them. Fourier, more cunning, promises us wonders when the globe shall
be covered with phalansteries. For myself, I have as great a horror
of miracles as of authorities, and aim only at logic. That is why I
continually search after the criterion of certainty. I work for the
reformation of ideas. Little matters it that they find me dry and
austere. I mean to conquer by a bold struggle, or die in the attempt;
and whoever shall come to the defence of property, I swear that I
will force him to argue like M. Considerant, or philosophize like M.
Troplong.

Finally,--and it is here that I differ most from my compeers,--I do not
believe it necessary, in order to reach equality, to turn every thing
topsy-turvy. To maintain that nothing but an overturn can lead to reform
is, in my judgment, to construct a syllogism, and to look for the truth
in the regions of the unknown. Now, I am for generalization, induction,
and progress. I regard general disappropriation as impossible: attacked
from that point, the problem of universal association seems to me
insolvable. Property is like the dragon which Hercules killed: to
destroy it, it must be taken, not by the head, but by the tail,--that
is, by profit and interest.

I stop. I have said enough to satisfy any one who can read and
understand. The surest way by which the government can baffle intrigues
and break up parties is to take possession of science, and point out to
the nation, at an already appreciable distance, the rising oriflamme of
equality; to say to those politicians of the tribune and the press, for
whose fruitless quarrels we pay so dearly, "You are rushing forward,
blind as you are, to the abolition of property; but the government
marches with its eyes open. You hasten the future by unprincipled and
insincere controversy; but the government, which knows this future,
leads you thither by a happy and peaceful transition. The present
generation will not pass away before France, the guide and model of
civilized nations, has regained her rank and legitimate influence."

But, alas! the government itself,--who shall enlighten it? Who can
induce it to accept this doctrine of equality, whose terrible but
decisive formula the most generous minds hardly dare to acknowledge?...
I feel my whole being tremble when I think that the testimony of
three men--yes, of three men who make it their business to teach and
define--would suffice to give full play to public opinion, to change
belief