Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/272

Robert Owen appears to me to be the most consistent of all modern socialists, regarding the question under the point of view in which we have just examined it. He openly and cynically rejects all religions, the depositaries of religious and moral dogmas, and he utterly denies the obligations of duty, not only denying the collective responsibility which constitutes the dogma of solidarity, but likewise the individual responsibility which rests upon the dogma of the free will of man. Robert Owen first denies free will, and then the transmission of sin, and finally sin itself. So far, he is undoubtedly logical and consistent in all his deductions; but when denying sin and free will he affirms the distinction between moral good and evil, and when recognizing these distinctions between moral good and evil, he yet denies the penalty which is its necessary consequence, then Owen becomes inconsistent and absurd.

Man, according to Robert Owen, acts in consequence of invincible convictions. These convictions are not only the result of his special organization, but also of the circumstances which surround him; and as he is neither the author of these circumstances nor of this organization, therefore, they both act upon him fatally and necessarily. All this is logical and consistent, but it is the negation of free will; and when he makes this