Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/151

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God could, I grant, nourish man without having need of bread or of the laborer; but to do that, he would be obliged to change all the plan of the world, and to withdraw the decree he pronounced when creating the heavens and the earth. He must destroy his creation, because its laws would no longer have any value. But for whom should he do this? For the sluggards? No, no! I repeat, God, bread, and the laborer form the true and indivisible trinity which saves us from death.

It is for me to ask whether or no a thing is useful for the common good; and it is for you to answer me or not, as you will. Why, then, I ask you, do you treat the laborer as an imbecile, an idiot, or a fool, and scorn the greatness of his merits who eats the bread of his own labor, and preserves from famishing other men as well as the animals? We are fools, I admit, fools in all the force of the term. But it is this: the more we are instructed, so much the more we make progress; but we cannot attain the limit of progress which is perfection. During this life man cannot reach the limit of science, but after death he will at once attain perfection.

And further, the more a man is educated, the better he perceives his intellectual defects. Since, then, you look down upon the man who niurishes himself by his labor, as well as his fellow-creatures, and also the animals, what, I pray you, will you call him who, far from nourishing