Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/34

30 by fools with the wheels in the air, turned it over and replaced it on its wheels. It then went smoothly.

The life we lead in scorning labor, and in trying to reform it contrary to nature, is as this upset carriage with the wheels in the air. And all our efforts will be vain till we place the carriage in its proper position, and ourselves in ours.

This is Bondareff's doctrine, in which I entirely believe.

Let me further explain his notion.

There was once a time when men devoured each other. The idea of equality gradually developed among them, however, so that this state of affairs did not continue. Thus cannibalism was abandoned.

Then followed a period in which they made slaves of their fellow-beings, and possessed themselves of the fruits of their labor. But in time human consciences became too enlightened for this, and slavery was abolished.

While these gross forms of tyranny have now disappeared, its spirit is still existing beneath hypocritical deceptions. Man no longer openly avails himself of the labor of others without form of recompense. To-day exists another phase of violence: the rich, profiting by the needs of the poor, still enslave them effectually.

But, according to Bondareff, the time is coming when all men will be equal, and one cannot profit by the need of another, or through his