There are many who, since it is written "In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread," regard work as a punishment, and therefore they
attribute merely an economico-political, or at best an esthetic, value
to the work of everyday life. For those who take this view--and it is
the view principally held by the Jesuits--the business of life is
twofold: there is the inferior and transitory business of winning a
livelihood, of winning bread for ourselves and our children in an
honourable, manner--and the elasticity of this honour is well known; and
there is the grand business of our salvation, of winning eternal glory.
This inferior or worldly business is to be undertaken not only so as to
permit us, without deceiving or seriously injuring our neighbours, to
live decently in accordance with our social position, but also so as to
afford us the greatest possible amount of time for attending to the
other main business of our life. And there are others who, rising
somewhat above this conception of the work of our civil occupation, a
conception which is economical rather than ethical, attain to an
esthetic conception and sense of it, and this involves endeavouring to
acquire distinction and renown in our occupation, the converting of it
into an art for art's sake, for beauty's sake. But it is necessary to
rise still higher than this, to attain to an ethical sense of our civil
calling, to a sense which derives from our religious sense, from our
hunger of eternalization.
Pages:
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391