So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle,
throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not
seeing where they fell.
Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through
mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious
cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits
cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil,
are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the
laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day;
he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his
labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to
be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his
ignorance-which his growth requires-who has so often to use
his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him gratuitously
sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge
of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on
fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handing. Yet
we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.