Proudhon - A Biography

THE HILLS OF THE JURA
Permanent Secretary of the Besangon Academy, and with whom
he had already corresponded on the subject before Lambert’s
death. In February, he had outlined to Perennes the studies he
proposed to make in the event of his receiving the pension; it was
philosophy he wished to pursue, using the study of languages as
a point of departure. Soon after his return to Besangon he began
to seek out the men who could best help him in competing for the
pension, and very soon he prepared his letter of appeal.
Beginning with a declaration of his humble origin, be told the
story of his life and education with such eloquence that Perennes
exclaimed in astonishment: ‘Wherever did you learn to write like
that?’ He then detailed the course o f studies which he had
already described to his adviser, and ended with the celebrated
dedication, the oath to his fellows in poverty:
‘Born and brought up in the working class, still belonging to it,
today and for ever, by heart, by nature, by habits and above all by
the community of interests and wishes, the greatest joy of the
candidate, if he gains your votes, will be to have attracted in his
person your just solicitude for that interesting portion of society,
to have been judged worthy of being its first representative before
you, and to be able to work henceforward without relaxation,
through philosophy and science, and with all the energy o f his
will and the powers of his mind, for the complete liberation of his
brothers and companions.’
This open declaration o f sympathies scared Perennfes as much
as it delighted him, and, doubtless with a great deal of difficulty,
he persuaded Proudhon to tone it down into a paragraph which
expressed the same sentiment in a form less likely to arouse the
fears of the committee in whose hands the decision would rest.
The Academy’s decision was reached on the 23 rd August, and,
after two votes, Proudhon was chosen out o f several candidates;
in the report that was read the following day by Perennes, it was
stated that the Academy had been in favour of Proudhon, since
he had over his competitors ‘the incontestable and sad advantage
o f possessing less resources and o f having been more rudely
shaken by fortune,’ and that his remarkable intellectual progress
offered ‘almost certain guarantees for success and for the future.’
Proudhon’s natural delight at his success was mingled with
annoyance, since the academicians insisted that he should go to
Paris, while he wished to carry on his studies in Besangon. ‘What