after the volume entitled
"The Principle of Art and its Social Destiny."

The publications of Proudhon, in 1863, were: 1. "Literary Majorats: An
Examination of a Bill having for its object the Creation of a Perpetual
Monopoly for the Benefit of Authors, Inventors, and Artists;" 2.
"The Federative Principle and the Necessity of Re-establishing the
Revolutionary party;" 3. "The Sworn Democrats and the Refractories;" 4.
"Whether the Treaties of 1815 have ceased to exist? Acts of the Future
Congress."

The disease which was destined to kill him grew worse and worse; but
Proudhon labored constantly!... A series of articles, published in 1864
in "Le Messager de Paris," have been collected in a pamphlet under the
title of "New Observations on Italian Unity." He hoped to publish
during the same year his work on "The Political Capacity of the Working
Classes," but was unable to write the last chapter.... He grew weaker
continually. His doctor prescribed rest. In the month of August he went
to Franche-Comte, where he spent a month. Having returned to Paris,
he resumed his labor with difficulty.... From the month of December
onwards, the heart disease made rapid progress; the oppression became
insupportable, his legs were swollen, and he could not sleep....

On the 19th of January, 1865, he died, towards two o'clock in the
morning, in the arms of his wife, his sister-in-law, and the friend who
writes these lines....

The publication of his correspondence, to which his daughter Catherine
is faithfully devoted, will tend, no doubt, to increase his reputation
as a thinker, as a writer, and as an honest man.

J. A. LANGLOIS.

PREFACE.

The following letter served as a preface to the first edition of this
memoir:--

"To the Members of the Academy of Besancon

"PARIS, June 30, 1840.

"GENTLEMEN,--In the course of your debate of the 9th of May, 1833,
in regard to the triennial pension established by Madame Suard, you
expressed the following wish:--

"'The Academy requests the titulary to present it annually, during the
first fortnight in July, with a succinct and logical statement of the
various studies which he has pursued during the year which has just
expired.'

"I now propose, gentlemen, to discharge this duty.

"When I solicited your votes, I boldly avowed my intention to bend my
efforts to the discovery of some means of AMELIORATING THE PHYSICAL,
MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF THE MERE NUMEROUS AN