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—our peasants— on the contrary, far from keeping the enjoyment of their productions, and of tasting the hap* piness of which our civilization gives them the idea, are obliged to surrender nearly all to greedy and Worthless proprietors, and to a certainty, suffer hunger, thirst, and the inclemency of the seasons.

Let each work for the great social family, and let each receive in return the means of living and his fair share of the general pleasure and happiness. Behold what nature wills— behold the state in which equality is not a chimera, and in which the liberty of each individual is substantially assured.

You speak, citizen M. V., of the abnegation of all tastes, of all penchants, of the equality that would take place between the living of an artist and that of a cobbler, and of the decay of the fine arts, as so many disastrous consequences of the system of real equality, whose absurdity you would thereby prove. The objection only proves that you are still enthralled by our old prejudices. To suppose that to return to equality would be to become savage and brutal, is only to misconceive its constitution. To fling in our teeth the scarecrow of abnegations, when we wish to put an end to the incalculable and perpetual privations of the majority of the people—when we wish that the labour of each person should secure him a commodious and agreeable existence—is either not to comprehend us, or to show oneself the accomplice of those whom idleness and hatred of work render the enemies of equality.

It would, to be sure, be an indescribable horror, my dear M. V., that your bread, your meat, your wine, and your clothes, should come out of the same magazine and have the same taste as those of a cobbler! But then, why did Nature choose to give to this inferior animal a stomach and senses like yours? Miserable! when you swim in abundance, do you want in addition the picture of another's griefs to complete your happiness?

The pretended decay of the professions and the fine arts is another of the " unanswerable" objections of those clever persons who would have you believe that the world is at end the moment you snatch from them their distinctions, their privileges, and their usurped consideration. Assuredly, even if this decay were to take place,