Leo Tolstoy

“ A spring does not flow upon the surface, quenching the thirst of animals and filling the ponds, till it has first watered the earth; thus a man, knowing the doctrine of truth, cannot seek to satisfy men's minor needs till he has relieved the greatest want, and has aided to nourish them, and to save them from the death that attends the unequal contest with nature. The man who professes, not only by words but by actions, the doctrines of truth and love, will not deceive himself as to the object of his life. ”

“ 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 with thy feet, thou wilt be filled with a sense of independence, liberty, and strength; thou wilt no longer think of flying, but thou wilt taste, with a pure joy, innocent pleasures of which the world has never given thee the least notion. ”

“ Those who are weak and cannot earn their bread would no longer need to sell their labor, and perhaps their souls, to obtain food.
No one would then, as now, seek to escape from the burden of labor or to throw it on others; nor endeavor to crush the feeble with it, while on the strong they heap all manner of work. We would no longer find men devoting all their intellectual forces to facilitate, not labor for laborers, but idleness for the idle. ”

“ But this is far from being the spirit of the doctrine of Tolstoï and Bondareff. Physical labor is with them the highest duty, the essential character of man, and the true, the only mode of life. Without doubt, one must work to maintain the equilibrium between mind and body, but that is not the motive which led Tolstoï to the plough and the shoemaker's bench. He does not hold strongly the arguments of Jean-Jacques in favor of bodily labor. We must work with our hands because life consists in a battle with nature for the means of existence, and physical labor is the law of life. ”

“ Without doubt, according to Tolstoï, the division of labor exists in human society, but the question is how to render it just. It has made in our day an admirable progress, but, by some unhappy chance, it has aggravated instead of ameliorating the condition of the greatest number, who are the laborers.
How then shall we make a just distribution of labor? To preserve life by a manual labor, common to all, is the first duty; which is to be personally fulfilled, yet in a manner that aids our neighbor also. ”

“ Labor for bread, says Bondareff, renders all men equal, and clips the wings of luxury and covetousness.
One cannot cultivate the ground or dig wells in rich clothing, with white hands, or on delicate food.
By giving themselves up to an occupation that is good and holy for every one, men come nearer to each other. Labor for bread restores intelligence to those who have lost it or have led unworthy lives ”

“ Only he who is willing to deceive himself and others in the moment of dangerous contest with misery will refuse to aid them, and will augment their misfortunes, while pretending to those who are perishing before him that he has other occupations by which he will seek a means to save them.
A true man, one for whom life consists in doing good, could not use such language; and if he made such a response, his conscience would ever reprove the falsehood; he can find no defence for it save in the crafty and diabolical theory of the Division of Labor. ”

“ To put aside our personality and follow the path of renunciation and self-abegnation should be our rule of life. Now, the action in which this idea clothes itself, that in which it takes form, is labor, the secular task that unites all generations of men and makes of the universe a completed harmony, a single being accomplishing a single work. ”

“ Now, the doctrine of truth, as proclaimed by Jesus Christ, is found not in laws, not in commandments, but only in the sense by which we understand life.
It teaches that life and its welfare consist not in personal happiness, as many believe, but in serving God and our neighbor. And this is not a duty to be performed for recompense, it is not a mystical expression of hidden and incomprehensible meaning, but a revelation of the law of life hitherto ignored, a demonstration that life cannot be good if it is not given its highest phase. ”

“ So a man inspired by love will not deceive himself; he will accomplish at once the first duty that his love for mankind points out, in carrying succor to those who suffer, or who are cold or hungry. But to aid the famished and unhappy is to tight hand to hand with nature. ”

“ Let us judge Bondareff's theory as a mere theory. Let us consider what would happen if, following Bondareff's wish, all the clergy should undertake in their sermons to explain this first commandment, and if all men should accept the holy law of labor. What would be the result?
All the world would labor and eat the fruit of their labor, and bread, being an object of necessity, would neither be bought nor sold. What then? No one would die of hunger. If a man could not earn enough for himself and his family, his neighbor would help him. ”

“ Labor for bread is a remedy that saves mankind. If men would recognize this primitive law as divine and immutable, and regard labor for bread as an indispensable duty, all would then be nourished by their own work, be united by the same faith in God and in love for one another, and thus destroy the poverty from which so many suffer. ”

“ Live by the work of your hands, "labor for bread," thus Tolstoï and Bondareff advise those who seek a remedy for social evils, and whose hearts are full of love for humanity and the sentiment of justice. ”

“ Bondareff calls it the primitive law, the first commandment, and places it above all others. He shows that sin and all faults and disloyal actions belong to those only who break it. In his eyes, the principal of humanity's positive duties, the first and incontestable need of each individual, is to work with his hands for bread; he understands by it that each man, by long and painful labor, should preserve himself from dying of cold and hunger, and that he should procure by manual labor food, clothing, warmth, and shelter. ”

“ We are so accustomed to a contrary state of affairs, and to regard wealth, freedom from the need to labor, and high social position as gifts of Heaven, that we do not choose to see how unjust and incomplete it is. ”

“ So the doctrine of Christ and of truth is expressed in these words: Love God, and thy neighbor as thyself.
Christ's direct laws and commandments, and the Judaic and Buddhist precepts, indicate the ways in which the world's temptations turn men from the right way.
Thus, there may be many such laws and precepts, while it needs but one positive rule of life to teach us what to do.
The life of every man consists in following some one aim. Whatever it may be, he tends towards it, as he sees it more or less clearly. Christ has shown us the right way, and how we may be turned aside from it. ”

“ What we find in the verses of Genesis cited by Bondareff, and on which he rests his theory, is this: God said to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face shaft thou eat bread;" and to Eve, "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." [7] But according to Tolstoï it is an error to believe labor is a curse; and to this error he attributes man's efforts to evade the law and to usurp the fruits of others' work. He ceases not to proclaim that labor is not a sorrow but a joy. Neither is motherhood a curse. ”

“ We there find ourselves convinced of the necessity to aid men, not by a theory of division of labor, but by means that are simple, natural, and indispensable. It is the Gospel which teaches us to minister to the sick, the prisoners, and those who perish with cold and hunger.
But we can only do this directly by at once laboring ourselves, for the sick and the famished are still dying for want of aid. ”

“ We shall find in Tolstoï's last philosophic work, What should be done, his ideas on social reform.
Every man should by the work of his hands support himself and his family. Every woman should nourish and educate her own children. To man, according to the Bible, God gave the law of manual labor, to woman that of motherhood. To violate these laws is death. But while to man disobedience to his own duty would be followed by speedy death, for woman the punishment comes more slowly. ”

“ The only remedy is in an individual moral reform, based upon charity and manual labor. Humanity can change only with the individual's reform. The whole social question is one of morality. To an honest man social reform must come from within. If each of us should avoid sin and cultivate fraternity and Christian charity, there would soon be no need of soldiers, constables, or judges.
Does not this offer an original and powerful incentive to reform society and to save the human race? Is not the reform that Tolstoï advocates possible? ”

“ Man no longer openly avails himself of the labor of others without form of recompense. To-day exists another phase of violence: the rich, profiting by the needs of the poor, still enslave them effectually. ”

“ We have more than eighty feast-days in the year, while working for bread only requires, according to Bondareff's calculation, about forty days.
How extraordinary it seems, at first glance, that a means so simple, so easy to be understood by all the world, and requiring neither skill nor science to accomplish it, should be able to save humanity from all terrestrial evils, no matter how numerous they may be! ”

“ 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. ”

“ But for a long time men have disregarded the law of labor. For a long time certain classes have oppressed others, and at this day the breaking of the law is pushed to the verge of folly. Do we not see Renan and others filled with the vain dream that one day machinery will accomplish all sorts of labor, while men will become but "bundles of enjoying nerves"? ”

“ Consequent upon this theory of labor is the belief in the possibility of a paradise in this world, and also a contempt for mere industrial work, the condemnation of commerce, and a hatred of cities, which he calls "truly impure Babylons." We must, says Tolstoï, abandon the cities where there are but consumers and not producers, and renounce those habits of city life which, far from constituting progress, are but the worst forms of corruption. ”

“ Whether it results for good or for ill, this is the decree of God, or the law of nature which created man and the world. The situation of man in the world, as we know it, is such that, being naked, without shelter, and unable to find his food in the fields,—like Robinson Crusoe on his island,—he is under the necessity of contending always with nature for food, clothing, and shelter. ”

“ All human misfortunes, direct violence excepted, result on the one hand from hunger and privation of all sorts, and from discouragement in labor, and on the other from riches, idleness, and the vices they engender. ”

“ But, according to Bondareff, the time is coming when all men will be equal, and one cannot profit by the need of another, or through his suffering from hunger or cold succeed in enslaving him. Man, admitting that labor for bread is a law imposed on all, will consider it a strict duty not to permit the sale of bread (that is, articles of actual necessity) , but will nourish, clothe, and care for each other. ”

“ It shows to the Christian one of the oldest and most criminal temptations that have assailed mankind. Against this temptation, that is so fatal in its consequences, and which we recognize with difficulty as deceitful and contrary to human nature, Bondareff's book is directed. His words are as obligatory to the believer in the Old Testament as to him who accepts the Gospel, to the man who rejects Scripture and relies on his own reason, as to him who comprehends the doctrine of truth. ”

“ Again, in adopting this theory of manual labor, the problem of pauperism will be readily solved; we need but to scatter the poor of the cities among the peasants of the country. How, asks Tolstoï, can we leave the village, where we are surrounded by fields, by forests, by grain and herds of cattle, in a word by all the riches of the earth, to seek nourishment where only dust and stones are to be found? ”

“ The principal reason for presenting to the world a translation of Labor is that it possesses great value, not only as showing Tolstoï's own views, but as displaying the great intelligence belonging to the reform that he advocated. Bondareff's work is the simple but profound effort of an uneducated peasant, who stammeringly proclaimed in 1881 the great reform of which Tolstoï subsequently became the champion and herald. ”

“ Tolstoï adds that if there were one, two, three, or ten men, who, without entering upon any personal conflict, without troubling the government, or resorting to revolutionary violence, should solve for themselves this great question which divides the world, it would result in other men's seeing true happiness within their reach; and the hitherto irreconcilable antipathies between conscience and the organization of society would be settled by physical labor. ”