of Proudhon, the inheritance of the most talented party of
any age, the Girondists, locally developed, and to some extent not
without a profound knowledge of politics. It cannot be denied that the
federal principle, as Proudhon here explains it, means the integration
of social force, which in its differentiation meets us sometimes as a
special and sometimes as the common interest, sometimes as
Individualism or again as Altruism. According to this, federation is
nothing more than the translation into politics of the metaphor (which
we formerly used from physics) of the resultants of several component
forces; a metaphor which not only suits the genius of Proudhon, but
also is frequently found in his language. Proudhon was deeply
permeated by the reality of Collectivism, but saw it in the light both
of Physics and Physiology, so that the word "resultants" is with him
more than a metaphor. In this respect Proudhon far surpassed in
insight all the social philosophers of his age, and anticipated the
pioneers of modern sociology. But he contradicted himself, and lost
his special merits by wishing to make out of a social law an absolute
formula; by abandoning the scientific standpoint which he once
attained, and falling back again into dogmatism. If we conceive all
society in the mechanical manner in which Proudhon did; or if we think
(as he did) that we have at least partially discovered the laws of
its movement, then all further politics exhaust themselves in an
experimental verification of the laws in question. But to anticipate
any point of the development which one expects, and to regard it as
something absolute, is a process irreconcilable with an exact
scientific method. In brief, Proudhon's federalism is a political
principle; his Anarchism is a dogma, or at best an hypothesis which
cannot even be logically proved from the first-named, for it is not
true, as Proudhon maintains, that the idea of agreement excludes that
of lordship.

* * * * *

But if Proudhon conceives all society in a mechanical manner, it is to
be expected that he would again seek--and find--the same laws that he
saw operating in the political constitution also in economic life.
This is, as a matter of fact, the case. "Agreement solves every
problem"; only agreement in economic life means with him exchange.
"Social agreement," he says, "is in its essence like the agreement of
exchange." Therefore the corner-stone in hi