Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/262

that between these two doctrines there is an essential difference, scarcely concealed by an identity of names. Humanity exists for the Catholic in the individuals who constitute it; while it exists for the socialist in both an individual and concrete manner; so that, when socialists and Catholics affirm the solidarity humanity, although they appear to assert the same thing, they really affirm two different things. But this does not prevent the socialist contradiction from being so conspicuous that it is impossible to deny it. Although, according to the socialist hypothesis, humanity is the universal intelligence which is expressed by special groups designated as families and nations, yet logic exacts that all these groups should obey in themselves, and of themselves, its own law, and that there should be a solidarity between them, if its law is that of solidarity. Hence, the necessity of either denying the solidarity of humanity, or of affirming it also in individuals, families, and the state. There is nothing clearer than that socialism is alike incompatible with this radical negation and with this absolute affirmation. To deny the solidarity of humanity is to deny socialism, and to affirm the solidarity of the social groups is to deny it in another way. The world cannot submit to the law of socialism without first renouncing the laws of reason.

It may be seen from what we have just established, how little the socialist doctors, and especially the most celebrated among them, deserve the reputation for consistency which they have enjoyed. Mr. Proudhon, in his discussions with those partisans of the new gospel who advocate the system of the expropriation of all individual rights, and consequently the concentration in the