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Title: Work, Death and Sickness Author: Leo Tolstoy Date: 1903 Language: en Topics: work, indigenous, christian, death Source: Original text from http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=10335, 2021.
This is a legend current among the South American Indians.
God, say they, at first made men so that they had no need to work: they
needed neither houses, nor clothes, nor food, and they all lived till
they were a hundred, and did not know what illness was.
When, after some time, God looked to see how people were living, he saw
that instead of being happy in their life, they had quarreled with one
another, and, each caring for himself, had brought matters to such a
pass that far from enjoying life, they cursed it.
Then God said to himself: ‘This comes of their living separately, each
for himself.’ And to change this state of things, God so arranged
matters that it became impossible for people to live without working. To
avoid suffering from cold and hunger, they were now obliged to build
dwellings, and to dig the ground, and to grow and gather fruits and
grain.
‘Work will bring them together,’ thought God. ‘They cannot make their
tools, prepare and transport their timber, build their houses, sow and
gather their harvests, spin and weave, and make their clothes, each one
alone by himself.’
‘It will make them understand that the more heartily they work together,
the more they will have and the better they will live; and this will
unite them.’
Time passed on, and again God came to see how men were living, and
whether they were now happy.
But he found them living worse than before. They worked together (that
they could not help doing), but not all together, being broken up into
little groups. And each group tried to snatch work from other groups,
and they hindered one another, wasting time and strength in their
struggles, so that things went ill with them all.
Having seen that this, too, was not well, God decided so as to arrange
things that man should not know the time of his death, but might die at
any moment; and he announced this to them.
‘Knowing that each of them may die at any moment,’ thought God, ‘they
will not, by grasping at gains that may last so short a time, spoil the
hours of life allotted to them.’
But it turned out otherwise. When God returned to see how people were
living, he saw that their life was as bad as ever.
Those who were strongest, availing themselves of the fact that men might
die at any time, subdued those who were weaker, killing some and
threatening others with death. And it came about that the strongest and
their descendants did no work, and suffered from the weariness of
idleness, while those who were weaker had to work beyond their strength,
and suffered from lack of rest. Each set of men feared and hated the
other. And the life of man became yet more unhappy.
Having seen all this, God, to mend matters, decided to make use of one
last means; he sent all kinds of sickness among men. God thought that
when all men were exposed to sickness they would understand that those
who are well should have pity on those who are sick, and should help
them, that when they themselves fall ill, those who are well might in
turn help them.
And again God went away; but when He came back to see how men lived now
that they were subject to sicknesses, he saw that their life was worse
even than before. The very sickness that in God’s purpose should have
united men, had divided them more than ever. Those men who were strong
enough to make others work, forced them also to wait on them in times of
sickness; but they did not, in their turn, look after others who were
ill. And those who were forced to work for others and to look after them
when sick, were so worn with work that they had no time to look after
their own sick, but left them without attendance. That the sight of sick
folk might not disturb the pleasures of the wealthy, houses were
arranged in which these poor people suffered and died, far from those
whose sympathy might have cheered them, and in the arms of hired people
who nursed them without compassion, or even with disgust. Moreover,
people considered many of the illnesses infectious, and, fearing to
catch them, not only avoided the sick, but even separated themselves
from those who attended the sick.
Then God said to Himself: ‘If even this means will not bring men to
understand wherein their happiness lies, let them be taught by
suffering.’ And God left men to themselves.
And, left to themselves, men lived long before they understood that they
all ought to, and might be, happy. Only in the very latest times have a
few of them begun to understand that work ought not to be a bugbear to
some and like galley-slavery for others, but should be a common and
happy occupation, uniting all men. They have begun to understand that
with death constantly threatening each of us, the only reasonable
business of every man is to spend the years, months, hours, and minutes,
allotted him—in unity and love. They have begun to understand that
sickness, far from dividing men, should, on the contrary, give
opportunity for loving union with one another.
1903.