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An Address

while they employed their leisure hours in a
thousand manual industries, so as to put to profit
the inventive genius which nature had bestowed
upon them. In winter especially, when the deep
snow interrupted their easy intercommunication,
every householder shut himself and his numerous
family within his well-warmed house of wood,
built by his own labour, where they occupied
themselves in all manner of useful handicraft,
a perpetual employment that gave interest to
their lives, and secured them many comforts
through their earnings. Never did any professional
 upholsterer, smith, or plumber visit their
canton ; there was no trade that they could not
themselves ply, nor was there a bit of furniture
in the home that was not the work of their own
hands. Among many industries they specially
brought watch-making to perfection, and some
of their produce was sold even in the shops of
Paris.” Then he tells us how they had plenty of
books ; all knew something of drawing or painting,
 or mathematics, Most of them played on
some musical instrument ; and their instruction
in these things was traditional and mutual. One