Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/102

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98
Labour.

dition with us, will no longer seek to avoid this labor, but will turn to it eagerly.

100. Let us speak now, reader, of these three classes of men: the Jew, the Gipsy, and the educated European, who, like the others, eats the bread of another's labor. Which is most displeasing to God and man?

It is certainly the European, for we cannot consider the Gipsy, who is but a half-savage. As for the Jew, he was once master of the world, and compelled every one to labor for him; but this is no longer so. To-day the Jew has gone from the head to the foot, and the European from the foot to the head, and, like the first mentioned, he also eats the bread of another's labor.

I ask, which of these three is most displeasing to God and man?

101. I know the reader will say: Can I compare myself to a Jew or a Gipsy? I who live by the truth, and they by falsehood and deceit?—Yes, if you have the body of an angel and not that of a man. But when you eat the bread of another's labor, there is not in this food a particle of truth. It is but two hours since you have eaten, and you are thinking of again stretching out your hand towards the tree of life, to take the forbidden bread. How can you, then, boast that you live by the truth?

102. From all the preceding arguments, we may conclude that there is nothing in the world more evil and infamous than to eat the bread of