Proudhon - A Biography

THE CRITIC OF PROPERTY
nor were its basic causes removed. He was as poor as ever, and
desperately lonely. ‘I am almost without society,’ he told Acker­
mann, ‘a hundred leagues from Bergmann, four hundred from
you, deprived of Fallot, whose memory was never more painful;
there are moments when I fall into an inexpressible forsakenness.’
And in the bitterness induced by his personal difficulties he could
not refrain from defending his past anger even while he promised
to amend it. ‘I have only one excuse,’ he declared to Ackermann.
‘When a man, nearly thirty-two years old, is in a state near to
indigence without its being his fau lt... when, at the same time,
he seems to notice among the advocates of privilege more impu­
dence and bad faith than incapacity and stupidity, it is very diffi­
cult to prevent his bile flaring up and his style feeling the furies
of his spirit.’
His contempt for the world, in fact, overflowed in every direc­
tion at this time, and he let loose not only at the perfidy of
the reaction but also at the stupidity of his fellow republicans,
whose Jacobinical methods made it impossible for sincere and
sensible people to work at the reshaping o f society. ‘A year ago,
one might have believed we were going towards reform; today
we are marching to revolution,’ he declared with prophetic in­
sight.
Meanwhile, the dispute with the Besangon Academy had broken
out anew. Proudhon, who had been requested to appear in
Besangon during December to justify his right to continue as a
pensioner, did not do so, and the academicians were enraged by
what they regarded as a further affront to their corporate dignity.
A t the end o f December Proudhon received a letter from Pdrenn&s
demanding an explanation o f his conduct. He was once again
thrown into a state o f mingled fury and despair, and complained
to Pdrenn£s that he had been given orders, which he would dis­
obey, and threats, which he would defy; in a separate official letter
to the Academy he announced his intention, in the event of the
pension being withdrawn, o f bringing his case publicly before the
people o f Besangon.
On the 15th January, 1841, the Academy considered his letter.
Those already opposed to him were more hostile than ever, but
Perennes and Weiss supported him, and Proudhon was saved by
the rule demanding a two-thirds majority for withdrawing as well
as granting a pension. He was surprised and relieved, and the