laws of his
existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which
creates him. Who would dare to make a god of the glorious child?

"It is not strength which makes the man," said a Hercules of the
market-place to the admiring crowd; "it is character." That man, who
had only his muscles, held force in contempt. The lesson is a good one,
proletaires; we should profit by it. It is not talent (which is also a
force), it is not knowledge, it is not beauty which makes the man. It is
heart, courage, will, virtue. Now, if we are equal in that which makes
us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties
detract from our manhood?

Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak;
and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents
whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome
apprenticeship. It is easier for M. Lamennais to recite a philippic, or
sing a humanitarian ode after the Platonic fashion, than to discover a
single useful truth; it is easier for an economist to apply the laws of
production and distribution than to write ten lines in the style of M.
Lamennais; it is easier for both to speak than to act. You, then, who
put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me
to admit your inferiority? But, what am I saying?

Yes, you are inferior, for you lack virtue and will! Ready for labor and
for battle, you have, when liberty and equality are in question, neither
courage nor character!

In the preface to his pamphlet on "Le Pays et le Gouvernement," as well
as in his defence before the jury, M. Lamennais frankly declared
himself an advocate of property. Out of regard for the author and his
misfortune, I shall abstain from characterizing this declaration, and
from examining these two sorrowful performances. M. Lamennais seems to
be only the tool of a quasi-radical party, which flatters him in order
to use him, without respect for a glorious, but hence forth powerless,
old age. What means this profession of faith? From the first number of
"L'Avenir" to "L'Esquisse d'une Philosophie," M. Lamennais always
favors equality, association, and even a sort of vague and indefinite
communism. M. Lamennais, in recognizing the right of property, gives the
lie to his past career, and renounces his most generous tendencies. Can
it, then, be true that in this man, who has been too roughly treated,
but who is also too easily