ated from poor
people, that I was doing precisely that which was done by some landed
proprietors who made some of their serfs wait on others. I saw that
every use of money, whether for making purchases, or for giving away
without an equivalent to another, is handing over a note for extortion
from the poor, or its transfer to another man for extortion from the
poor. I saw that money in itself was not only not good, but evidently
evil, and that it deprives us of our highest good,--labor, and thereby of
the enjoyment of our labor, and that that blessing I was not in a
position to confer on any one, because I was myself deprived of it: I do
not work, and I take no pleasure in making use of the labor of others.

It would appear that there is something peculiar in this abstract
argument as to the nature of money. But this argument which I have made
not for the sake of argument, but for the solution of the problem of my
life, of my sufferings, was for me an answer to my question: What is to
be done?

As soon as I grasped the meaning of riches, and of money, it not only
became clear and indisputable to me, what I ought to do, but also clear
and indisputable what others ought to do, because they would infallibly
do it. I had only actually come to understand what I had known for a
long time previously, the theory which was given to men from the very
earliest times, both by Buddha, and Isaiah, and Lao-Tze, and Socrates,
and in a peculiarly clear and indisputable manner by Jesus Christ and his
forerunner, John the Baptist. John the Baptist, in answer to the
question of the people,--What were they to do? replied simply, briefly,
and clearly: "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath
none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise" (Luke iii. 10, 11). In
a similar manner, but with even greater clearness, and on many occasions,
Christ spoke. He said: "Blessed are the poor, and woe to the rich." He
said that it is impossible to serve God and mammon. He forbade his
disciples to take not only money, but also two garments. He said to the
rich young man, that he could not enter into the kingdom of heaven
because he was rich, and that it was easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. He
said that he who should not leave every thing, houses and children and
lands, and follow him, could not be his disciple. He told the parable of
the rich man who did noth