position to the will of a higher authority.

When a servant, therefore, is in duty bound to execute the will of his
master, his obedience should be perfect. All hesitation or murmuring
is a violation of his contract--a breaking of his promise and
agreement.

But the master and servant should equally learn, that in other
respects, and at other times, the parties are not necessarily in the
state of superior and inferior; but, unless from some other cause, are
to be regarded as on a footing of equality; and this is the true
interpretation of the doctrine of fraternity and equality, which has,
from not being properly understood, played such wild work among some
neighbouring nations. In this sense, however, it is safe and useful.

Not only, however, may the individuals who sometimes and in some
respects are master and servant, be at other times and in other
respects regarded as on a level, but they may with propriety, and
often do, change places. The servant becomes of right the master. For
if he should employ that master as his physician or lawyer, no matter
what may be considered the respective ranks of the parties, the
physician or lawyer must, to perform his duty, become the servant, and
submit his will in the business he is employed in to that of his
employer.

This way of regarding servitude is not a degrading one, but the
reverse. Nothing is so pleasant to a reasonable and truly noble mind
as to pay obedience to those to whom it is due; and if the
adaptability of the same individual to be both master and servant was
more practically carried out, our civilisation would work more
smoothly, and we should probably approach more to that desirable state
in which no one would have a stigma attached to him from his birth or
occupation, but only from the manner in which he performed his duty.

It would help considerably towards a proper understanding of the
relationship between employers and employed, if the employed would,
for their own sake, maintain that degree of self-respect which would
induce others to respect them. On this point we would speak kindly,
yet frankly, and cannot do better than quote a passage from a small
treatise on Political Economy, just published.[7] 'The true
relationship between employers and employed is that subsisting
between a purchaser and a seller. The employer buys; the employed
sells; and the thing sold is labour. Attaining a clear conviction on
this point, the connection between the two