290
674. Is the necessity of labour a law of nature?
"That labour is a law of nature, and is proved by the fact that it is a necessity, and that civilisation obliges man to perform a greater amount of labour, because it increases the sum of his needs and of his enjoyments."
675. Ought we to understand by “labour” only occupations of a material nature?
"No; the spirit labours like the body. Every sort of useful occupation is a labour."
676. Why is labour imposed upon mankind?
"It is a consequence of his corporeal nature. It is an expiation, and, at the same time, a means of developing his intelligence. Without labour man would remain in the infancy of intelligence. This is why he is made to owe his food, his safety, and his well-being entirely to his labour and activity. To him who is too weak in body for the rougher kinds of work, God gives intelligence to make up for it; but the action of the intelligence is also a labour."
677. Why does nature herself provide for all the wants of the animals?
"Everything in nature labours. The animals labour as really as you do, but their work, like their intelligence, is limited to the care of their own preservation; and this is why labour, among them, does not lead to progress, while, among men, it has a double aim, viz., the preservation of the body, and the development of thought, which is also a necessity for him, and which raises him continually to a higher level. When I say that the labour of the animals is limited to the care of their preservation, I mean that this is the aim which they propose to themselves in working. But
291
they are also, unconsciously, and while providing only for their material needs, agents that second the views of the Creator; and their labour none the less concurs to the working out of the final end of nature, although you often fail to discover its immediate result."
678. In worlds more advanced than the earth, is man subjected to the same necessity of labour?
"The nature of the labour is always relative to that of the wants it supplies; the less material are those wants, the less material is the labour. But you must not suppose that man, in those worlds, remains inactive and useless; idleness would be a torture instead of a benefit."
679. Is he who possesses a sufficiency of worldly goods for his subsistence enfranchised from the law of labour?
"From material labour perhaps, but not from the obligation of rendering himself useful according to his means, and of developing his own intelligence and that of others, which is also a labour. If the man, to whom God has apportioned a sufficiency of means for insuring his corporeal existence, be not constrained to win his bread by the sweat of his brow, the obligation of being useful to his fellow-creatures is all the greater in his case, because the portion appointed to him gives him a greater amount of leisure for doing good."
680. Are there not men who are incapable of working at anything whatever, and whose existence is entirely useless?
"God is just; He condemns only him who is voluntarily useless; for such an one lives upon the labour of others. He wills that each should make himself useful according to his faculties. (643)
681. Does the law of nature impose upon children the obligation of labouring for their parents?
"Certainly it does, just as it imposes on parents the duty of labouring for their children. For this reason God has given a place in nature to the sentiment of filial and paternal affection, in order that the members of a family may be led, by their mutual affection, to aid each other reciprocally - a duty which is too often lost sight of in your present state of society."
682. Rest being a necessity after labour, is it not a law of nature?
292
"Undoubtedly it is. Rest serves to restore the bodily powers and is also necessary in order to give a little more freedom to the mind, enabling it to raise itself above matter."
683. What is the limit of labour?
"The limit of strength; but God leaves man at liberty to decide this point for himself."
684. What is to be thought of those who misuse their authority by imposing too heavy a labour on their inferiors?
"They commit one of the worst of crimes. Every man exercising authority is answerable for any excess of labour imposed by him on those who are under his orders, for he thereby transgresses the law of God." (273)
685. Has man a right to repose in old age?
"Yes; he is only obliged to labour according to his strength."
- But what resource is there for the old man who needs to work in order to support himself, and yet is unable to do so?
"The strong should work for the weak; where family-help is not to be had, society should supply its place. Such is the law of charity."
To say that it is necessary for man to work is not to make a complete statement of the subject for it is also necessary that he who has to get his bread by labour should be able to find occupation, and this is far from being always the case, whenever the suspension of labour becomes general, it assumes the proportions of a famine. Economic science seeks a remedy for this evil in the equilibrium of production and consumption: but this equilibrium, supposing it to be attainable, will always be subject to intermittences, and during these intervals the labourer must live. There is an element of the question which has not been sufficiently considered. viz., education, not merely the education of the intellect, not even that of the moral nature as given by books, but that which consists in the formation, of characters and habits; for education is the totality of the habits acquired. When we consider how great a mass of individuals are thrown each day into the torrent of population, abandoned, without principles or curb, to the impulsions of their animal instincts, can we wonder at the disastrous consequences thence resulting?
When the art of education shall be rightly understood and practised, each man will bring into the sphere of daily life habits of order and forethought for himself and for those dependent on him, and of respect for what is worthy of being respected; and these habits will enable him to traverse periods of difficulty with greater ease. Disorder and improvidence are social sores that can only be cured by education rightly understood; the generalisation of such education is the starting-point and essential element of social well-being, the only pledge of security for all.