Chapter 100

28Supra,i. 526sqq.

29Supra,i. 634sqq.

30Cranz,op. cit.i. 186.

31Yakof, quoted by Petroff,Report on Alaska, p. 158.

32Batchelor,Ainu of Japan, p. 111.

33Smeaton,Loyal Karens of Burma, p. 255.

34Taylor,Te Ika a Maui, p. 293. See also Johnston,Maoria, p. 43.

35Clemes, ‘Malagasy Proverbs,’ inAntananarivo Annual, iv. 29.

36Casalis,Basutos, p. 310.

37Burchell,Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, ii. 557.

38Tristram,The Great Sahara, p. 207sq.

But instead of being regarded as a duty, industrial activity is not infrequently looked down upon as disreputable for a free man. This is especially the case among warlike nations, nomadic tribes, and peoples who have many slaves. In Uganda, for instance, the prevalence of slavery “causes all manual labour to be looked upon as derogatory to the dignity of a free man.”39TheMasai40and Matabele41consider that the only occupation which becomes a man is warfare. The Arabs of the desert hold labour humiliating to anybody but a slave.42Speaking of the Turkomans, Vámbéry observes that “in his domestic circle, the nomad presents us a picture of the most absolute indolence. In his eyes it is the greatest shame for a man to apply his hand to any domestic occupation.”43The Chippewas “have ever looked upon agricultural and mechanical labours as degrading,” and “have regarded the use of the bow and arrow, the war-club and spear, as the noblest employments of man.”44Among the Iroquois “the warrior despised the toil of husbandry, and held all labour beneath him.”45Though an industrious race, the Maoris considered it more honourable, as well as more desirable, to acquire property by war and plunder than by labour.46Among the Line Islanders it is undignified for a landholder to do work of any kind, except to make weapons, hence he employs persons of the lower class to work for him.47In Nukahiva the people of distinction “suffer the nails on the fingers to grow very long, that it may be evident they are not accustomed to hard labour.”48This contempt for industrial activity is easy to explain. A man who earns his livelihood by labour is considered to be lacking in those qualities which are alone admired—courage and strength;—or work is associated with the idea of servile subjection. It is also universally held degrading for a man to engage in any occupation which belongs to the women.49Thus among hunting and pastoral peoples it would be quite out of place for him to supply the household with vegetable food.50On the other hand, when agriculture became anindispensable means to maintenance of life it at the same time became respectable. But trade was scorned, probably, as Mr. Spencer suggests, because it was carried on chiefly by unsettled persons, who were detached, untrustworthy members of a community in which most men had fixed positions.51The Kandhs “consider it beneath their dignity to barter or traffic, and …. regard as base and plebeian all who are not either warriors or tillers of the soil.”52The Javans “have a contempt for trade, and those of higher rank esteem it disgraceful to be engaged in it; but the common people are ever ready to engage in the labours of agriculture, and the chiefs to honour and encourage agricultural industry.”53

39Wilson and Felkin,op. cit.i. 186.

40Merker,Die Masai, p. 117.

41Holub, ‘Die Ma-Atabele,’ inZeitschr. f. Ethnol.xxv. 198.

42Burton,Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, ii. 10.

43Vámbéry,Travels in Central Asia, p. 320.

44Schoolcraft,Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, v. 150.

45Morgan,League of the Iroquois, p. 329.

46Travers, ‘Life and Times of Te Rauparaha,’ inTrans. New Zealand Inst.v. 29.

47Tutuila, ‘Line Islanders,’ inJour. Polynesian Soc.i. 266.

48von Langsdorf,Voyages and Travels, i. 174.

49Supra,i. 636sq.

50Supra,i. 634.

51Spencer,Principles of Ethics, i. 429.

52Campbell,Wild Tribes of Khondistan, p. 50.

53Raffles,op. cit.i. 246sq.

Progress in civilisation implies an increase of industry. Both the necessities and the comforts of life grow more numerous; hence more labour is required to provide for them, and at the same time there is more inducement to accumulate wealth. The advantages, both private and public, accruing from diligence are more clearly recognised, and the government, in particular, is anxious that the people should work so as to be able to pay their taxes. All this leads to condemnation of idleness and approbation of industry; and the influence of habit must operate in the same direction among a nation whose industrial propensities have been the cause of its civilisation. But in the archaic State war is still regarded as a nobler occupation than labour; and whilst agriculture is held in honour, trade and handicraft are frequently despised.

In the kingdom of the Peruvian Incas there was a law that no one should be idle. “Children of five years old were employed at very light work, suitable to their age. Even the blind and lame, if they had no other infirmity, were provided with certain kinds of work. The rest of the people, while they were healthy, were occupied each at his own labour, and it was a most infamous and degradingthing among these people to be chastised in public for idleness.”54If any of them was slothful, or slept in the day, he was whipped or had to carry the stone.55The reason for these measures was that the whole duty of defraying the expenses of the government belonged to the people, and that, without money and with little property, they paid their taxes in labour; hence to be idle was, in a manner, to rob the exchequer.56

54Blas Valera, quoted by Garcilasso de la Vega,First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, ii. 34. See alsoibid.ii. 14; Acosta,Natural and Moral History of the Indies, ii. 413.

55Herrera,General History of the West Indies, iv. 339.

56Prescott,History of the Conquest of Peru, i. 57.

One of the characteristics of Zoroastrianism is its appreciation of labour.57The faithful man must be vigilant, alert, and active; sleep itself is merely a concession to the demons, and should therefore be kept within the limits of necessity.58The lazy man is the most unworthy of men, because he eats his food through impropriety and injustice.59And of all kinds of labour the most necessary is husbandry.60Man has been placed upon earth to preserve Ahura Mazda’s good creation, and this can only be done by careful tilling of the soil, eradication of thorns and weeds, and reclamation of the tracks over which Angra Mainyu has spread the curse of barrenness. Zoroaster asked, “What is the food that fills the Religion of Mazda?” and Ahura Mazda answered, “It is sowing corn again and again, O Spitama Zarathustra! He who sows corn sows righteousness.”61According to Xenophon, the king of the Persians considered the art of agriculture and that of war to be the most honourable and necessary occupations, and paid the greatest attention to both.62He appointed officers to overlook the tillers of the ground, as well as to collect tribute from them; for “those whocultivate the ground inefficiently will neither maintain the garrisons, nor be able to pay their tribute.”63

57See Darmesteter, inSacred Books of the East, iv. p. lxvii.; Geiger,Civilization of the Eastern Irānians, i. 70; Rawlinson,Religions of the Ancient World, p. 108;Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad, ii. 29, xxxvi. 15, xxxvii. 14, &c.

58Vendîdâd, xviii. 16.

59Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad, xxi. 27.

60SeeVendîdâd, iii. 23sqq.

61Ibid.iii. 30sq.

62Xenophon,Œconomicus, iv. 4, 8sqq.

63Xenophon,Œconomicus, iv. 9, 11.

In his description of ancient Egypt Herodotus tells us that one of its kings made a law to the effect that every Egyptian should annually declare to the governor of his district by what means he maintained himself, and that, if he failed to do this, or did not show that he lived by honest means, he should be punished with death.64Whether this statement be correct or not,65it seems certain that the Egyptians were anxious to encourage industry.66An ostracon which has often been quoted contains the maxim, “Do not spare thy body whilst thou art young, for food cometh by the arms and provisions by the legs.”67

64Herodotus, ii. 177.Cf.Diodorus Siculus,Bibliotheca historica, i. 77. 5.

65Cf.Wiedemann,Herodots zweites Buch, p. 605.

66See Amélineau,Essai sur l’évolution des idées morales dans l’Égypte Ancienne, p. 329.

67Gardiner, ‘Egyptian Ethics,’ in Hastings’Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, v. 484.

A law against idleness resembling that which is reported to have existed in Egypt was established at Athens, according to some writers by Draco or Pisistratus,68according to others by Solon, who is said to have borrowed it from the Egyptians.69Plutarch states that, as the city was filled with persons who assembled from all parts on account of the great security which prevailed in Attica and the country withal was poor and barren, Solon turned the attention of the citizens to manufactures. For this purpose he ordered that trades should be accounted honourable, that the council of the Areopagus should examine into every man’s means of subsisting and chastise the idle, and that no son should be obliged to maintain his father if the father had not taught him a trade.70Thucydides puts the following words in the mouth of Pericles:—“To avow poverty with us is no disgrace; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it. An Athenian citizen does not neglect the State because he takes care of his own household;and even those of us who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of politics.”71In Xenophon’s ‘Memorabilia’ Socrates recommends industry as a means of supporting life, of maintaining the health and strength of the body, of promoting temperance and honesty.72According to Plato idleness is the mother of wantonness, whereas by labour the aliment of passion is diverted into other parts of the body.73Agriculture was highly praised. It is the best of all the occupations and arts by which men procure the means of living.74Where it flourishes all other pursuits are in full vigour, but when the ground is allowed to lie barren other occupations are almost stopped.75It is an exercise for the body, and strengthens it for discharging the duties that become a man of honourable birth.76It requires people to accustom themselves to endure the colds of winter and the heats of summer.77It renders them fit for running, throwing, leaping.78It gives them the greatest gratification for their labour, it is the most attractive of all employments.79It receives strangers with the richest hospitality.80It offers the most pleasing first-fruits to the gods, and the richest banquets on festival days.81It teaches men justice, for it is those who treat the earth best that she recompenses with the most numerous benefits.82It instructs people to assist one another, for it cannot be conducted without the aid of other men.83It does not give such constant occupation to a person’s mind as to prevent him from attending to the interests of his friends or his native land.84The possession of an estate stimulates men to defend their country in arms.85In short, agriculture renders citizens most useful, most virtuous, and best affected towards the commonwealth.86

68Pollux,Onomasticum, viii. 42. Diogenes Laertius,Vitæ philosophorum, i. 55. Plutarch,Solon, xxxi. 6.

69Herodotus, ii. 177. Diodorus Siculus, i. 77. 5.

70Plutarch,Solon, xxii. 1, 3sq.

71Thucydides,Historia belli Peloponnesiaci, ii. 40. 1sq.

72Xenophon,Memorabilia, ii. 7. 7sq.

73Plato,Leges, viii. 835, 841.

74Xenophon,Œconomicus, vi. 8.

75Ibid.v. 17.

76Ibid.v. 1; vi. 9.

77Ibid.v. 4.

78Ibid.v. 8.

79Ibid.v. 8, 11.

80Ibid.v. 8.

81Ibid.v. 10.

82Ibid.v. 12.

83Ibid.v. 14.

84Ibid.vi. 9.

85Ibid.v. 7.

86Ibid.vi. 10.

The argumentative manner in which these views were expressed by the philosophers indicates, however, that industrial occupations were deficient in public appreciation.87Herodotus says that not only among most barbarians but also throughout Greece those who are given wholly to war are honoured above others.88This was especially the case at Sparta, where a freeman was forbidden to engage in any industrial occupation.89Contrasting Lycurgus’ legislation with that of Solon, Plutarch observes that in a state where the earth was sufficient to support twice the number of inhabitants and where there were a multitude of Helots to be worn out by servitude, it was right to set the citizens free from laborious and mechanic arts and to employ them in arms as the only art fit for them to learn and exercise.90At Thebes there was a law that no man could hold office who had not retired from business for ten years, because it was looked upon as a mean employment.91Even at Athens, in spite of its democratic institutions and its laws against idleness, trade and handicrafts were despised, both by the general public and by the philosophers. Xenophon’s Socrates said that the industrial arts are objectionable and justly held in little repute in communities, because they weaken the bodies of those who work at them by compelling them to sit and to live indoors and in some cases to pass whole days by the fire; for when the body becomes effeminate the mind loses its strength.92Moreover, mechanical occupations leave those who practise them no leisure to attend to the interests of their friends or the commonwealth, hence men of that class seem unsuited alike to be of advantage to their connections and to be defenders of their country.93Plato maintains that manual arts are a reproach because they “imply a natural weakness of the higher principle”;94bytheir meanness they maim and disfigure the souls as well as the bodies of those who are employed in them.95When Hesiod said that “work is no disgrace,”96he could certainly not have meant that there was no disgrace for example in the manufacture of shoes or in selling pickles.97And in his ‘Laws’ Plato lays down the regulation that no citizen or servant of a citizen should be occupied in handicraft arts; “for he who is to secure and preserve the public order of the State has an art which requires much study and many kinds of knowledge, and does not admit of being made a secondary occupation.”98Aristotle, again, observes that in a community which has an aristocratic form of government the mechanic and the labourer will not be citizens, because honours are there given according to virtue and merit, and “no man can practise virtue who is living the life of a mechanic or labourer.”99Corinth was the place in Greece where the mechanic’s occupation was least despised100—no doubt because its situation naturally led to extensive trade and thence to that splendour of living by which the useful and ornamental arts are most encouraged.101

87Cf.Schmidt,Die Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 435sqq.

88Herodotus, ii. 167.

89Ibid.ii. 167. Xenophon,Lacedæmoniorum respublica, vii. 2. Plutarch,Lycurgus, xxiv. 2.Idem,Agesilaus, xxvi. 6. Aelian,Varia historia, vi. 6.

90Plutarch,Solon, xxii. 2.

91Aristotle,Politica, iii. 5. 7, p. 1278 a; vi. 7. 4, p. 1321 a.

92Xenophon,Œconomicus, iv. 2.

93Ibid.iv. 3.

94Plato,Respublica, ix. 590.

95Ibid.vi. 495.

96Hesiod,Opera et dies, 311.

97Plato,Charmides, p. 163.

98Idem,Leges, viii. 846.

99Aristotle,Politica, iii. 5. 5, p. 1278 a. See alsoibid.vi. 4. 12, p. 1319 a; vii. 8. 3, p. 1328 b; viii. 2. 4sq.p. 1337 b.

100Herodotus, ii. 167.

101See Rawlinson’s note in his translation of Herodotus, ii. 252, n. 7.

The Roman views on the subject were very similar to those of the Greeks. With regard to what arts and means of acquiring wealth are to be regarded as worthy and what disreputable, says Cicero, we have been taught as follows. In the first place, those sources of emolument which incur public hatred, such as those of tax-gatherers and usurers, are condemned. We are likewise to account as mean the gains of hired workmen, whose source of profit is not their art but their labour; for their very wages are the consideration of their servitude. We are further to despise all who retail from merchants goods for prompt sale; for they never can succeed unless they lie most abominably,and nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity. All mechanical labourers are by their profession mean; for a workshop can contain nothing befitting a gentleman. Least of all are those trades to be approved that serve the purposes of sensuality, such as the occupations of butchers, cooks, and fishermen. But those professions that involve a higher degree of intelligence or a greater amount of utility, such as medicine, architecture, and the teaching of the liberal arts, are honourable in those to whose rank in life they are suited. As to merchandising, if on a small scale it is mean, but if it is extensive and rich, if it brings numerous commodities from all parts of the world, and gives bread to a multitude of people without fraud, it is not so despicable. However, if a merchant, satisfied with his profits, steps from the harbour into an estate, such a man seems most justly deserving of praise. For of all gainful professions nothing is better, nothing is more pleasing and more delightful, nothing is more befitting a well-bred man than agriculture.102

102Cicero,De officiis, i. 42. See alsoIdem,Cato Major, ch. 15sqq.

The contempt in which manual labour was held by the ancient pagans could hardly be shared by early Christianity. Christ had been born in a carpenter’s family, his apostles belonged to the working class, and so did originally most of his followers. Origen accepts with pride the reproach of Celsus, when he accuses Christians of worshipping the son of a poor workwoman, who had earned her bread by spinning,103and contrasts with the wisdom of Plato that of Paul, the tent-maker, of Peter, the fisherman, of John, who had abandoned his father’s nets.104St. Paul presses on the Thessalonians the duty of personal industry; “if any one would not work, neither should he eat.”105But at the same time the spirit of Christianity was not consistent with much anxiety about earthly matters. The aim of a true disciple of Christ was not to prosper in the world butto seek the kingdom of God, not to lay up for himself treasures upon earth but to lay up for himself treasures in heaven.106Poverty became an ideal, in conformity with both the example and teachings of Christ. It was associated with godliness, whilst wealth was associated with godlessness.107“The love of money,” says St. Paul, “is the root of all evil”;108and the same idea was over and again expressed by Christian moralists.109In the original sinless state of mankind property was unknown, and so was labour. It was to punish man for his disobedience that God caused him to eat daily bread in the sweat of his face.110Since then work is a necessity; but the contemplative life is better than the active life.111Bonaventura points out that Jesus preferred the meditating Mary to the busy Martha,112and that he himself seems to have done no work till his thirtieth year.113Work is of no value by itself; its highest object is to further contemplation, to macerate the body, to curb concupiscence.114For this purpose, indeed, it was strongly insisted upon by several founders of religious orders. According to St. Benedict, “idleness is an enemy to the soul; and hence at certain seasons the brethren ought to occupy themselves in the labour of their hands, and at others in holy reading.”115St. Bernard writes:—“The handmaid of Christ ought always to pray, to read, to work, lest haply the spirit of uncleanness should lead astray the slothful mind. The delight of the flesh is overcome by labour…. The body tired by work is less delighted with vice.”116But the active life must not be pursued to such an extent as to hinder what it is intended to promote;for it is impossible for any man to be at once occupied with exterior actions and at the same time apply himself to divine contemplation.117And whilst he who has nothing else to live upon is bound to work, it is a sin to try to acquire riches beyond the limit which necessity has fixed.118

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