and when Proudhon heard o f Fallot’s death, he told Weiss: ‘I felt
that half o f my life and spirit had been cut off from me: I found
myself alone in the world. I do not doubt that Fallot leaves
friends who regret him as much as I; I did not drop a tear, for I
never weep, but since that time I have probably not passed four
hours together without his memory, like a fixed idea, a true mono
mania, occupying my thoughts.’
And one might add that, despite the apparent failure o f the
expedition to Paris, it transformed Proudhon’s whole attitude
towards his future. Flad it not taken place, he might have been
content to remain a working printer; but once he had been pro
pelled into accepting a new object in his fife, there was no turning,
and however often in the next few years he might appear to be re
suming the old craftsman’s life, he had accepted decisively the
notion that his destiny lay outside the doors of the workshop, away
from the lead vapours and the inane devotional texts and the thud
ding presses, and out in the free space of the public arena. A ll this
was doubtless latent in him, but it was Fallot’s influence that
brought it to the surface and it was Fallot who first revealed the
breadth o f that community of thought and learning to which the
young printer henceforward belonged by right.5
‘With fifty francs in my pocket, a pack on my back, and my note
books on philosophy for provisions, I directed my steps towards
the South of France.’ Proudhon in fact became a companion of
the '’tour de France’ one o f the journeymen who wandered
from town to town, taking employment where they could find it,
living precariously, but gaining in experience more than they lost
in cash.
He tramped down the Rhone valley to Lyons, where he found
a few weeks of work, and then on to Marseilles. By the time he
reached Toulon, his resources were reduced to three and a half
francs. There was no work to be found, and, inspired by the
example of the unemployed workers who had just raised the bar
ricades in Paris with a demand for work, he decided to make his
own individual ‘appeal to authority.’ He went into the office of the
mayor of Toulon and, producing his passport, formally demanded
assistance in obtaining work.
THE HILLS OF THE JURA*9