Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/19

Rh should be our rule of life. Now, the action in which this idea clothes itself, that in which it takes form, is labor, the secular task that unites all generations of men and makes of the universe a completed harmony, a single being accomplishing a single work.

Consequent upon this theory of labor is the belief in the possibility of a paradise in this world, and also a contempt for mere industrial work, the condemnation of commerce, and a hatred of cities, which he calls "truly impure Babylons." We must, says Tolstoï, abandon the cities where there are but consumers and not producers, and renounce those habits of city life which, far from constituting progress, are but the worst forms of corruption.

Again, in adopting this theory of manual labor, the problem of pauperism will be readily solved; we need but to scatter the poor of the cities among the peasants of the country. How, asks Tolstoï, can we leave the village, where we are surrounded by fields, by forests, by grain and herds of cattle, in a word by all the riches of the earth, to seek nourishment where only dust and stones are to be found?

Live by the work of your hands, "labor for bread," thus Tolstoï and Bondareff advise those who seek a remedy for social evils, and whose