Honorable Amongst a democratic people, where there is no hereditary wealth, every man works to earn a living, or has worked, or is born of parents who have worked.

The notion of labor is therefore presented to the mind on every side as the necessary, natural, and honest condition of human existence.

Not only is labor not dishonorable amongst such a people, but it is held in honor: the prejudice is not against it, but in its favor.
In the United States a wealthy man thinks that he owes it to public opinion to devote his leisure to some kind of industrial or commercial pursuit, or to public business.

He would think himself in bad repute if he employed his life solely in living.

It is for the purpose of escaping this obligation to work, that so many rich Americans come to Europe, where they find some scattered remains of aristocratic society, amongst which idleness is still held in honor.
Equality of conditions not only ennobles the notion of labor in men's estimation, but it raises the notion of labor as a source of profit.