ns them. He is lost by
flying from his father, when his father's authority was only paternal.
He is found by returning to his father, and desiring that his
authority may be absolute, as over a hired stranger.

And this is the practical lesson I want to leave with you, and all
other working men.

178. You are on the eve of a great political crisis; and every rascal
with a tongue in his head will try to make his own stock out of you.
Now this is the test you must try them with. Those that say to you,
"Stand up for your rights--get your division of living--be sure that
you are as well off as others, and have what they have!--don't let any
man dictate to you--have not you all a right to your opinion?--are you
not all as good as everybody else?--let us have no governors, or
fathers--let us all be free and alike." Those, I say, who speak thus
to you, take Nelson's rough order for--and hate them as you do the
Devil, for they _are_ his ambassadors. But those, the few, who have
the courage to say to you, "My friends, you and I, and all of us, have
somehow got very wrong; we've been hardly treated, certainly; but here
we are in a piggery, mainly by our own fault, hungry enough, and for
ourselves, anything but respectable: we _must_ get out of this; there
are certainly laws we may learn to live by, and there are wiser people
than we are in the world, and kindly ones, if we can find our way to
them; and an infinitely wise and kind Father, above all of them and
us, if we can but find our way to _Him_, and ask Him to take us for
servants, and put us to any work He will, so that we may never leave
Him more." The people who will say that to you, and (for by _no_
saying, but by their fruits, only, you shall finally know them) who
are themselves orderly and kindly, and do their own business
well,--take _those_ for your guides, and trust them; on ice and rock
alike, tie yourselves well together with them, and with much scrutiny,
and cautious walking (perhaps nearly as much back as forward, at
first), you will verily get off the glacier, and into meadow land, in
God's time.

179. I meant to have written much to you respecting the meaning of
that word "hired servants," and to have gone on to the duties of
soldiers, for you know "Soldier" means a person who is paid to fight
with regular pay--literally with "soldi" or "sous"--the "penny a day"
of the vineyard laborers; but I can't now: only just this much, that
our whole system of work mu