THIRTY-SECOND LESSON
Duties Towards Our Inferiors.
An instruction for the children of the rich.
"Masters, do to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven."—ST. PAUL, Colossians 4:10
Our inferiors are those whom it has pleased God to place by their birth in a less happy position than ourselves, who not having received from providence sufficient fortune to live upon, earn a living, either by some trade like the workman, or by entering the service of some richer family, as servants. Children at your age are not in fact the superiors of any one. Nevertheless, it is not unusual to meet with children who, taking advantage of their parents' excessive indulgence, become, at home, masters full of haughtiness and impertinence—indeed, sometimes towards those who wait upon them, complete little tyrants, who insist upon their slightest caprices being instantly attended to. It is advisable to teach children, thus blinded by a guilty and foolish pride, and even those whose good heart renders them more humane and more just, how they ought to behave towards servants.
How very sad and painful, my dear children, is the condition of servants! Have you ever thought of this? And yet who ought to be more struck by this than you? who find it so hard to obey those orders which are given you kindly and tenderly; you of whom nothing is required but for your own welfare, nothing that does not contribute to your own happiness? How different is your lot, my children, to that of your servants! You obey parents by whom you are loved, they the will of masters who are strangers to them, of masters who are often unjust or at least severe, who have trying tempers, who are difficult to please, whimsical, capricious, and yet they must submit to all, without murmuring, with patience, for fear of losing their situation, and perhaps falling a prey to poverty!
I know there are many good and Christian families where servants are treated with justice, with kindness; but even the happiest of these poor people are much to be pitied! In the morning, my children, whilst you are still asleep, the servants have to get up early, to begin their house-work; before taking their meals, they have prepared yours; when you are shut up in the carriage that covers you, they are outside, exposed to the bad weather; and the winter evenings, which seem so short to those who amuse themselves, how long must they not appear to those poor servants, who, wet through, or else frozen by the cold, wait for their masters in the street?
We are apt to think that, as we pay our servants, we owe them nothing more; but we owe them that money, their wages, my children, and in fact it does not ameliorate their position. Who knows if they do not share, with an aged father or mother, the fruit of their labor? And again, who knows if, in a laudable spirit of prudence, they do not put by some money in store for their own old age, when they in turn will need the services of others.
If it does not depend upon us, my children, entirely to change the sad condition of servants, at least it lies in our power to render that condition less hard. In the eyes of humanity, they are our equals; in God's eyes they are our brethren: consequently, we owe them justice, care, and affection.
This is the way a child may already fulfill, in his father's house, some of these important duties.
Never speak to servants but with politeness and kindness; take care not to let them be scolded; excuse them when it is possible; spare them, in a word, all useless labor.
I must tell you now, my friends, that kindness is not familiarity: at your age, you often mistake one for the other. It is allowed, it is even a duty for each of us, to keep our place—the place Providence has marked out for us—and which we have not chosen for ourselves. The familiarity you sometimes allow yourselves to show to servants is not proper; long conversations prevent them from doing their work, and may cause less inconvenience to them than to you. Try to understand this perfectly, and not make this a pretext for haughtiness, which, as I told you before, would be quite misplaced, and would be particularly unworthy of a kind heart.
There was an unfortunate time, my children, the time of the first revolution in France, when many persons of high station in life had to congratulate themselves on having gained, by good treatment, the affection of their servants. At that sad period, during which so many families emigrated, more than one fortune was saved by faithful servants, and given back untouched to those to whom it belonged, when they obtained leave to return to France. More than one hunted nobleman found, under his servant's humble roof, a shelter which saved his life. Many of these good people shared their master's lot, and accompanied them in their exile.
My grandmother told me, but never without tears in her eyes, how during the revolution she and her children were supported for several months by two devoted women, then in her service, and who, seeing her without any resource, offered her their little savings. In the present time, my dear children, you may still meet with traits of similar generosity, traits which do honor to the poorer classes, showing us that among them can be found good and noble hearts. The prizes founded in France by Mr. de Montyon, that charitable man who passed his whole life in doing good, bring to notice every year some of these modest virtues. Last year's prize was allotted to the sublime devotedness of an old servant.
Let me, my children, relate to you this story, so closely connected with the present subject. In the small village of Champrond, in the department of Eure, there lived with his family a joiner called Martin. Whilst he was at work one day, the door opened: a young man came in, followed by three very little children; the youngest was barely two years old.
Martin recognized in this stranger the son of his former benefactor, the Marguis de l'Aubepine, to whose kindness he owed his education, whom at a later period he had followed to the wars, and whom in fact he had served during many years. At that time the de l'Aubepine family was very wealthy, owned extensive landed property, and lived in the ancient castle de Villebon, which they had inherited from one of their ancestors, the great Sully.
Soon this splendid fortune was lost; the old castle, full of the most glorious memories, fell into the hands of strangers, and in 1830, the time of which I speak, the last descendant of the family, the Count de l'Aubepine, obliged to leave France on account of continued losses of fortune, confided his children to the faithful care of an old servant.
Martin, a poor workman, who himself had several children, joyfully received those that Providence sent him. M. de I'Aubepine went away; he went never to return. Some months after, it was known that he had died in exile
What will become of the poor orphans? Martin does not forsake them in their misfortune; he works with redoubled energy; he sells his furniture, when all his other resources fail; he feeds his own children on black bread, in order to give his adopted sons the white bread to which they had always been accustomed; and who would believe it, my children?—though he had become, one may say, the father of these poor little beings, Martin does not even consider himself their equal: never was he seen to sit down at the same table as they; and in his humble cottage he desired to remain their servant, as he once had been the servant of their grandfather in the fine castle of Sully.
This pious devotedness, my friends, could not long remain unknown; soon it was talked about in all the country; the children, taken notice of by charitable persons, were placed at schools; and Martin, publicly crowned for his noble conduct, received the most honorable of all rewards, and yet a reward much beneath the one God keeps in store for him, the one he had already found in his own heart.
Disclaimer: Linking of a site does not imply endorsement of the views of the site, but merely offers it as a resource the webmaster beleives to be accurate. Because sites can be amended over time and non-Catholic items added, we ask all to do due diligence in checking things out
Ads are added to keep this site free. Donations are also accepted! If you find an objectionable ad, please contact us so we can block it in the future.
