more important to imagine the feeling o f powerless grief which
this little family of Comtois peasants experienced, and to realise
how the tragedy must have appeared to the already rebellious
Pierre-Joseph a direct consequence of their position among the
lowest class in a society whose activities militated against the poor
and the honest. The state, with its compulsive machinery, had
seized Jean-Etienne with no regard for his wishes or the feelings
o f his relatives, it had used and killed him, and now it would go
on in the same way, seizing another young man to put in his
place, and the process would continue indefinitely. On the other
hand— and here was a second lesson— the state was by no means
impartial in its operations. Influence could deflect it from its
course and save the child o f the wealthy. So the state, it became
evident to Proudhon, was an instrument of the powerful, and
henceforward the anarchistic tendencies which we have already
seen appearing in his thought began to grow strong, and author
ity became the principal object o f his attacks. The death o f this
beloved brother thus represents one of the most significant points
of his development as a rebel.
The years that followed this tragedy are little documented and
seem to have been almost completely uneventful. O f 1834 and
1835, indeed, Proudhon was content to remark in his autobio
graphical notes: ‘Happy years because o f my work.’ When he
returned from Arbois the economic situation in Besangon was
greatly improved, and his old employers, the Gauthiers, were
glad to take him back as a foreman. He received 120 francs a
month, and was able to keep his family in more comfort than they
had enjoyed since his early childhood.
The work o f this period seems to have been the most satisfying
o f his career as a printer. The Gauthiers produced during these
years not only a Vulgate Bible, which Proudhon regarded as his
masterwork o f craftsmanship, but also the Dictionnaire Theologique
of the Abb6 Bergier. Because of his knowledge o f Latin and
Hebrew, Proudhon supervised these books over the months of
their composition and printing, and, though he did not regain
the simple beliefs o f his youth, he was tempted by his daily
occupation to go back into the maze of theological speculation,
and to acquire that mass of information on religions which later
he used so effectively in his study of the nature of belief and in his
criticisms o f the Church.
THE HILLS OF THE JURA