From artifice sprang the profits of manufactures, commerce, and banking, mercantile frauds, and pretensions which are honored with the beautiful names of TALENT and GENIUS, but which ought to be regarded as the last degree of knavery and deception;and, finally, all sorts of social inequalities.
In those forms of robbery which are prohibited by law, force and artifice are employed alone and undisguised; in the authorized forms, they conceal themselves within a useful product, which they use as a tool to plunder their victim.
The direct use of violence and stratagem was early and universally condemned; but no nation has yet got rid of that kind of robbery which acts through talent, labor, and possession, and which is the source of all the dilemmas of casuistry and the innumerable contradictions of jurisprudence.
The right of force and the right of artifice--glorified by the rhapsodists in the poems of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey"--inspired the legislation of the Greeks and Romans, from which they passed into our morals and codes.Christianity has not changed at all.The Gospel should not be blamed, because the priests, as stupid as the legists, have been unable either to expound or to understand it.The ignorance of councils and popes upon all questions of morality is equal to that of the market-place and the money-changers; and it is this utter ignorance of right, justice, and society, which is killing the Church, and discrediting its teachings for ever.The infidelity of the Roman church and other Christian churches is flagrant; all have disregarded the precept of Jesus; all have erred in moral and doctrinal points; all are guilty of teaching false and absurd dogmas, which lead straight to wickedness and murder.Let it ask pardon of God and men,--this church which called itself infallible, and which has grown so corrupt in morals; let its reformed sisters humble themselves,...and the people, undeceived, but still religious and merciful, will begin to think.
"I preach the Gospel, I live by the Gospel," said the Apostle; meaning thereby that he lived by his labor.The Catholic clergy prefer to live by property.The struggles in the communes of the middle ages between the priests and bishops and the large proprietors and seigneurs are famous.The papal excommunications fulminated in defence of ecclesiastical revenues are no less so.Even to-day, the official organs of the Gallican clergy still maintain that the pay received by the clergy is not a salary, but an indemnity for goods of which they were once proprietors, and which were taken from them in '89 by the Third Estate.The clergy prefer to live by the right of increase rather than by labor.
One of the main causes of Ireland's poverty to-day is the immense revenues of the English clergy.So heretics and orthodox--Protestants and Papists--cannot reproach each other.All have strayed from the path of justice; all have disobeyed the eighth commandment of the Decalogue: "Thou shalt not steal."The development of right has followed the same order, in its various expressions, that property has in its forms.Every where we see justice driving robbery before it and confining it within narrower and narrower limits.Hitherto the victories of justice over injustice, and of equality over inequality, have been won by instinct and the simple force of things; but the final triumph of our social nature will be due to our reason, or else we shall fall back into feudal chaos.Either this glorious height is reserved for our intelligence, or this miserable depth for our baseness.
The second effect of property is despotism.Now, since despotism is inseparably connected with the idea of legitimate authority, in explaining the natural causes of the first, the principle of the second will appear.
What is to be the form of government in the future? hear some of my younger readers reply: "Why, how can you ask such a question?
You are a republican." "A republican! Yes; but that word specifies nothing._Res publica;_ that is, the public thing.
Now, whoever is interested in public affairs--no matter under what form of government--may call himself a republican.Even kings are republicans."--"Well! you are a democrat?"--"No."--"What! you would have a monarchy."--"No."--"A constitutionalist?"--"God forbid!"--"You are then an aristocrat?"--"Not at all."--"You want a mixed government?"--"Still less."--"What are you, then?"--"I am an anarchist.""Oh! I understand you; you speak satirically.This is a hit at the government."--"By no means.I have just given you my serious and well-considered profession of faith.Although a firm friend of order, I am (in the full force of the term) an anarchist.
Listen to me."
In all species of sociable animals, "the weakness of the young is the principle of their obedience to the old, who are strong; and from habit, which is a kind of conscience with them, the power remains with the oldest, although he finally becomes the weakest.
Whenever the society is under the control of a chief, this chief is almost always the oldest of the troop.I say almost always, because the established order may be disturbed by violent outbreaks.Then the authority passes to another; and, having been re-established by force, it is again maintained by habit.
Wild horses go in herds: they have a chief who marches at their head, whom they confidently follow, and who gives the signal for flight or battle.
