METHOD PURSUED IN THIS WORK.--THE IDEA OF AREVOLUTION.
If I were asked to answer the following question: WHAT ISSLAVERY? and I should answer in one word, IT IS MURDER, my meaning would be understood at once.No extended argument would be required to show that the power to take from a man his thought, his will, his personality, is a power of life and death;and that to enslave a man is to kill him.Why, then, to this other question: WHAT IS PROPERTY! may I not likewise answer, IT IS ROBBERY, without the certainty of being misunderstood;the second proposition being no other than a transformation of the first?
I undertake to discuss the vital principle of our government and our institutions, property: I am in my right.I may be mistaken in the conclusion which shall result from my investigations: Iam in my right.I think best to place the last thought of my book first: still am I in my right.
Such an author teaches that property is a civil right, born of occupation and sanctioned by law; another maintains that it is a natural right, originating in labor,--and both of these doctrines, totally opposed as they may seem, are encouraged and applauded.I contend that neither labor, nor occupation, nor law, can create property; that it is an effect without a cause:
am I censurable?
But murmurs arise!
PROPERTY IS ROBBERY! That is the war-cry of '93! That is the signal of revolutions!
Reader, calm yourself: I am no agent of discord, no firebrand of sedition.I anticipate history by a few days; I disclose a truth whose development we may try in vain to arrest; I write the preamble of our future constitution.This proposition which seems to you blasphemous--PROPERTY IS ROBBERY--would, if our prejudices allowed us to consider it, be recognized as the lightning-rod to shield us from the coming thunderbolt; but too many interests stand in the way!...Alas! philosophy will not change the course of events: destiny will fulfill itself regardless of prophecy.Besides, must not justice be done and our education be finished?
PROPERTY IS ROBBERY!...What a revolution in human ideas!
PROPRIETOR and ROBBER have been at all times expressions as contradictory as the beings whom they designate are hostile; all languages have perpetuated this opposition.On what authority, then, do you venture to attack universal consent, and give the lie to the human race? Who are you, that you should question the judgment of the nations and the ages?
Of what consequence to you, reader, is my obscure individuality?
I live, like you, in a century in which reason submits only to fact and to evidence.My name, like yours, is TRUTH-SEEKER.My mission is written in these words of the law:
SPEAK WITHOUT HATRED AND WITHOUT FEAR; TELL THAT WHICH THOUKNOWEST! The work of our race is to build the temple of science, and this science includes man and Nature.Now, truth reveals itself to all; to-day to Newton and Pascal, tomorrow to the herdsman in the valley and the journeyman in the shop.Each one contributes his stone to the edifice; and, his task accomplished, disappears.Eternity precedes us, eternity follows us: between two infinites, of what account is one poor mortal that the century should inquire about him?
In Greek, {GREEK e ncg} examiner; a philosopher whose business is to seek the truth.
Disregard then, reader, my title and my character, and attend only to my arguments.It is in accordance with universal consent that I undertake to correct universal error; from the OPINIONof the human race I appeal to its FAITH.Have the courage to follow me; and, if your will is untrammelled, if your conscience is free, if your mind can unite two propositions and deduce a third therefrom, my ideas will inevitably become yours.In beginning by giving you my last word, it was my purpose to warn you, not to defy you; for I am certain that, if you read me, you will be compelled to assent.The things of which I am to speak are so simple and clear that you will be astonished at not having perceived them before, and you will say: "I have neglected to think." Others offer you the spectacle of genius wresting Nature's secrets from her, and unfolding before you her sublime messages; you will find here only a series of experiments upon JUSTICE and RIGHT a sort of verification of the weights and measures of your conscience.The operations shall be conducted under your very eyes; and you shall weigh the result.
Nevertheless, I build no system.I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law.
Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world.
One day I asked myself: Why is there so much sorrow and misery in society? Must man always be wretched? And not satisfied with the explanations given by the reformers,--these attributing the general distress to governmental cowardice and incapacity, those to conspirators and emeutes, still others to ignorance and general corruption,--and weary of the interminable quarrels of the tribune and the press, I sought to fathom the matter myself.
