THEME X. Employment is the Salt of Life.

INTRODUCTION.- -A constant and virtuous occupation produces on the mind and body similar effects to salt on the general food.

1ST REASON. Salt purifies; hence its emblematic use in ancient sacrifices, and the command of the Lord to the ancient Jews," in all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." -Lev. ii. 13. Employment, without doubt, serves to keep the mind pure also, for an idle brain is "Satan's workshop."

2ND REASON.-Salt is a great preservative or antiseptic, hence its use in curing meat: And a virtuous employment is no less essential to keep the temper, heart, mind, and body from corruption.

3RD REASON.-Salt is needful to give relish to food; indeed, without salt, food would be insipid and unwholesome. So employment is needful to give a relish to life, and prevent time from "hanging heavy on our hands."

4TH REASON. Salt is essential for digestion, not only because it acts as a stimulant, but because it furnishes the material whence the muriatic acid of the gastric juice is derived. So employment serves to digest our food by its wholesome action on the mind and body.*

5TH REASON.-Salt is requisite for health, and the absence of it in food soon leads to a morbid state of the body; hence the ancient Dutch custom of killing prisoners, guilty of capital offences, by feeding them on food which contained no salt. Employment is no less requisite for health; for, without it, the spirits flag, the nervous system becomes irritable, and all the functions of the body are disordered.

6TH REASON.-Salt is absolutely essential for life, for, without it, blood cannot be formed;† and, without labour

This subject is treated at length in my "Guide to Science," p. 85-98. Only the acid phosphate of potash can be formed from food without salt; and the phosphate of soda (which is absolutely indispensable to the formation of blood) can never be replaced in the blood by the phosphate of potash.

or employment, a man may be called "dead even while he liveth."

7TH REASON.-Salt is a wholesome medicine; for many diseases of a malignant character arise from a deficiency of salt in the blood. So employment acts like a medicine in restoring health and cheerfulness to the system.

8TH REASON. Salt given in excess produces scurvy, hæmorrhage, and many other disorders. So labour carried to excess produces derangement both of body and mind.

9TH REASON. Salt keeps off the flies from meat, which would light upon it otherwise and corrupt it. So a constant and virtuons occupation keeps away idle companions, who would allure to temptation and sin.

SIMILES. Running water is clear, sweet, and fresh; but stagnant water is noisome and deleterious.

If the air be fanned by winds it remains exhilarating and wholesome; but, by being confined in a close room, it becomes oppressive and unhealthy.

The sea in a calm is often covered with a thick scum of animal putrescence most noxious to life and health.

The earth by cultivation yields good fruits; but is soon covered with weeds and poisonous herbs, if suffered to remain fallow.

While iron and steel are employed they continue bright; but rust corrodes them when they are unused.

The hands are fashioned for work, the feet for walking, our senses for vigilance, reason to contrive, and every function of the body for active life: If they are unemployed they suffer a kind of death; as manure unspread is useless and even pernicious.

Money, unemployed, "eats itself up;" but, in circulation, it is the great lever of the world.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-Sir Richard Whittington rose by industry from the lowest state to be lord

mayor of London, &c. Perie was a common ditcher, and rose by diligence to the highest civic honour.

Arkwright rose by industry to the highest distinction, and was knighted by George III.

Canning used to say, "I would not change, if I could, my subjection to physical laws, and my exposure to hunger and cold, or the necessity of constant conflict with the material world; for, without these, man would become a contemptible race."

Alfred the Great was remarkable for his great diligence. He divided the day into three portions; one of which he employed in study, another in business, and the third in sleep and recreation.

Peter the Great, when he succeeded to the throne of Russia, found his subjects ignorant, lazy, and brutish. He, therefore, laid aside his diadem in order to learn those useful arts which would employ them. With this view he travelled into foreign countries, made himself familiar with various mechanical employments; and by personal labour and judicious instruction so ameliorated the condition of his people, that his name is still held in the highest veneration.

When God made Adam and placed him in Eden, he employed him "to water the garden and to till it.”

The angels of heaven are always represented in the Bible as active in some employment; either ministering to those on earth, or worshipping before the throne, or singing prayers, or flying on the errands of Jehovah; they are never represented indolent and idle.

QUOTATIONS. The reason why the rich and great are more subject to disease than the working classes is, because they have not sufficient employment to rouse their mind and exercise their bodies.-Ganganelli.

Idle persons (says Burton) can never be well either in body or in mind: wearied, vexed, loathing, weeping, sighing, grieving, and suspecting, they are continually offended

with the world, and disgusted with every object therein. Their lives are painful to themselves, and burthensome to others. Their bodies are doomed to endure the miseries of ill-health, and their minds to be tortured by every foolish fancy.-Anatomy of Melancholy.

Prov. vi. 6. Ecc. v. 12.

Idleness is the rust of the mind, the bane of the body, the nurse of haughtiness, the chief author of mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, and the cause of numerous diseases; for, if the mind be not employed, it rushes into mischief, or sinks into melancholy.

Canning says, "Man owes his growth and energy of character chiefly to that striving of the will, and that conflict with difficulty, which we call 'effort."

Any employment which is innocent (says Paley) is better than none: as the writing of a book, the building of a house, the laying out of a garden, the digging of a fishpond, even the raising of a cucumber or a tulip.

Why sits Content upon a cottage sill

At eventide, and blesses the coarse meal
In sooty corner? Why, sweet Slumber wait
The hard pallet?

'Tis labour savoury makes the peasant's fare,
And works out his repose: for Ease must ask
The leave of Diligence to be enjoyed.—S. Davies.
Oh listen not to that enchantress Sloth
With seeming smile; her palatable cup

By standing grows insipid: and beware

The bottom, for there's poison in the lees!-S. Davies. See also Shakspeare, Henry IV. on " Sleep" (Act III.); Henry V. "the Miseries of Royalty" (Act IV.); Henry VI. "Blessings of a Shepherd's life” (Act II.).

Life without employment is a vague and languid thing. -Bacon.

Ignavia corpus hebetat, labor firmat.-Celsus.

CONCLUSION.-Hence ...

THEME XI.

The greatest Events are often drawn by
Hairs.

INTRODUCTION.-Events of the greatest moment are very often brought about by causes apparently the most trivial.

1ST REASON. A very small event may give value to what was previously worthless: as a unit to a number of ciphers.

2ND REASON.-A very feeble agency may so transpose an arrangement, as greatly to augment its value: thus any transposition would increase the collective value of the nine digits.

3RD REASON.-A very insignificant addition to a series may so multiply its previous powers of combination and permutation, as most materially to affect the general result. Thus the permutation of six units would be 720, but, if only one more be added, the number of permutations would be increased to 5040.*

4TH REASON. The most minute event may produce a concurrence of circumstances which may generate most miglity effects: as if a small spark of fire were to fall by accident on a ship's powder-room.

5TH REASON.-A mere trifle may sometimes suggest or supply what has long been desired and even sought for. As when Archimedes entered the bath, the overflow of water suggested to him the valuable discovery of "specific gravity."

6TH REASON. A mere accident may be the cause of an extraordinary arrangement, from which new and important effects may result. As when the country girl put some scarlet dye into a pewter pot, it gave such brilliancy to her ribbons as to excite the attention of the donor, and led to one of the most valuable discoveries in the art of dyeing.