Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/265

We here perceive a double contradiction, because there is not only a contradiction in affirming the solidarity of humanity, when we deny the solidarity of the family and of society, but there is also a still greater contradiction in the negation of fraternity, at the same time that the principle of liberty and equality among men is affirmed. Equality, liberty, and fraternity are principles which have a mutual dependence, and which resolve themselves into each other. To choose the one and to reject the other, is to take what is rejected, and reject what is taken; to deny what is affirmed, and at the same time to affirm what is denied. Respecting the question of government, the negation. of all government by Mr. Proudhon is only an apparent negation. If the idea of government is not antagonistic to the socialist idea, it is not necessary for the socialist to deny the first; and if there is an antagonism between these two ideas, it is a gross inconsistency to proclaim in another form that right of government which has just been denied. Now Mr. Proudhon, who denies the right of government, the symbol of unity and of political solidarity, acknowledges it in another manner, and under another form, when he recognizes and proclaims the principle of unity and social solidarity in the following words: "Only society, that is to say, the collective being, can follow its inclinations and abandon itself to its free will without fear of committing an absolute and immediate error. The superior reason which resides in it, and which it gradually eliminates through the manifestations of the multitude and the reflection of individuals, always leads it in the right direction. The philosopher is incapable of discovering truth by intuition, and if he happens to attempt to direct society he is in great danger