The association of tailors and
carpenters, of which the republic (of Paris, for instance) is
composed, cannot be equal to the situation into which by the worst
of usurpations- an usurpation on the prerogatives of nature- you
attempt to force them.
The Chancellor of France, at the opening of the states, said, in a
tone of oratorical flourish, that all occupations were honorable. If
he meant only that no honest employment was disgraceful, he would
not have gone beyond the truth. But in asserting that anything is
honorable, we imply some distinction in its favor. The occupation of a
hairdresser or of a working tallow-chandler cannot be a matter of
honor to any person- to say nothing of a number of other more
servile employments. Such descriptions of men ought not to suffer
oppression from the state; but the state suffers oppression if such as
they, either individually or collectively, are permitted to rule. In
this you think you are combating prejudice, but you are at war with
nature.*
* Ecclesiasticus, chap. xxxviii. verses 24, 25. "The wisdom of a
learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure; and he that hath
little business shall become wise".- "How can he get wisdom that
holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad; that driveth
oxen; and is occupied in their labours; and whose talk is of
bullocks"?
Ver. 27. "So every carpenter and work-master that laboureth
night and day", etc.
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