arts and sciences — with no man sure of his possessions, even for a day and, therefore, all grown careless in the industrial pursuits — with the very would-be reformers themselves turned into the most merciless oppressors of the poor — in a word, it would find itself surrounded by all the horrors and all the unspeakable miseries of the French Commune.
Now, while the Church thus exhorts the poor to bear their miseries with Christian patience and fortitude, she does not forget to remind the rich of their duties in relieving those miseries. First, she teaches that there may arise circumstances under which one may take and use the property of another without breaking the seventh commandment. Suppose one of those unfortunates whom we call tramps — but who, poor fellows, very often deserve a better name — suppose one of them should find himself an outcast, friendless and alone, dying of hunger with no hope of relief. If that man can only drag himself to the nearest bakeshop, he is allowed to take as much as will relieve his present necessity, and if the owner objects he commits a sin. Oh, but, you say, the vagrant steals what he takes! No, for theft is the taking of what belongs to another against his knowledge and reasonable consent. Now, I say, it is unreasonable to deny a man dying of hunger the morsel he craves, and so if the outcast takes it he commits no theft, but the baker, if he prevents him, is guilty of sin. Again, suppose the city or the whole country to be visited by a famine, and imagine that a dozen men or so have plenty of provisions stored up for a
