had been moved by the cry for
"Bread, and the Constitution of '93 "; and it is a notable coincidence
that in that winter of 1795-6, while the socialists were secretly
plotting to seize the kingdom of heaven by violence, Paine was devising
his plan of relief by taxing inheritances of land, anticipating by a
hundred years the English budget of Sir William Harcourt. Babeuf having
failed in his socialist, and Pichegru in his royalist, plot, their blows
were yet fatal: there still remained in the hearts of millions a Babeuf
or a Pichegru awaiting the chieftain strong enough to combine them,
as Napoleon presently did, making all the nation "Egaux" as parts of a
mighty military engine, and satisfying the royalist triflers with the
pomp and glory of war.

AUTHOR'S INSCRIPTION.

To the Legislature and the Executive Directory of the French Republic.

The plan contained in this work is not adapted for any particular
country alone: the principle on which it is based is general. But as the
rights of man are a new study in this world, and one needing protection
from priestly imposture, and the insolence of oppressions too long
established, I have thought it right to place this little work under
your safeguard. When we reflect on the long and dense night in which
France and all Europe have remained plunged by their governments and
their priests, we must feel less surprise than grief at the bewilderment
caused by the first burst of light that dispels the darkness. The eye
accustomed to darkness can hardly bear at first the broad daylight. It
is by usage the eye learns to see, and it is the same in passing from
any situation to its opposite.

As we have not at one instant renounced all our errors, we cannot at one
stroke acquire knowledge of all our rights. France has had the honour of
adding to the word _Liberty_ that of _Equality_; and this word signifies
essentially a principal that admits of no gradation in the things to
which it applies. But equality is often misunderstood, often misapplied,
and often violated.

_Liberty_ and _Property_ are words expressing all those of our
possessions which are not of an intellectual nature. There are two kinds
of property. Firstly, natural property, or that which comes to us from
the Creator of the universe,--such as the earth, air, water. Secondly,
artificial or acquired property,--the invention of men. In the latter
equality is impossible; for to distribute it equally it would be
nec