Page:Tolstoy - Essays and Letters.djvu/20

 4 because it is supposed to have been said by God to Adam, but because it is true; it states one of the indubitable laws of human life. The law of gravity is not true because it was stated by Newton; but I know of Newton, and am grateful to him, because he showed an eternal law which explains to me a whole series of facts.

It is the same with the law: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.' That is a law which explains to me a whole series of facts. And having once known it, I cannot forget it, and am grateful to him who revealed it to me.

This law seems very simple and familiar, but that is only apparently so; and to convince one's self of that fact we need only look around us. Not only do people not acknowledge this law, but they acknowledge the very reverse of it. People's belief leads them (from King to beggar) to strive, not to fulfil that law but to avoid fulfilling it. Bóndaref 's book is devoted to explaining the permanence and immutability of that law, and the inevitable sufferings that flow from its neglect.

Bóndaref calls that law the 'first-born' and chief of all laws.

Bóndaref demonstrates that sins—i.e., mistakes, false actions—result solely from the violation of this law. Of all the definite duties of man, Bóndaref considers that the chief, primary, and most immutable for every man, is to earn his bread with his own hands, understanding by bread-labour all heavy rough work necessary to save man from death by hunger and cold, and by 'bread' food, drink, clothes, shelter, and fuel.

Bóndaref's fundamental thought is that this law—that to live man must work—heretofore acknowledged as inevitable, should be acknowledged as being a beneficent law of life, obligatory on everyone.

This law should be acknowledged as a religious law, like keeping the Sabbath or being circumcised among the Jews, like receiving the Sacrament or fasting among Church Christians, like praying five times a day among