dies of hunger.
No, no! No more protectors, no more emperors, no more consuls. Better
manage our affairs ourselves than through agents. Better associate our
industries than beg from monopolies; and, since the republic cannot
dispense with virtues, we should labor for our reform.

This, therefore, is my line of conduct. I preach emancipation to the
proletaires; association to the laborers; equality to the wealthy. I
push forward the revolution by all means in my power,--the tongue,
the pen, the press, by action, and example. My life is a continual
apostleship.

Yes, I am a reformer; I say it as I think it, in good faith, and that I
may be no longer reproached for my vanity. I wish to convert the world.
Very likely this fancy springs from an enthusiastic pride which may have
turned to delirium; but it will be admitted at least that I have plenty
of company, and that my madness is not monomania. At the present day,
everybody wishes to be reckoned among the lunatics of Beranger. To say
nothing of the Babeufs, the Marats, and the Robespierres, who swarm in
our streets and workshops, all the great reformers of antiquity live
again in the most illustrious personages of our time. One is Jesus
Christ, another Moses, a third Mahomet; this is Orpheus, that Plato,
or Pythagoras. Gregory VII., himself, has risen from the grave together
with the evangelists and the apostles; and it may turn out that even I
am that slave who, having escaped from his master's house, was forthwith
made a bishop and a reformer by St. Paul. As for the virgins and holy
women, they are expected daily; at present, we have only Aspasias and
courtesans.

Now, as in all diseases, the diagnostic varies according to the
temperament, so my madness has its peculiar aspects and distinguishing
characteristic.

Reformers, as a general thing, are jealous of their role; they suffer no
rivals, they want no partners; they have disciples, but no co-laborers.
It is my desire, on the contrary, to communicate my enthusiasm, and to
make it, as far as I can, epidemic. I wish that all were, like myself,
reformers, in order that there might be no more sects; and that Christs,
Anti-Christs, and false Christs might be forced to understand and agree
with each other.

Again, every reformer is a magician, or at least desires to become one.
Thus Moses, Jesus Christ, and the apostles, proved their mission by
miracles. Mahomet ridiculed miracles after having endeavored to perform