Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/264

by the choice which he makes of a profession, and the social functions being combined so as to produce an harmonious effect, order results from the free action of all, from which must proceed the absolute negation of government. Therefore, he who attempts to govern me is a tyrant and usurper, and I declare him to be my enemy." But if Mr. Proudhon is consistent when he rejects all government, he is only partially so when he designates this negation as the last of the negations contained in the socialist doctrines. He has denied the domestic solidarity, in the negation of the family; he has denied the political solidarity, in the negation of the government, while at the very time that he rejects these two solidarities, he affirms by an inconceivable contradiction the solidarity of humanity, which is the common foundation of both. We have already demonstrated that to affirm equality and liberty, is the same as to affirm huan solidarity. Nor does the contradiction stop here, for at the same time that he declares the doctrine of equality and liberty in the Confessions of a Revolutionist, he denies the doctrine of fraternity in the sixth chapter of his book upon Economick Contradictions, in these words: "Do you speak to me of fraternity? Yes, I am willing to admit that we are brothers, with the understanding that I shall be the older brother and you younger, and that society, our common mother, shall honor my right of primogeniture and my services by granting me a double portion. You say, you will provide for my wants according to my means; but I understand, on the contrary, that my wants will be provided for in proportion to my work, otherwise I cease to labor."