been thumbless, as arresting the stars in their courses. But this feeble being, through the constant aid of the thumb, what wonders has he wrought! See the forests felled; see blooming gardens and fields waving with golden wheat; see villages, towns, cities, the spacious and well-furnished tenements of man; see his convenient and comely attire, the fulness of his cup, and the comforts of his table; see thousands of ships proudly traversing the ocean, freighted with the superfluities of some countries for the supply of the wants of others; see the finer works of art, pictures, statuary, engravings, embroidery;-see all these, and a thousand other things, and you will recognize in every one of them the agency of the thumb. Nay, all our books of Divinity, Law, Physic, Surgery, History, Biography, Philosophy, Poetry, or of whatever name or description, were first thumbed out by the laborious penmen of them. So true is it, that, as the hand is the instrument to all other instruments, it is the thumb, chiefly, that ministers ability to the hand.

The thumb points to duty. Its admirable contrivance manifests both the wisdom and the goodness of the Contriver. It plainly shows, at the same time, that man is destined by his Maker, to employments of manual labor; and, consequently, that manual labor, so far from being a reproach to him, is one of the essential duties of his nature and condition, and ought rather to be held in honor than in disgrace. And if there be some excep. tions, they include but a very small proportion of the human family: for, of the whole world there are not more, perhaps, than a hundredth part, who are fairly exempted by rank, or fortune, or mental occupations, from the necessity of laboring with their hands.

"Sucking the thumbs," is a proverbial phrase, denoting a total neglect of employing them in any useful way, answerable to the design they were made for. A great many of this "untoward generation " have the vile trick of "sucking their thumbs; -a great many, too, whose circumstances imperiously demand. a better use of them. It is a pitiful practice, whether in man or woman, directly leading to poverty and want, and, not unfrequently, to the worst of vices. It behooves that parents keep a sharp look out, lest their boys and girls get into this way, so dangerous to their morals, so deadening to all their faculties, and so destructive of their future prospects in life.

But there is one use of the thumb, that is infinitely worse than not using it at all; it is employing it in spreading abroad falsehood and moral poison, with the pen, and with the type. It were far better to be born without thumbs, than to use them so abominably.

NUMBER XXVI.

OF IDLERS.

THERE are multitudes who pass along the stream of life without laboring at the oar, or paying any thing for their passage; so that the charge of their fare falls, most unreasonably, upon their fellow-passengers. This is an evil of a very serious and dangerous nature; for such idlers not only burden the community, but corrupt it. To say that it were as well for their country that they had never been born, and that they are unworthy to be numbered in the census of its population;-to say this, is saying too little. They not only do no good, but they do much harm; they not only prey upon the fruits of other men's industry, but they deprave public morals. It is in the nature of this kind of gentry to multiply very fast if they are not checked; for besides that they commonly bring up their children, if children they have, in their own way of living, they are perpetually making proselytes from the families of their neighbors; leading astray, by their examples and enticements, a great many youth, who,

but for them, might have been industrious, and useful to society.

In some countries, the wisdom of legislators has been much employed on this subject, and the arm of executive power has enforced industry, as a political duty which every person owed to the State. The Hollanders in particular, in the early age of their Republic, considered idle persons as politically criminal, and punished idleness as a crime against the commonwealth. Those, who had no visible means for a livelihood, were called before the magistracy, to give an account how they got their living; and if they were unable to render a satisfactory explanation on this point, they were put to labor. Those thrifty Hollanders are said to have employed, also, the following singular expedient. They constructed a kind of box, sufficiently large for a man to stand therein upright, and exercise his bodily faculties. In the interior of it there was a pump. The vagrant or idler was put into this box, which was so placed in the liquid element, that the water would gush into it constantly, through apertures in its bottom and sides; so that the lazy culprit had to work at the pump with all his might, and for several hours together, to keep himself from drowning. The medicine, it is said, was found to be an infallible cure for the disease; insomuch, that no one was ever known to work at the pump for the second time.

I do, by no means, recommend those old Dutch laws and customs for domestic use here. Sacred Liberty! I would not hurt a hair of thy head. Yet every thing ought to be done in this case, which can be done consistently with that personal liberty, which our free constitutions of government guarantee to every citizen of the United States. How far our laws, in consistency with the

rights of citizens, might go towards restraining notorious idleness and dissipation with respect to adults, it is not for me to say. I leave it to men, gifted with superior wisdom. Thus far, however, I will venture to affirm-that as children, in some sense or other, do actually belong to the community, so it ought to be in the power, and to be made the duty of the political guardians of the public welfare, to see to it that they be brought up in such a manner, that they may be likely to strengthen and adorn, rather than to weaken and deprave society. For which reason, when idle profligate parents are manifestly leading their children in their own footsteps, they ought to be taken from the dominion of such unworthy parents, and placed under the care of those, who would accustom them to habits of virtuous industry. It would be an act of charity to the children themselves; and would give to the general community a vast number of sound and useful members, who, else would grow up to prey upon its earnings, and poison its morals. If all suitable pains were taken with the rising generation to induce them to form sober and industrious habits, by example, by the incitements of persuasion, and even by reasonable force whenever force is necessary, the effects would be happy beyond measure. An infinite mass of mischief and crime would be prevented; the officers of justice would have little to do; our jails would, comparatively, be empty.

I will only add, Public Sentiment, as it now stands in some, if not in most parts of our country, must needs be rectified; else idleness and dissipation will continue to gather numbers and strength. So long as an idle, worthless fellow, perchance a gambler and sharper, by means of a fine coat, a lily hand, and graceful bows, is able to take rank of an industrious, worthy