Talk:.NzU.MjY1NzQ

of proletarians, manual laborers; as if pleasures & happiness were only to be shared by idle & useless men. Let us hasten to eradicate the very memory of those times of shame & disgrace, & let us announce to the universe that all free Frenchmen will henceforth be manual laborers, & will pride themselves on the completion of work convenient to them, their fellow men & all of society. It is widely known that at this time, the Republic is filled with a mass of young adolescents who, up until now, have remained in a dire state of inaction. Many household heads, imbued with false prejudices, or led by more illicit motives, have preferred to leave their children in a sorrowful state of neglect rather than form them to become useful citizens through the practice of arts & trades indispensable for the diverse needs of society. Indeed, do you believe that fomer nobles & legislators, those engaged in religious practice, the rich merchants, & the majority of the well-off bourgeoisie spread across our cities & countryside, would readily decide to make their children study a trade or profession, if the law were not to oblige them to do so? There is no doubt that they will base their refusal on the apparent pretext of an education based on sciences & letters, to which, they will say, they destine their children. However, I will say to them that, in a democratic republic, it is better to value laborious hands & arms dedicated to work, than the cold & pointless conceptions of the mind. It is thus time to forestall the evils which a prolonged idleness would cause; it is time to remind men of their foremost duties, of their true interests; it is time to give back to agriculture, the arts, & useful professions, this mass of workers which pride, egoism, aristocracy, & superstition have taken from them.