Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/142

138 his talent. During all these past ages, we, the laborers, have not perceived our loss. Amid the innumerable cares of life, we have overlooked it, and it is only to-day that we think of it. The thief is now discovered; we have found the guilty one, and have unveiled his crime before the entire universe. What do you desire? they ask me. Give up the treasure that God has given thee? No, I will guard it well! The prey which the wolf holds in his teeth, says the proverb, was given him by Jégor (Georges). What! you preach in every tone of love for others, and you commit like crimes yourself! And why? My question is worth answering.

If love reigned in the world, would twenty-four millions of men be placed under the authority of lords, as it is this day among us, and as it has been for a long time? If love reigned in the world, would the fertile earth have been given forever to sluggards, whilst men, and still worse, infants, are each day in danger of dying for want of food? But these lords, these masters of the earth which they have appropriated since the creation of the world (thence has come the word "property"), sell it to others at a great price, and then throw away the money at cards, or spend it in unheard-of caprices. Such is the depth of their love for others!

The sixth day God said: "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." But the greater