THE PALADIN OF JUSTICEo f the being by carnal generation, or reproduction o f the subject
in body and spirit, in person and will. z. Work, or industrial
generation: extension and perpetuation o f the being by his action
on nature... 3. Social communion or Justice; participation in
the collective life and the progress of humanity... If these con
ditions are violated, existence is anxious; man, being able neither
to live nor die, is dedicated to misery. If, on the contrary, these
conditions are fulfilled, existence is full; it is a feast, a song o f love,
a perpetual enthusiasm, an endless hymn to happiness. A t what
ever hour the signal may be given, man is ready; for he is always
in death, which means that he is in life and in love.’
W ork is the keystone o f human society, the motive force of
Justice, the means by which alone man can eventually reach
happiness. A t the same time, in an unequal society, work is painful
and repugnant, and the worker is inferior, poor and despised.
The Church perpetuates this situation, because to conceive o f the
worker being raised from his situation, to advocate equality,
would be to deny the very doctrines o f predestination and original
sin on which the authority of the Church is based.
Against this attitude Proudhon proposes a revolutionary charter
o f labour, inspired by the law of Justice, and based on the integra
tion o f work not merely in its physical, but also in its mental
aspects. In his view, one of the disastrous aspects of modern
society is the divorce between ideas and work. Philosophy and
the sciences emerge from the working life of man, the idea rises
from the action, and the two should not be separated. Philosophy
and science must therefore be reintegrated with industry.
As a practical means o f bringing about this reintegration
Proudhon proposes the application o f equality by granting the
earth to its cultivator, the craft to the craftsman, capital to whom
ever makes use of it, the product to the producer, and the profit
o f collective power to those who contribute towards it, i.e. the
whole of society. In this way the fatality of nature may be tamed
by the liberty o f man.
In order to consolidate this liberation there are two necessary
steps: a polytechnic rather than a specialised apprenticeship,
which will initiate the learner into the general principles o f human
industry, and an organisation o f the workshop in such a way that
theyoung worker may be introducedto all its operations andeven-
tually be allowed to participate as an associate in its direction. By