Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/10

6 other, which is by Bondareff, and is entitled Labor, by the peasant Bondareff.

Labor is composed of three principal chapters, which we have entitled:

I. Introduction. Life of Bondareff. Object of his work.

II. Labor according to the Bible.

III. Appendices. Love and Labor. Bondareff's Will. Bondareff is a peasant of the district of Manoussinsk. He belongs to that class, so numerous in Russia, which seeks for truth in holy books. But while many know only the Gospels, Bondareff, who belongs to the sect of Sabbatists, read the whole Bible. Scarcely able to spell, he puzzled out each verse, believing from the outset to have discovered here the solution of all social questions. He found formulated in Genesis the essential law for man in the obligation of manual labor. Persuaded that salvation depends on labor, he learned to write that he might make known what he considered to be the truth of truths. At the age of sixty-five years he composed an essay in which, under the form of biblical verses, he undertook to show that tilling the earth is the highest of all labors. He overcame all the difficulties arising from his ignorance and his advanced age. Working all day in the fields, and devoting the hours of night to his writing, he accomplished after several years the project he had conceived. But the manuscript sent to the