ceptions were in harmony with the physiological and psychological
nature of man, and in harmony with the observance of natural laws, while
our actual organisation has been established in contravention of all
logic and all good sense.... Thus, in combating authority, it has been
necessary for the Anarchists to attack all the institutions which the
Government defends, the necessity for which it tries to demonstrate in
order to legitimate its own existence."[49]

You see what was "the development" of the "Anarchist Idea." This Idea
"denied" authority. In order to defend itself, authority appealed to the
family, religion, property. Then the "Idea" found itself forced to
attack institutions, which it had not, apparently, noticed before, and
at the same time the "Idea," in order to make the most of its
"conceptions," penetrated to the very depths of all human knowledge (it
is an ill wind that does not blow some good!) All this is only the
result of chance, of the unexpected turn given by "authority" to the
discussion that had arisen between itself and the "Idea."

It seems to us that however rich in human knowledge it may be now, the
"Anarchist Idea" is not at all communistic; it keeps its knowledge to
itself, and leaves the poor "companions" in complete ignorance. It is
all very well for Kropotkine to sing the praises of the "Anarchist
thinker"; he will never be able to prove that his friend Grave has been
able to rise even a little above the feeblest metaphysics.

Kropotkine should read over again the Anarchist pamphlets of Elisee
Reclus--a great "theorist" this--and then, quite seriously tell us if he
finds anything else in them but appeals to "justice," "liberty," and
other "metaphysical conceptions."

Finally, Kropotkine himself is not so emancipated from metaphysics as he
fancies he is. Far from it! Here, _e.g._, is what he said at the general
meeting of the Federation of the Jura, on the 12th October, 1879, at
Chaux-de-Fonds:--

"There was a time when they denied Anarchists even the right to
existence. The General Council of the International treated us as
factious, the press as dreamers; almost all treated us as fools; this
time is past. The Anarchist party has proved its _vitality_; it has
surmounted the obstacles of every kind that impeded its development;
to-day it is _accepted_." [By whom?] "To attain to this, it has been
necessary, above all else, for the party to hold its own in the domain
of _theory_, to e