The Bible of Humanity by Jules Michelet Author:Jules Michelet General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1877 Original Publisher: J. W. Bouton Subjects: Civilization Religion History / World History / Civilization Religion / General Religion / Comparative Religion Religion / History Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrati... more »ons and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: But what Apollo most needed was work. He had tried, he even became a mason ; but his hands, too soft, would have been compelled to abandon the lyre, and could not have felt any more its delicate strings. He left to others the labors, the sweat; the race to the winged feet of Hermes ; the struggle to the arm of Hercules -- the despised works in the great struggle against the earth. He left the better part, perhaps, to Hercules, my son ; the hard labor, the great viaticum of life which keeps it serene and strong. The ethereal art, the muse, are these enough ? I doubt it. Are they sufficient to sustain us against the assaults of nature ? No. Believe me, the fatigue, the labor, of all the hours are necessary. I am thankful for this. It has served me, led me, better perhaps than anything else. I shall die rich in works, if not of great results, at least of great purposes. I lay them at the feet'of Hercules. There were a hundred heroes in Greece, but only one whose exploits were LABORS. Strange, astounding fact! Greece has such strong, good sense, a reason so marvellously adequate, that even against her prejudices -- the scorn of labor which she calls servile -- her great deified hero is emphatically the WORKMAN. Consider that it is not a question of elegant, noble, or altogether heroic works, but, of course, that which was vile and unclean. The magnanimous goodness of this hero, however, considered nothing base which was of bene...« less