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MORALS OF THE DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS. [Part V.

capacities. This is a duty devolving rather on the proprietorsof manufacturing establishments than on the legislatures; and theauthor is acquainted with several instances in Massachusetts, inwhich this duty has been discharged in a manner equally hon-orable to the proprietors and beneficial to the laborers.

CHAPTER VIII.

MORAL TENDENCY AND INFLUENCE OF THE VARIOUSMECHANICAL TRADES.

It does not come within my plan to do more, than make somegeneral remarks on the moral tendency and influence of thevarious mechanical employments. The most obvious divisionof them is, into the active and the sedentary ; and the first ofthese may again be divided into those which are pursued undershelter, and those which are pursued in the open air. A thirdclass of mechanical occupations may be referred to, as beingsubjected to the specific agencies of a deleterious or poisonousnature, as those of painters, glaziers, gilders, &c. That classof mechanics whose employments are active, and are pursuedchiefly in the open air, or, if under shelter, yet permit the freeaccess of fresh air, live under many of the favoring moral influ-ences of agriculture. * Some of these are even superior to agri-culture in the opportunities and facilities for invention which theyfurnish, and, in this respect, they favor and stimulate intellectualimprovement. This is the case with ship-building, engineering,&c. Most of them, too, are eminently conducive to health, themost precious of blessings, next to a good conscience, and whichis itself one of the most powerful of all the moral influences.

On the other hand, the sedentary mechanical employments aremuch less conducive to health, intellectual developement, andgood morals. Besides certain evils peculiar to each, particulardisadvantages belong to them all in common ; 1. Confinement toone position, and consequent defects of muscular action. 2 . The

See above, pp. 349, 350.