wages than a servant or laborer. A long course of training is necessary to instruct a man in the business of jewelling and engraving, and if the cost of his training were not made up to him in a higher rate of wages, he would, instead of learning so difficult an art, betake himself to such employments as hardly require any instruction. The following are the chief circumstances which cause the rates of wages in some employments to rise above or fall below the general average: The pleasant or unpleasant nature of the employment. The pleasantness of an employment may arise from the lightness of the labor to be performed, its healthiness or cleanliness, and the degree of esteem in which it is held. The unpleasantness of any employment will arise from the opposite circumstances,—from the severity of the labor to be performed, its unhealthiness or dirtiness, and the degree of odium attached to it. Now it is not in the nature of things likely that any one will be so blind to his own interests as to engage in any occupation which is considered mean, or where the labor is severe, if he obtain only the same wages as are obtained by those engaged in employments that are held in higher esteem, and where the labor is light. The labor of the ploughman is not unhealthy, nor is it either irksome or disagreeable; but being more severe than that of the shepherd, it is uniformly better paid. Miners, gilders, smiths, distillers, and all who carry on an unhealthy, disagreeable, and dangerous business, always obtain higher wages than those who are engaged in more agreeable employments. The wages of labor, in particular employments, vary according to the comparative ease with which it is learned. There are many kinds of labor which man may perform without any previous instruction whatever, and in which he will gain a certain rate of wages from the moment he is employed. But there are also many kinds of labor which can be carried on only by those who have been regularly instructed in them. Now, it is evident that the wages of the latter class of laborers must be greater than those of the first class, in order to make up to them the time lost, and the expense they have incurred in their education. A skilled mason, who has served a long apprenticeship to his trade, will always obtain higher wages than a common laborer, who has simply to use his mere bodily strength. Were it not so, there would be nothing to induce the mason to spend many years in learning a trade at which he could earn no higher wages than the man who was simply qualified to carry lime in a hod, or to roll a wheelbarrow. The wages of labor, in different employments, vary with the constancy and inconstancy of employment. Employment is much more constant in some trades than in others. Many trades can be carried on only in particular states of the weather, and seasons of the year; and if the workmen who are employed in these cannot easily find employment in others during the time they are thrown out of work, their wages must be proportionally raised. A journeyman weaver, shoemaker, or tailor may reckon, unless trade is dull, upon obtaining constant employment; but masons, bricklayers, pavers, and, in general, all those workmen who carry on their business in the open air, are liable to constant interruptions. Their wages, accordingly, must be sufficient to maintain them while they are employed, and also when they are necessarily idle. This principle shows how foolish is the opinion generally entertained respecting the great earnings of porters, cabmen, coachmen, painters and all workmen employed only for short periods, and on particular occasions. Such persons frequently make as much in an hour or two as a regularly employed workman makes in a day. But this greater hire scarcely ever compensates for the labor they perform, and the time they are necessarily idle. Such persons are almost always poorer than those who are employed in more constant occupations. The wages of labor vary according to the small or great trust which must be reposed in the workmen. The wages of goldsmiths and jewellers are everywhere greater than those of many other workmen, not only of equal but of much superior ingenuity, on account of the precious materials with which they are intrusted. We trust our health to the physician; our fortune, and sometimes our life and character, to the lawyer. Their reward must be such, therefore, as may give them that rank in society which so important a trust requires. The wages of labor in different employments vary according to the chances of success in them. If a young man is bound apprentice to a shoemaker or a tailor, there is hardly any doubt but he will attain to an ordinary degree of skill in his business, and that he will be able to live by it. But if he is bound apprentice to a lawyer, a musician, a sculptor, or a player, there are ten chances to one that he never attains such a degree of skill in any of these callings as will enable him to live on his earnings. But where many fail for one who succeeds, the fortunate one ought not only to gain such a rate of wages as will make up for the expense incurred in his education, but also for all that has been incurred in the education of his unsuccessful competitors. If we add together what is likely to be annually gained, and what is likely to be annually spent, by all the different workmen in any common trade, such as that of shoemakers or of weavers, we shall find that the sum gained will usually be greater than the sum spent. But if we add together the sums gained by all the students of law and all the lawyers in the world, and then add the sums spent by the same, we shall find that the annual gains bear but a small proportion to the annual expense. Why, then, is such a profession as the law so much run after? The love of that wealth, power, and respect, which most commonly attend superior excellence in any of the liberal professions, and the confidence placed by each individual in his own good fortune, are sufficient to overbalance the drawbacks that attend them; and never fail to crowd their ranks with all the most liberal and generous minds. From the preceding observations it is evident that those who receive the highest wages are not, when the cost of their education, the chances of their success, and the various disadvantages incident to their professions are taken into account, really better paid than those who receive the lowest. The wages earned by the different classes of workmen are equal, not when each individual earns the same number of dollars in a given space of time, but when each is paid in proportion to the severity of the labor he has to perform, to the degree of previous education and skill it requires, and to the other causes of variation already mentioned. So long as each individual is allowed to employ himself as he pleases, we may be assured that the rate of wages in different employments will be comparatively equal. COMPOSITION. Define the term "wages," in your own words. Show what causes ference in wages between jeweller and farm hand; the lawyer and the blacksmith. Is it wages alone that induce so many to embrace the practice of law? Is this difference in wages just? Illustrate this by a paraphrase of the third paragraph. (What is a paragraph ?) Name some trades that call for higher wages, owing to the seasons in which work is suspended. Name some not given in the lesson. Go over the sixth paragraph, and carefully resume the last ten lines. Memorize: If little labor, little are our gains; Man's fortunes are according to his pains. ingenuity comparative employments compensates odium induce vary preceding C THE BRAVE MAN. OUD let the Brave Man's praises swell Of lofty soul and spirit strong, He asks not gold — he asks but song! The tribute of song to the Brave Man's praise! The thaw wind came from the southern sea, The scattered clouds fled far aloof, As flies the flock before the wolf; It swept o'er the plain, and it strewed the wood, The snow-drifts melt, till the mountain calls, |