Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/266

of substituting his own ideas, which are always inefficacious and insufficient, in place of the eternal laws of order, and he thus precipitates society into an abyss of disorder. He requires a guide, and what can this guide be but the law of progress, that logic inherent in humanity."* In the preceding paragraph, Mr. Proudhon affirms unity, solidarity, and social infallibility-precisely the three things that communism affirms or supposes to exist in the state-and he denies the capacity and right of individuals to govern nations, which is exactly what is denied by communism. From which it follows tha Proudhonism and communism arrive at the same conclusions by different means. They both assert the right of government, and with it the unity and solidarity of human societies. The government is infallible for both, that is to say, it is omnipotent; and being so, it excludes all idea of liberty in individuals, who, placed under the jurisdiction of an omnipotent and infallible government, can only be regarded as slaves. Whether we hold that the right of government resides in the state, the symbol of political unity, or in society considered as a collective being, in either case, according to socialist doctrine, all social rights are condensed in the state, and consequently the individual considered as such is condemned to the most complete servitude. Mr. Proudhon, then, does precisely the contrary of what he asserts, and he is quite the contrary of what he appears to be. He proclaims liberty and equality, and yet establishes tyranny; he denies the doctrine of solidarity, and at the same time he supposes it; he calls