Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/50

46 instead of being treated with extreme contempt?

To state these questions ought to be enough. But as you contemn manual labor in every way, I must write at greater length, on the subject.

To conclude, I pray you, reader, not to eat for two days before judging my book.

The human race is divided into two classes: one is noble and honored, the other humble and despised. Those belonging to the first are richly clothed, possessing tables well furnished with exquisite dishes, and they are majestically seated in places of honor; but those belonging to the second are covered with rags, their strength exhausted by poor food and hard work, and they have an air of sorrowful humility, as they remain standing on the threshold: these are the poor laborers.

The truth of my words is confirmed by the parable in the Gospel. "There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores." (St. Luke xvi. 19–21)

Well! I will speak to my companions, the laborers who stand on the threshold: Why do