Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/97

Rh and the dog? And what peace between the rich and the poor?

"As the proud hate humility, so doth the rich abhor the poor." (Ecclesiasticus xiii. 18–20.)

Whose is the fault? It is the rich man's, not the poor laborer's.

I ask you again, and still more loudly, not to forget that I who stand on the threshold of the rich man's palace, like Lazarus, address myself, in the name of all laborers, to the higher classes, and not only to the reader.

91. They say: We accomplish ten times more work than the laborer. Can we, then, be regarded as sluggards?

On festivals the laborer works, while the rich man rests on his couch, serving neither himself, his neighbor, nor God. They say then, the idle man does his duty, while the laborer commits a crime, in breaking the fourth commandment.

Is not that the position we occupy?

During 330 days in the year do what you will; occupy yourself as it shall please you; but during 35 days, at different times in the year, every man should labor for bread.

92. But why do I speak at such length, when a few words ought to suffice? It is because I must oppose a solid barrier to the subterfuges behind which you entrench yourselves; and for that, I must reply fully to your many arguments.

Can it be because there is neither a past nor