derstands the nature of things,
it will acknowledge that this man subsists on services which he receives
certainly (as we all do), but which he lawfully receives in exchange for
other services, which he himself has rendered, that he continues to
render, and which are quite real, inasmuch as they are freely and
voluntarily accepted.

And here we have a glimpse of one of the finest harmonies in the social
world. I allude to _leisure_: not that leisure that the warlike and
tyrannical classes arrange for themselves by the plunder of the workers,
but that leisure which is the lawful and innocent fruit of past activity
and economy. In expressing myself thus, I know that I shall shock many
received ideas. But see! Is not leisure an essential spring in the
social machine? Without it, the world would never have had a Newton, a
Pascal, a Fenelon; mankind would have been ignorant of all arts,
sciences, and of those wonderful inventions, prepared originally by
investigations of mere curiosity; thought would have been inert--man
would have made no progress. On the other hand, if leisure could only be
explained by plunder and oppression--if it were a benefit which could
only be enjoyed unjustly, and at the expense of others, there would be
no middle path between these two evils; either mankind would be reduced
to the necessity of stagnating in a vegetable and stationary life, in
eternal ignorance, from the absence of wheels to its machine--or else it
would have to acquire these wheels at the price of inevitable injustice,
and would necessarily present the sad spectacle, in one form or other,
of the antique classification of human beings into Masters and Slaves. I
defy any one to show me, in this case, any other alternative. We should
be compelled to contemplate the Divine plan which governs society, with
the regret of thinking that it presents a deplorable chasm. The stimulus
of progress would be forgotten, or, which is worse, this stimulus would
be no other than injustice itself. But, no! God has not left such a
chasm in his work of love. We must take care not to disregard his
wisdom and power; for those whose imperfect meditations cannot explain
the lawfulness of leisure, are very much like the astronomer who said,
at a certain point in the heavens there ought to exist a planet which
will be at last discovered, for without it the celestial world is not
harmony, but discord.

Well, I say that, if well understood, the history of my