The opening paragraph of chapter 11 of Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present reads:
For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone...
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is there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish, mean,is in communication with Nature; the real desire to get Work done will itself lead one more and more to truth, to Nature's appointments and regulations, which are truth.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of this passage is that Carlyle does not define work. Instead, he gives the reader some of the attributes of work. Work is noble, even sacred, and gives us hope. Any kind of work is linked to Nature. Work will lead you to truth.
Carlyle's attitude to work here is frankly religious. He does not explain or justify; instead, he preaches. This is entirely typical of Carlyle's prose style, which becomes even more highly wrought when he begins to give us examples (though still no definitions) of what work means. He writes of Sir Christopher Wren, building St. Paul's Cathedral, then Christopher Columbus, sailing to the New World:
Brave Sea-captain, Norse Sea-king, Columbus, my hero, royalest Sea-king of all! it is no friendly environment this of thine, in the waste deep waters; around thee mutinous discouraged souls, behind thee disgrace and ruin, before thee the unpenetrated veil of Night.
Carlyle insists that he is talking about all work, but the only examples he gives are of great men, whose names are still linked with their accomplishments today. This is in accordance with his preaching method: the achievements of Wren, Columbus, and the other famous men of history are intended as inspiration for whatever more obscure and humble work the reader may find to do. Carlyle contemptuously dismisses the ancient ideal "Know thyself," saying that work should take the place of self-knowledge:
Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an unknowable individual: know what thou canst work at; and work at it, like a Hercules! That will be thy better plan.
Carlyle's is not the first gospel of work. "Laborare est Orare" (to work is to pray) is found in the Rule of St. Benedict. His fiery preaching, however, does give a new lease of life to that gospel, and it is by sheer willful assertion, not by explanation and definition, that he achieves his effect.