which is distinguished from love because it admits no egoistic
elements, but implies a rigorous impartiality. Justice, conceived
in this manner, indicates both our right and our duty. Our right
is to demand a respect for the human dignity manifest in our own
persons; our duty is to respect that dignity in others. Finally,
‘from the identity o f reason among all men and from the senti
ment o f respect that leads them to maintain at all costs their
mutual dignity, there results Equality before Justice.’
The identification of Equality and Justice leads us out o f the
realm of personal relationships into the economic field o f wealth
and poverty. The Church, according to Proudhon, takes no cog
nisance o f economic science and its relationship to Justice; it
regards inequality o f condition as inevitable, it makes poverty a
judgment o f God and an effect o f original sin, it perpetuates the
artificial divisions o f society and defends the system o f the
subordination o f work to authority— a system that contains no
element o f Justice.
The Revolution, on the other hand, has found in equality the
point o f accord between Justice and economics. Justice demands,
not the subordination, but the equality and reciprocity o f work.
Balance is the economic law, as it is the law o f the universe. Men
may not be identical, but each has his particular faculty, and it is
in the balance of these faculties that Equality is attained. This
does not imply that property should be destroyed— Proudhon
again insists that he never wished to advocate this— but it must
be brought into equilibrium, so that the ancient division between
master and servant may at last be eliminated. The means to attain
this end are the institutions of economic mutualism described in
his earlier writings.
From the economic organisation of society, Proudhon is led to
its political organisation. There are three systems on which this
has been based. That o f necessity, presupposing the inevitability of
inequality, dominated the societies of antiquity. That o f providence
is maintained by the Church; it sees God as all powerful, man as
corrupt, and denies human rights in favour o f an irresponsible
authority based on an immutable creed. This results in the suspen
sion o f morality for the glory of God and the triumph o f the
Church.
Against these systems Proudhon elevates that o f Justice, a
positive and realist concept which is expressed in an impersonal,
THE PALADIN OF JUSTICE