invisible and anonymous social force resulting from the reciprocal
action o f economic institutions and industrial groups. He clearly
envisages an administrative structure, constructed by the people
according to their economic interests rather than, as now, by
purely territorial or political considerations. The purpose o f this
administration will not be to govern or to impose a central authority
but to arrange the mutual co-operation o f all interests.
As for external policy, this is simplified by the fact that ‘The
Revolution... takes no cognisance o f cities or races... Let it
be realised in one place, and the world will follow. The power of
its economic institutions, the gratuity o f its credit, the brilliance of
its thought, will suffice to convert the universe.’ And, as the finale
to this spontaneous spread o f Justice, Proudhon foresees a ‘uni
versal federation, the supreme guarantee o f all liberty and all
right which, without soldiers or priests, must replace the society
o f Christianity and feudalism’ and in which ‘the life of man will
pass in tranquillity o f the senses and serenity o f the spirit.’
Education is important in any consideration o f the destiny of
society because it represents the fostering o f the whole man, in all
his faculties and in all the phases o f his life. Like all practical
morality, education must rest on the principle, which places the
criterion o f actions in the individual conscience: ‘Sin defiles the
spirit; to live with it is worse than to die.’ Instead, the Church
elevates the authoritarian and terrorist principle: ‘Sin offends God,
who forbids it, and sooner or later punishes it.’ By substituting
fear for the free action o f the conscience, the Church negates all
the principles o f morality and thus brings about the degradation^
of the human character.
More than that, the Church has negated all the vital processes of
education which lie outside the maintenance o f its own authority.
It ignores industry, and is hostile to the sciences, to the arts and
letters and to philosophy. Thus it denudes man’s inner self,
breaks his contact with nature, demoralises him in the face of
death, and destroys that mutual respect between men which is
the foundation of Justice.
Against the condition o f the man whose development has been
stultified by religion, Proudhon places that of the man whose
education has been integrated through the revolutionary attitude:
‘Human life enters its fulness... when it has satisfied the following
conditions: i. Love, paternity, family: extension and perpetuation
THE PALADIN OF JUSTICE