is any disgrace 
in being a workingman, in winning one's way to respectabil- 
ity and usefulness by means of effort and industry, let it attach to 
him who toils with his brain, as well as to him who works with 
his hands. And if there is any honor in it, let it not be reserved 
for him alone who wields the axe or the hammer; but let him 
who adds to this the faithful use of his mental and moral pow- 
ers ; and him too, who, though not a mechanic, nor in the ordi- 
nary sense, a laborer, still spares no toil if he can but restore 
his client to his rights, or his patients to health; and him who, 
while the mechanic is stretched upon his couch in profound 
and refreshing slumbers, has to keep anxious and wasting vig- 
ils, preparing for his place in the desk, or in the discharge of 
official duty-let him too, receive his share of honor, at the 
hands of the Republic. In this country, where so few are 
born to opulence and none to station, labor of some kind is 
the inheritance of all; and whoever pursues that labor in a li- 
beral and enlightened spirit; striving to cultivate his talents, 
and refine his taste; ready for every good word and work, and 
never content while he may win for himself a brighter name 
and a larger sphere of action; he is, in the truest and highest 
sense, a gentleman-and if he lives, will one day take his place 
beside the proudest of the land. 11 
I come, then, with pleasure, from halls dedicated to learn- 
ing, that I may welcome these young men, and all young men 
who would become the pride of their country, to the toils, the 
pleasures, and the rewards of study. Accustomed to look with 
deep interest on every youthful mind that yearns for knowledge, 
and for the light and power, that knowledge can confer ; called 
by my pursuits to watch the first indications of such a spirit- 
to welcome it, and warm it into life, I should be most un- 
faithful to myself, if I could look, without emotion, on those 
who are appointed to labor, surrounded with impediments, 
and often chilled by discouragement; and who still find time, 
or rather make time, for the cultivation of their minds-who 
give to thoughtful and studious solitude, and intellectual com- 
panionship, those hours which so many waste in idleness and 
sensuality. Young men! we welcome you to the green fields 
of literature. We rejoice that they are as ready to pour their 
opulence into your laps as into ours; that their richest gifts, 
indeed, are often reserved to crown the labors of the humble 
scholar; unknown to fortune, and rich in nothing but his talents, 
and his toil. We hold up for your encouragement, the history 
of those who have gone before you in the same honorable ca- 
reer ; the Franklins, the Greenes, the Shermans, who have risen 
from the workshop, to become an infant nation's strength and 
boast. We remind you of those who, starting from the same 
point at which you now stand, have soared with the poet, or 
have wandered over immensity with the astronomer, or have 
penetrated into the dark recesses of nature with the philosopher, 
or have called into existence, new forms of beauty, with the 
sculptor and the painter. We point you to John Hunter, the 
most eminent anatomist of modern times, but once a Carpen- 
ter;-to Charles Linnaeus, whose name still stands highest in 
the annals of natural history, once a Shoemaker;-to James 
Ferguson, the self-taught but admirable astronomer, once a 
Shepherd;-and to Samuel Richardson, the immortal novelist, 
who, to use the words of Johnson, " first taught the passions 
to move at the command of virtue," once and always a Printer. 12 
We point to the Silk-weaver, Bolland, inventing the last and 
greatest improvement in the refracting telescope;-to the Potter, 
Wedgewood, bringing skill, and science, and taste to bear upon 
his art, and then placing the products of that art within the reach 
of the humblest householder;-to Reuben Whitney, transform- 
ing, by one single invention,the hitherto neglected cotton fields 
of the south, into a mine of perpetual and abounding wealth;- 
and last and not least, we point you to the instrument-maker, 
James Watt, and the miniature-painter, Robert Fulton, training 
for the perpetual use and benefit of man, that agent of illimit- 
able power and versatility which is now busy around us ; dis- 
missing man from his toil; relieving the panting steed; super- 
seding the water-fall; bidding defiance alike to wind and wave ; 
and deprived of which, though we have enjoyed it for so short 
a space, we should feel that we were going back to rude ages. 
In view of such examples, what may not the young mecha- 
nic hope ; and sustained by a firm purpose, and blessed of 
heaven, what may he not achieve ? Have you difficulties to 
encounter, my young friends? So had these benefactors of 
their race-and yet severer difficulties. But what are difficul- 
ties, when assailed by an indomitable perseverance ? They are 
what the visible horizon is, to the advancing traveller. As you 
approach them, they recede. " If we do but go on," says an 
admirable writer, " some unseen path will open among the 
hills. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the 
apparent disproportion between the result of single efforts, and 
the magnitude of the obstacles to be encountered. Nothing 
good or great is to be attained without courage and industry; 
but courage and industry must have sunk in despair and the 
world remained unornamented and unimproved, if man had 
nicely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel with 
the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade 
with the mountain to be levelled."* Stop not then to measure 
with too nice and curious eye, the magnitude of your work. 
Essays and Letters of R. Sharp, Esq. p. 28, Rather put your hand at once to it, and let it be with all 
your mind and strength. You will then find that the diffi- 
culty has been overrated,-overrated did I say? As you taste 
the pleasure of struggling with and subduing it; as you feel 
how your nerves have been strengthened, and your skill sharp- 
ened by the contest, it will cease to be a difficulty! You 
will own it as friend, rather than foe. "Every antagonist," 
to use the language of Burke, "will become your helper," and 
you will see that nothing can chain down that mind which 
has willed to rise; and that there is no eminence of light or 
power, to which even the mechanic may not attain, if he will 
but seize and make the most of each moment as it flies. 
But on this point, I ought, perhaps, to enlarge; and I will 
detain you, therefore, while I endeavor to show more fully, in 
the first place, now it is that young men situated as the me- 
chanic and apprentice are, can still make great advances in 
useful knowledge-and secondly, why they should do it. 
First, then-as to the manner in which it may be done. You 
will perceive here, that I suppose the young mechanic to con- 
tinue his accustomed occupations, and that too with no remis- 
sion of industry or zeal. He is, in this respect, to do all that 
the most scrupulous could ask; and yet he shall have time 
enough, and means enough to make great attainments in use- 
ful knowledge. 
He shall have time enough. You have not failed to dis- 
cover before this, gentlemen, that a man's achievments do not 
depend upon the time allowed him. They depend, rather, on 
his energy and spirit. To a listless, lethargic, idle man, you 
might give ages, and he would effect nothing; whereas a man 
full of fire, and bent on some great end, seems to have the 
art of converting his minutes into hours. Husbanding every 
moment with a miser's care, he accomplishes, in those little 
fragments of leisure,'which most men think nothing of wasting, 
works that might seem to have required years. And perhaps 
they did require years, for minutes multiplied swell at last 
into years; and many a one whose apology it is, that he lost 
13 14 
only a moment here and a moment there, will at length find, 
when he reaches the age of fifty or sixty, that these little mo- 
ments have expanded into years-long years, which stand a 
melancholy blank in the history of his life. It is related of 
the celebrated Madame Campan, that she composed one or 
more of those works which have been so popular, during the 
brief interval? which were accustomed to elapse between 
the moment of her obeying the summons to dinner, and that 
of sitting down at table. Mr. Brougham, whose labors 
present such a miracle* to the scholar of these degenerate 
days-who, in addition to his cares and labors in the courts 
and in parliament, sufficient of themselves to overwhelm 
ordinary men, finds time to master all the discoveries of mo- 
dern science; nay, to take place himself in the very front 
rank of writers and inquirers ; nay, to write books on natural 
theology; who can be seen at one hour probing the abuses in 
the public charities of the country; at the next, investigating 
the state of popular education, and giving to that education 
new impulse ; and perhaps before the day closes, bestowing a 
last revision on some work designed for the instruction or en- 
tertainment of the common people; this man tells us, as the 
secret of his labors, that he has work ent out for every moment, 
and that he never postpones for an hour what can be done now. 
And another name, * associated with, or rather, under Provi- 
dence, the source and strength of one of the greatest religious 
movements recorded in history-a name which will ever be 
quoted as an example of energy and moral power-can hardly 
be recalled, without thinking of that favorite motto of his- 
always in haste, but never in a hurry. 
Here, then, is the way in which you can make time for the 
pursuit of knowledge. It is by gathering up the fragments, 
that nothing be lost-by hoarding them with a frugal care, 
or rather by spending them with a provident liberality, in 
laying up stores of useful science, which, at some future 
day, will repay you an hundred fold. Consider for a mo- 
* John Wesley. 15 
ment, what these fragments amount to in a year. It will 
be admitted, I presume, that after meeting all the claims of 
your business, your family, your health and your religion, you 
can still save out of every day, in "odd ends" of time, 
nearly if not quite two hours, which is about one-eighth of all 
the hours not spent in sleep. Thus, one-eighth of the whole of 
life may be devoted to intellectual improvement; amounting, 
(should a man live to the age of three score,) to almost eight 
entire years. And is that all ? Far from it. These brief in. 
tervals for study, recurring each day and several times a day, 
will, if improved, supply constant materials for interesting 
thought during your hours of labor; so that not only may know- 
ledge be acquired while you are poring over books; but that 
knowledge can be digested and incorporated with the very sub- 
stance of the mind, while you are at work; nay, can actually 
be amplified and enriched by the new applications and illus- 
trations which will be suggested by your pursuits, or by inter- 
course with others. 
And to this, be it observed, the present state of the arts is 
eminently conducive. That division of labor, which is often 
adverted to as one of the distinguishing features of modern in- 
dustry, and which has found its way into every kind of mecha- 
nical labor, is not more favorable to the production and per- 
fecting of material fabrics than it is, when properly improved, 
to the cultivation and elevation of the human mind. It is 
often objected to such division, that, by simplifying labor and 
superseding, in consequence, much of the thought and care 
formerly necessary, it tends to degrade the artizan into a mere 
machine. And so it does, if the artizan chooses to be degraded 
-chooses to spend the leisure, thus given him, in a state of 
mere mental vacancy. But why should he not consider it as 
a precious gift from heaven; as so much time rescued from toil, 
and designed for intellectual and moral improvement? To the 
reflecting and philanthropic mind, this is the highest end of all 
those grand inventions, devised by modern genius, to abridge, 
or supersede human labor. They are not intended by Provi- dence, simply to pour wealth into the coffers of the few, nor 
even to augment the merely physical enjoyments of the many. 
Their aim, rather and above all, is to redeem a large portion 
of that time which has hitherto been given to exhausting labor; 
but which henceforth can and should be devoted to elevating 
the intellectual, moral and religious condition of the workman. 
Viewing the subject in this light, I think I do not exaggerate 
when I say, that a mechanic, in these days, may in effect devote 
nearly one-quarter of his time to mental improvement; or,, 
which is the same thing, he may, in the course of an ordinary 
life, save for this best and most important of all purposes the 
entire space of twelve or fifteen years, which, as usually spent, 
is worse than wasted. And what facilities does he not 
enjoy, for the profitable employment of those years. Good 
books have become so abundant and cheap, that a man of 
very limited means can still possess himself of a vast fund of 
knowledge ; in addition to which, public libraries are now so 
richly furnished, and are conducted on such liberal principles, 
that there is hardly any thing useful in science, or elegant in 
literature, to which the youthful student may not have access, 
I had almost said, without money and without price. And this 
knowledge has, in modern works, been studiously adapted to 
the unlearned; is in many instances illustrated for the special 
benefit of the mechanic and the laboring man ; and is rendered 
equally attractive and simple, by means of anecdotes, engrav- 
ings, and maps. In addition to all this, the mechanic is in- 
vited to lectures, which, though they may not be sufficient to 
instruct him fully on any subject, are yet most useful in awak- 
ening a spirit of inquiry; in spreading before him an outline 
of the ground over which he ought to travel ; and in supplying 
him with hints, for the direction of his route. And all these, 
be it remembered, are means and appliances offered only to 
the modern inquirer. In the days of Franklin and Rittenhouse, 
and those other self-made men to whom I have referred, books 
were scarce ; public lectures unknown; arid public libraries as 
barren as they were rare. Is it too much, then, to ask of the 
16 17 
young men before me, that, enjoying as they do, more of lei- 
sure and immeasurably greater facilities for improvement, they 
should at least endeavor to emulate such bright examples ? 
But why, in the Second place, should the mechanic and 
laborer acquire this knowledge? Such a question may seem 
strange and superfluous at this day; and yet I fear that even 
now, and notwithstanding all we hear of the diffusion of useful 
knowledge, it is often asked? Many persons seem. I had al- 
most said, alarmed, when we speak of educating more highly, 
the laboring classes ; and are constantly telling us, in the fa- 
mous words of Pope, that a " little learning is a dangerous 
thing," and that the smattering which we can give these young 
men will only fill them with self-conceit, and make them des- 
pise their business. To all this I say, in reply, that a little 
learning is not what we propose to give them; we mean to 
give them a great deal. Yes, I say it deliberately, a great, 
deal, as measured by any standard, known to the author of the 
celebrated and much abused maxim, to which I have just re- 
ferred. It must be remembered, that in the time of Pope, the 
term "learning," included little if any thing, except a know- 
ledge of ancient languages and literature, and an acquaintance 
with history and poetry. What in the true sense constitutes 
knowledge-that knowledge which is emphatically power- 
which reveals to a man the constitution of the external world, 
and of his own frame, and of civil society, and gives him 
power with respect to them all, that knowledge was in Pope's 
time, most of it, undiscovered. Where, for example, in those 
days was Chemistry, with all the power which it gives us in 
bleaching, dying, tanning, sugar-refining, &c. &c. Where was 
the philosophy of Steam, of Electricity and Galvanism, of the 
true functions of our muscular and nervous organization, of 
Botany and Geology, with all the control which these give us, 
over the operations of nature, and the workings of our own sys- 
tem. These things have not only been discovered, but they 
have been explained and simplified, till the highest and most prolific elements of science are brought down to the under 
standing of a child, and the humblest man may now possess 
himself of knowledge, transcending any thing ever dreamed of 
in the philosophy even of a Newton or a Boyle. What we are 
able to teach the practical man, may be Utile as compared with 
the Omniscience of the Deity, or as compared with the science 
of him who devotes all his hours to study; but as compared 
with any knowledge susceptible of direct and productive appli- 
cation to the pursuits of a mechanic, which was possessed 
even by Pope himself; or which he could have acquired 
though he had drunk so deeply of the " Pierian spring" as 
to drink it out; as compared with that, we are not afraid to 
say, that what we propose to teach is great. 
But waiving this point, and admitting that the knowledge 
which can be acquired by these young men, is in every sense 
little, we deny that there is any danger even in a little learn 
ing. On the contrary, we maintain that a man is a safer 
citizen and a more useful neighbor, knowing something, be 
that something ever so small, than knowing nothing; and that 
just as you increase his stock of information, provided it be 
innocently employed, you in the same proportion render him a 
better and a happier man. Mr. Pope, it is true, assures us, 
that shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, meaning I suppose, 
in the language of the modern objection, that they inspire 
vanity, and fill the mind with a disgust for business. But 1 
imagine that they, whose brains are so constituted that they 
would be intoxicated by shallow draughts, would hardly be 
sobered again by following the poet's direction, and ''drinking 
deeply.'' A vain mind will be vain of its learning, whether it 
be much or little, just as it will be vain of any other posses- 
sion. It should be considered, too, that a man's acquire- 
ments will never inspire vanity, except when they serve to 
elevate him above his associates. If we proposed to instruct 
only a few mechanics, to institute in this respect a distinction 
between them, we might perhaps awaken their pride. But 
our wish is to place all, in this respect, on the same level; to 
18 make knowledge perfectly universal, to have it considered 
among the necessaries of life ; so that a young man shall no 
more think of growing old without it, than without clothes or 
food, and shall as soon boast, that he has raiment or a roof to 
cover him, as that he has that which is but the raiment and 
the shelter of his nobler part. 
And with respect to their business, is it true, that the know- 
ledge which we exhort young mechanics to acquire, will dis- 
qualify them for it, or make it the object of their contempt? 
The simple purpose of that knowledge is to awaken, inform, 
and invigorate the mental faculties ; and those faculties are the 
very means by which they are to transact business, and do all 
their ordinary duties. Does walking, in which you use pre- 
cisely the same bones, and tendons, and muscles, as in run- 
ning, disqualify you for running? Or does eating food, by 
which you apply to the several parts of your system, a healthy 
stimulus and nourishment, incapacitate those parts from per- 
forming their appropriate functions ? As little then, will stu- 
dies, which tend to enlighten and strengthen the mind, serve 
to incapacitate that mind for the discharge of its accustomed 
and proper vocation. 
While adverting to this objection, however, I cannot deny 
that an error prevails among young men themselves, which 
lends it some colour. When they first conceive the desire for 
knowledge, they are too ready to imagine that their usual pur- 
suits afford no adequate opportunity for indulging it; and that, 
even were it otherwise, still there is not to be found in such 
pursuits the requisite scope for the application of learning, or 
the exercise of talent. Hence, the disposition so generally 
evinced by young men who become attached to study, to 
abandon agricultural and mechanical employments, and to em- 
brace what are usually termed the learned professions. This 
disposition I would by no means condemn indiscriminately. 
There are cases, doubtless, in which a solemn sense of duty 
prompts the step; and the Church of Christ, or the bar, or the 
medical faculty gain by it a rich accession of talent and zeal. 
19 But my young hearers will permit me to remind them, that a 
mechanic or farmer, no less than other men, has occasion for 
the exercise of the most gifted and cultivated powers. He is 
not merely a mechanic who is to supply the wants of his cus- 
tomers, and accumulate wealth. He is a parent who is to 
train up his children to excellence, and who needs for this 
task, the most varied and thorough knowledge. He is a citizen, 
having important civil duties, all of which require knowledge, 
and in the discharge of which he, of all men, may exercise, if 
he have talent, a commanding and most salutary influence. He 
is above all, a man-having affections to be chastened and 
refined: a taste to be cultived; a mental and moral vision to 
be enlarged; and a soul to be fitted by the exercise of holy 
thought, for honor and immortality. 
And, even as Mechanics, will not your business afford you 
room, gentlemen, for applying your knowledge, and exercising 
your abilities? The results at which you aim, in the mechanic 
arts, are brought about, remember, not by your muscular 
strength, so much as by your knowledge and skill. The real 
and effective agents, by which you work, are the powers of 
nature, her affinities, her attractions, her all-absorbing energies 
of heat and gravity. Your office is confined to a proper dis- 
position, and wise control of these powers. And in that high 
office, exalted enough methinks to satisfy the most aspiring 
mind, how much might science aid you ? Is it not, in truth, 
by her guidance alone, that you can be conducted to an ade- 
quate acquaintance with the principles and processes of your 
business? Experience, weare aware, can teach you much; 
and much too you can learn from the instructions and example 
of the master-workmen in your trade. But still these are not 
adequate to give you that complete, systematic, and thorough 
knowledge which is essential to your highest success. You 
would scarcely be satisfied with a physician who knew nothing 
of the human body, but what he had learned from the conver- 
sation of his master, and by experimenting on his patients.- 
You require him to have studied regularly the principles of his 
20 21 
art; to have added to his own experience, and that of his im- 
mediate instructor, that immense mass of experience which 
is treasured up in books. Shall it be deemed unreasonable, 
then, that we ask a similar course from you? Indeed, does 
not your interest, no less than consistency, demand, that in 
connection with those labors of the shop, in which you train 
your eye to observe, and your hand to guide the processes of 
your art, you study also the principles of that art-principles 
which must always control such processes, and disregarding 
which they must inevitably fail. Yes, let it not be forgotten, 
that complete success in the mechanic arts can be secured 
only by knowledge; and that the knowledge which is alone 
equal to your wants, is that knowledge which combines with 
individual experience, the collective and generalized experi- 
ence of all who have labored and observed in the same sphere. 
How, for example; without that knowledge, can you provide 
for the unexpected emergencies, which await every mechanic 
in the prosecution of his business. From the state of your 
instruments and materials, or from the demands of your em- 
ployers, will arise frequent difficulties which you have never 
yet experienced; for which no directions can be found in those 
guides called Assistants, Companions, &c. and the provision 
for which, therefore, must be found, if found at all, in the re- 
sources of your own mind. But what, I ask, will his resour- 
ces amount to, who knows nothing of first principles-who 
has never been accustomed to reflect on the operations in 
which he is engaged; and who, if he undertakes now for the 
first time, to do it, will be almost certain to stumble? 
Consider, too, that if ignorant of the natural laws which 
govern your processes, you are not prepared to appreciate the 
inventions and alledged improvements which multiply with 
such astonishing rapidity, in every branch of manufactures ; 
and which you are constantly urged to adopt. Some of them, 
are doubtless of great value, while many more are destined no 
less certainly to follow their predecessors in a brief though noisy 
career, to the land of forgetfulness. Now, who can hope to discriminate between the meritorious and the worthless-be- 
tween the inferior and the superior, but he who has qualified 
himself to look beyond the promises of interested projectors, 
and the certificates of incompetent or inconsiderate witnesses, 
and to test the principles involved by the unalterable laws of 
the Creator? 
Consider, also, that an artizan or manufacturer must have 
a knowledge of the theory and principles of his business, if he 
would himself become its improver and benefactor; if he 
would be remembered as the honored inventor of some cheap- 
er, simpler, or more certain instrument, or process. That thou- 
sands upon thousands of such instruments and processes are 
still undiscovered, and that they lie within the reach of every 
enterprising and competent artizan, is certain; but it is equally 
certain, that he alone is competent to the high task of thus 
adding to the resources of his race, who has knowledge.- 
Rarely, very rarely, indeed, does the uninstructed and unre- 
flecting mechanic compass any great and lasting improvement. 
Common sense, as well as the history of the arts would teach 
us, that when such men attempt to innovate, it will generally 
be in quest of some impracticable end, like perpetual motion; 
or by means totally inadequate to the object proposed; or for 
the mere purpose of re-inventing, in inferior forms, instruments 
which are already in existence ? And even when they do pro- 
secute an attainable and important end, with skill and appa- 
rent success, how often are they arrested and delayed, if not 
defeated, from being unable to solve the incidental or collat- 
eral questions which start up in the progress of their work.- 
Even Fulton, with all his knowledge and skill, is said to have 
been delayed several months in the completion of his great 
experiment, for want of the requisite knowledge of the 
theory of resisting fluids. Whittemore's card-machine, and 
Perkin's nail-engine, were both long delayed-one of them for 
years-and were the source, (as we are informed) * of infinite 
vexation to their authors, simply from the want of an adequate 
22 
'See Justice Story's Discourse before the Mechanics' Institute of Boston, 1831. acquaintance with* the principles of mechanics. Indeed, I ask 
where and when any great invention was perfected, without 
the aid of knowledge, and of profound thought ? These crea- 
tions of human genius, are not struck off, as is generally sup- 
posed, at a single heat, or at random. They are not the off- 
spring of some happy accident, nor the almost inspired guess 
of ignorant, unreflecting minds. No: These may give the first 
hint; but it is the province of knowledge and thought to seize 
that hint, and carry it out to its results; to disengage it from 
the mass of surrounding error, and to clear away the difficul- 
ties and doubts which always beset unexplored paths. Who 
will tell me, that James Watt, or Sir Humphrey Davy, or 
Sir Richard Arkwright, or Reuben Whitney, or Robert Fulton, 
projected and invented without knowledge*-without science? 
Who will tell me, that your own Brewster, uneducated though 
he was, ever brought his instruments to perfection, without 
intense and long continued study; without retiring from the 
din of business and the distractions of society, and burying 
himself in the solitude of his chamber. Who does not know 
how glad he was to call in the aid of books; how much he 
had derived from the society and instructions of able friends; 
and how constantly he was driven, for the want of acquired 
science, to task the powers of his own prolific and original 
mind ? Who ever heard him depreciate a liberal acquaintance 
with science and literature ; and who does not sympathise in 
the conviction felt, I am told, so deeply, by his friends and 
by himself, that he wanted but the power which science would 
have given him, to have added a long and ever memorable 
list, to those inventions which now stand associated with his 
cherished memory ? 
In addition, however, to these practical advantages which 
would accrue to the artizan, from a knowledge of the princi- 
ples of his art, there are others, of a moral and intellectual 
character, which are entitled to at least a passing notice. The 
23 
'The late Gilbert Brewster, of Poughkeepsie, a man of equal ingenuity and worth; 
who, by his invention of the Eclipse Speeder, and other improvements in cotton 
machinery, rendered important service to the manufacturing Industry of his country. habit of studying the theory as well as the practice of an art, 
cannot but have the happiest influence in enlarging and lib- 
eralizing the mind. It leads the artizan to regard his occupa- 
tion as something more than mechanical drudgery; as a libe- 
ral and intellectual pursuit fitted, to exercise the powers of his 
mind, and to raise his thoughts from the humble workmanship 
of man, to that vaster mechanism, which bespeaks the wisdom 
and power of the Almighty. It affords unfailing topics for reflec- 
tion and conversation, during his hours of labors, and provides 
resources of an intellectual character, on which he can draw in 
seasons of leisure, and at the advance of old age. It seems, 
indeed, high time, that the years which have hitherto been 
employed by the apprentice, in learning the mere handicraft of 
his art, should be employed, in part at least, in studying its prin- 
ciples, and in tracing the operation of those principles, through- 
out the works of nature. It is more than time, that a higher 
moral and intellectual taste should be cultivated among the 
artizans of every country; and that hours now wasted in dissi- 
pation or frittered away in frivolous reading and conversation, 
should be devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, and the 
cultivation of virtue. In an age like this, when every species 
of manual labor is rendered more and more precarious, by the 
changes which are perpetually taking place in the arts, it is 
the obvious interest of the laboring man to prepare himself by 
reading and reflection, either to embrace a new employment, 
or to conform himself to sudden and unexpected vicissitudes. 
Independent, however, of interest, there are other and higher 
considerations, which address him as an intelligent and immor- 
tal Being, and which urge him to embrace the opportunities of 
improvement, which have been vouchsafed him, by a kind 
Providence, even in his ordinary avocations. 
I have thus dwelt, I fear at too much length, on the benefits 
to be derived by mechanics from liberal and scientific studies. 
All my remarks are but a commentary on the celebrated maxim 
of lord Bacon, that knowledge ts power; and let me add, 
that for the human race there is no other power. Inferior ani- 
24 25 
mals are guided in their labors by a blind but unerring instinct; 
and hence, though destitute of knowledge, they build up works 
of surpassing beauty and utility. But man comes into being 
almost utterly destitute of instinctive skill. Nearly all his 
capability is the slow growth of effort, of prudence availing it- 
self of past error, of study exploring the nature and proper- 
ties of the material and immaterial objects around him. In 
books, is stored away the fruit of their experience and study 
who have gone before us ; and it is in that store-house, gentle- 
men, that you are to gather power for the discharge of the high 
trusts, which have been committed to your hands. Left to 
your own unaided researches, you would learn little of the 
world on which we all enter, strangers; and you would fall 
an easy prey to its thousand dangers and deceptions. But 
when, with your own observations, you combine the accumu- 
lated wisdom of ages; and when this wisdom has become 
your own by patient reading and reflection, you will, indeed, 
have power. You will power over the refractory substances 
on which you are called to labor, and will cause them to bend 
to your will with an almost magical celerity. You will have 
power even over future events, for you will be prepared to an- 
ticipate their nature, to prepare for their approach, and to em- 
ploy them as harmless contributors to your advancement. You 
will have power, too, over the minds with which you associate, 
since you will know the motives that sway, and the prejudices 
that pervert, and the high aspirations that warm them ; aspira- 
tions which, though now stifled by wordly pursuits, are yet 
susceptible of being roused into vigorous and beneficent exer- 
cise. And above all, gentlemen, you may, by a proper im- 
provement of the means with which you are entrusted, secure 
that noblest of all power-power over yourselves. By habits 
of thought and application, you can gain the command of your 
intellectual forces, and can direct them, all disciplined and 
ready for action, to any required point. And may I not hope, 
that by the due examination of your own hearts, and of the 26 
moral relations in which you stand, you will, with the aid of 
God's blessing, be animated to the pursuit of that yet higher 
dominion over appetite and passion, which constitutes the 
perfection of our being, and for which there is reserved a crown 
of eternal and unfading brightness.