Section 135 The Gospel of Work. — II
The monks in olden times found it so1. When (S. 18, N. 6) they shut2 themselves up from the world to worship God in3 prayers and hymns, they found that [here follows the subject “they”], without working4, without5 hard work either of head or of hands, they could not6 even be good men (S. 134, N. 9). The7 devil came and8 tempted them, they said, as often as they were9 idle. An idle monk’s soul was lost, they used (S. 129, N. 6) to say, and they spoke truly. Though they gave10 up a large portion of11 every day, and of every night also, to12 prayer and worship, (S. 27, N. 8) yet13 they found [that] they could not pray aright without work.
And “working (S. 11, N. 7) is praying,” said one of the holiest of them that14 ever lived; and he spoke truth (S. 3, N. 2); if15 a man will but do his work for the sake of duty, which is for the sake of God.—Charles Kingsley.
Notes
1 Turn ‘it so’ by ‘das’, which place at the head of the sentence, using the inverted construction and inserting the adv. ‘auch’ after the verb.
2 to shut oneself up, sich ab´schließen, sep. comp. str. v. refl.
3 durch; to worship, verehren.
4 working = work.
5 ohne angestrengte Kopf-oder Handarbeit.
6 not even, nicht einmal.
7 The words ‘They said’ are best placed at the head of this passage. To translate the verbs correctly, you must carefully read App. §§ 28 and 30.
8 and tempted them = in order to tempt them.
9 wären.
10 ‘to give up’, here = to devote, widmen, with dat.
11 of — also = of the day and of the night.
12 dem Gebet und den Andachtsübungen.
13 yet, doch, to be placed after the subject.
14 who ever (je) has lived. How must the verbs be placed?
15 Begin a new period here, and say: ‘When a man (S. 134, N. 9) does his work for the sake of (um... willen, which governs the Gen.) his duty, (S. 27, N. 8) he does it (to agree with ‘duty’) for God’s sake’.