Page:Anti-slavery and reform papers by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/125

 114 Anti- Slavery and Reform Papers.

power is incalculable; it is many horse-power. It never ceases, it never slacks ; it can move the globe without a resting-place ; it can warm without fire ; it can feed with- out meat; it can clothe without garments ; it can shelter without roof; it can make a paradise within which will dispense with a paradise without. But though the wisest men in all ages have labored to publish this force, and every human heart is^ sooner or later, more or less, made to feel it, yet how little is actually applied to social ends.

True, it is the motive-power of all successful social ma- chinery ; but, as in physics we have made the elements do only a little drudgery for us, steam to take the place of a few horses, wind of a few oars, water of a few cranks and hand-mills; as the mechanical forces have not yet been generously and largely applied to make the physical world answer to the ideal, so the power of love has been but meanly and sparingly applied, as yet. It has patented only such machines as the almshouse, the hos- pital, and the Bible Society, while its infinite wind is still blowing, and blowing down these very structures too, from time to time. Still less are we accumulating its power, and preparing to act with greater energy at a future time. Shall we not contribute our shares to this enterprise, then ?