next, against the smaller blades which bad passions are
always sharpening in the interior. People demanded protection against
outside enemies and inside ruffians and murderers, and, slowly and
painfully, after much groping and much re-tempering, the agreement
between hereditary forces has fashioned the sole arm which is capable of
protecting lives and property with any degree of success.--So long as it
does no more I am indebted to the State which holds the hilt: it gives
me a security which, without it, I could not have enjoyed. In return for
this security I owe it, for my quota, the means for keeping this weapon
in good condition: he who enjoys a service is under an obligation to pay
for it. Accordingly, there is between the State and myself, if not an
express contract, at least a tacit understanding equivalent to that
which binds a child to its parent, a believer to his church, and, on
both sides, this mutual understanding is clear and precise. The state
engages to look after my security within and without; I engage to
furnish the means for so doing, which means consist of my respect
and gratitude, my zeal as a citizen, my services as a conscript, my
contributions as a tax-payer, in short, whatever is necessary for the
maintenance of an army, a navy, a diplomatic organization, civil
and criminal courts, a militia and police, central and local
administrations, in short, a harmonious set of organs of which my
obedience and loyalty constitute the food, the substance and the
blood. This loyalty and obedience, whatever I am, whether rich or poor,
Catholic, Protestant, Jew or free-thinker, royalist or republican,
individualist or socialist, upon my honor and in my conscience I owe.
This because I have received the equivalent; I am delighted that I am
not vanquished, assassinated, or robbed. I reimburse the State, exactly
but not more that which it has spent on equipment and personnel for
keeping down brutal cupidity, greedy appetites, deadly fanaticism, the
entire howling pack of passions and desires of which, sooner or later,
I might become the prey, were it not constantly to extend over me its
vigilant protection. When it demands its outlay of me it is not my
property which it takes away, but its own property, which it collects
and, in this light, it may legitimately force me to pay.--On condition,
however, that it does not exact more than my liabilities, and this it
does when it oversteps its original engagements;

1.