第 66 节
作者:管他三七二十一      更新:2021-02-20 05:36      字数:9322
  or; your enervated genius will recover unconquerable energy; and your heart; perhaps already withered; will be rejuvenated!  Every thing will wear a different look to your illuminated vision; new sentiments will engender new ideas within you; religion; morality; poetry; art; language will appear before you in nobler and fairer forms; and thenceforth; sure of your faith; and thoughtfully enthusiastic; you will hail the dawn of universal regeneration!
  And you; sad victims of an odious law!you; whom a jesting world despoils and outrages!you; whose labor has always been fruitless; and whose rest has been without hope;take courage! your tears are numbered!  The fathers have sown in affliction; the children shall reap in rejoicings!
  O God of liberty!  God of equality!  Thou who didst place in my heart the sentiment of justice; before my reason could comprehend it; hear my ardent prayer!  Thou hast dictated all that I have written; Thou hast shaped my thought; Thou hast directed my studies; Thou hast weaned my mind from curiosity and my heart from attachment; that I might publish Thy truth to the master and the slave。  I have spoken with what force and talent Thou hast given me: it is Thine to finish the work。  Thou knowest whether I seek my welfare or Thy glory; O God of liberty!  Ah! perish my memory; and let humanity be free!  Let me see from my obscurity the people at last instructed; let noble teachers enlighten them; let generous spirits guide them! Abridge; if possible; the time of our trial; stifle pride and avarice in equality; annihilate this love of glory which enslaves us; teach these poor children that in the bosom of liberty there are neither heroes nor great men!  Inspire the powerful man; the rich man; him whose name my lips shall never pronounce in Thy presence; with a horror of his crimes; let him be the first to apply for admission to the redeemed society; let the promptness of his repentance be the ground of his forgiveness!  Then; great and small; wise and foolish; rich and poor; will unite in an ineffable fraternity; and; singing in unison a new hymn; will rebuild Thy altar; O God of liberty and equality!
  END OF FIRST MEMOIR。
  WHAT IS PROPERTY?
  SECOND MEMOIR
  A LETTER TO M。 BLANQUI。
  WHAT IS PROPERTY?
  A LETTER TO M。 BLANQUI。
  SECOND MEMOIR。
  PARIS; April 1; 1841。 MONSIEUR; Before resuming my 〃Inquiries into Government and Property;〃 it is fitting; for the satisfaction of some worthy people; and also in the interest of order; that I should make to you a plain; straightforward explanation。  In a much…governed State; no one would be allowed to attack the external form of the society; and the groundwork of its institutions; until he had established his right to do so;first; by his morality; second; by his capacity; and; third; by the purity of his intentions。  Any one who; wishing to publish a treatise upon the constitution of the country; could not satisfy this threefold condition; would be obliged to procure the endorsement of a responsible patron possessing the requisite qualifications。
  But we Frenchmen have the liberty of the press。  This grand rightthe sword of thought; which elevates the virtuous citizen to the rank of legislator; and makes the malicious citizen an agent of discordfrees us from all preliminary responsibility to the law; but it does not release us from our internal obligation to render a public account of our sentiments and thoughts。  I have used; in all its fulness; and concerning an important question; the right which the charter grants us。  I come to…day; sir; to submit my conscience to your judgment; and my feeble insight to your discriminating reason。  You have criticised in a kindly spiritI had almost said with partiality for the writer a work which teaches a doctrine that you thought it your duty to condemn。  〃The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences;〃 said you in your report; 〃can accept the conclusions of the author only as far as it likes。〃  I venture to hope; sir; that; after you have read this letter; if your prudence still restrains you; your fairness will induce you to do me justice。
  MEN; EQUAL IN THE DIGNITY OF THEIR PERSONS AND EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW; SHOULD BE EQUAL IN THEIR CONDITIONS;such is the thesis which I maintained and developed in a memoir bearing the title; 〃What is Property? or; An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government。〃
  The idea of social equality; even in individual fortunes; has in all ages besieged; like a vague presentiment; the human imagination。  Poets have sung of it in their hymns; philosophers have dreamed of it in their Utopias; priests teach it; but only for the spiritual world。  The people; governed by it; never have had faith in it; and the civil power is never more disturbed than by the fables of the age of gold and the reign of Astrea。  A year ago; however; this idea received a scientific demonstration; which has not yet been satisfactorily answered; and; permit me to add; never will be。  This demonstration; owing to its slightly impassioned style; its method of reasoning;which was so at variance with that employed by the generally recognized authorities;and the importance and novelty of its conclusions; was of a nature to cause some alarm; and might have been dangerous; had it not beenas you; sir; so well saida sealed letter; so far as the general public was concerned; addressed only to men of intelligence。  I was glad to see that through its metaphysical dress you recognized the wise foresight of the author; and I thank you for it。  May God grant that my intentions; which are wholly peaceful; may never be charged upon me as treasonable!
  Like a stone thrown into a mass of serpents; the First Memoir on Property excited intense animosity; and aroused the passions of many。  But; while some wished the author and his work to be publicly denounced; others found in them simply the solution of the fundamental problems of society; a few even basing evil speculations upon the new light which they had obtained。  It was not to be expected that a system of inductions abstractly gathered together; and still more abstractly expressed; would be understood with equal accuracy in its ensemble and in each of its parts。
  To find the law of equality; no longer in charity and self… sacrifice (which are not binding in their nature); but in justice; to base equality of functions upon equality of persons; to determine the absolute principle of exchange; to neutralize the inequality of individual faculties by collective force; to establish an equation between property and robbery; to change the law of succession without destroying the principle; to maintain the human personality in a system of absolute association; and to save liberty from the chains of communism; to synthetize the monarchical and democratic forms of government; to reverse the division of powers; to give the executive power to the nation; and to make legislation a positive; fixed; and absolute science;what a series of paradoxes! what a string of delusions! if I may not say; what a chain of truths!  But it is not my purpose here to pass upon the theory of the right of possession。  I discuss no dogmas。  My only object is to justify my views; and to show that; in writing as I did; I not only exercised a right; but performed a duty。
  Yes; I have attacked property; and shall attack it again; but; sir; before demanding that I shall make the amende honorable for having obeyed my conscience and spoken the exact truth; condescend; I beg of you; to cast a glance at the events which are happening around us; look at our deputies; our magistrates; our philosophers; our ministers; our professors; and our publicists; examine their methods of dealing with the matter of property; count up with me the restrictions placed upon it every day in the name of the public welfare; measure the breaches already made; estimate those which society thinks of making hereafter; add the ideas concerning property held by all theories in common; interrogate history; and then tell me what will be left; half a century hence; of this old right of property; and; thus perceiving that I have so many accomplices; you will immediately declare me innocent。
  What is the law of expropriation on the ground of public utility; which everybody favors; and which is even thought too lenient?'1'
  '1'  In the Chamber of Deputies; during the session of the fifth of January; 1841; M。 Dufaure moved to renew the expropriation bill; on the ground of public utility。
  A flagrant violation of the right of property。  Society indemnifies; it is said; the dispossessed proprietor; but does it return to him the traditional associations; the poetic charm; and the family pride which accompany property?  Naboth; and the miller of Sans…Souci; would have protested against French law; as they protested against the caprice of their kings。  〃It is the field of our fathers;〃 they would have cried; 〃and we will not sell it!〃  Among the ancients; the refusal of the individual limited the powers of the State。  The Roman law bowed to the will of the citizen; and an emperorCommodus; if I remember rightlyabandoned the project of enlarging the forum out of respect for the rights of the