Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/44

40 Whoever thou art, whatever may be thy qualities, however good thou art, in whatever condition thou art placed, canst thou take tranquilly thy tea and eat thy dinner, canst thou occupy thyself with politics, fine arts, science, medicine, or teaching, when thou seest and hearest the man who is lying at thy door sick and starving? No! But thou wilt say, they are not always there at my door. It maybe so; but they are perhaps but a short distance away from thy house, and thou knowest it. Then thou canst not live tranquilly; whatever may be thy joy, it is poisoned by this knowledge. Not to see those who are miserable, thou mayest barricade thy doors, and drive them afar off, or fly thyself to a retreat where there may be no danger of finding them. But they are everywhere. And if thou couldst find a place where thou canst not see them, canst thou escape thine own conscience? What then is to be done?

Thou knowest, and Bondareff's book proves it, that thou must descend into the depths, or what appear to thee to be the depths, but which are really the heights. Join thyself to those who feed the hungry and shelter them from the cold. Fear nothing. Far from being worse, thy new estate will be better than that which preceded it. Place thyself on the level of others; undertake, with thy feeble and unaccustomed hands, the work of nourishing and clothing the needy; labor for bread, contend with nature, and for the first time thou wilt feel the ground firmly