logical reasoning of this essay, the potential rebel is recognisable,
and, at times, the man who was later to declare himself at war
with God seems amazingly near. ‘Though we may never be
present at a second dawning of flawless virtue,’ cries Proudhon in
almost existentialist tones, ‘though chance and necessity may be
the sole gods which our intelligence shall recognise, it will be
good to bear witness that we are conscious o f our night and,
by the outcry of our thoughts, protest against our destiny/ As
Sainte-Beuve remarked, ‘an intellectual Prometheus growled
already in the bosom of Bergier’s disciple.’
Apart from the praises of local acquaintances, this essay passed
unnoticed. Yet Proudhon was full of optimism, and already saw
himself revolutionising the study of languages. He assured
Muiron that he was on the verge o f a grammatical revelation,
and, like many other autodidactic thinkers, he became dominated
by an almost mystical belief in the function of language as a
key to the whole of philosophy. The man who discovered the
secret of speech, he felt, would open up new vistas across the
whole world of knowledge.
By the end o f the year, lack of recognition had tempered his
enthusiasm. To a new friend, the Alsatian poet Paul Ackermann.
he boasted that he had ‘enough ideas to feed two or three Chateau-
briands,’ but was inhibited by his stylistic shortcomings. ‘I have a
terrible itch to send literature to the devil; it bores me and it is
beyond me... I would like to be able to speak in formulae, to
put all I think on one page.’ Yet he was obviously not discouraged
enough to abandon his ambitions, and the mere fact of having
published an essay which was appreciated by a few people whom
he respected gave him the confidence to proceed with the larger
plans taking shape in his mind.7
The affairs o f Lambert and Company had in the meantime
shown little progress, and it became evident that even two work
ing partners could not be maintained. Early in 1838 Proudhon
therefore decided to return to Paris, partly in the hope of finding
some work for his firm, partly to earn his living there as a com
positor, and partly to see whether, with the added experience
of six years, he could now begin a literary career.
THE HILLS OF THE JURA