THE STRICKEN YEARSwith the certainty that his death could not be long postponed,
he was sustained by the enthusiasm he saw around him. He heard
with delight of the formation o f the International, partly through
the initiative of French workers who adhered to his own ideas,
and told Delhasse that this was a proof that ‘democracy everywhere
is becoming aware of itself; it recognises its solidarity.’ ‘There
are formidable indignations in the air,’ he told Buzon.
It was to serve this awakening o f rebellious thought, to give
expression to these formidable indignations, that Proudhon de
voted his last fragments o f strength, and by early November he
was trying to persuade the Garniers to abandon their terror of
political subjects and accept his book. On the 23rd November he
was still working with determination, and told Delhasse that the
book would be finished in another week. It would be the last
effort o f its kind, he added wearily. ‘Books overpower me, and
I have decided to write only articles in future.’ But even this
limited ambition was beyond him, for a few days later his illness
took an alarmingly acute turn, and he had to abandon writing
altogether. The attacks o f asthma had become so severe and so
weakening that he was no longer able to hold his pen, and even
had difficulty in reading. When he wrote to Maurice on the 30th
November, Catherine, now fifteen years old, had to act as his
secretary. Except for painfully signing letters, he did not write
again.
It was in the early days o f this final illness that his friend of
twenty years ago, and his most formidable disciple, Michael
Bakunin, visited him for the last time. Bakunin and Proudhon
had disagreed over the Polish question, but they had met during
1862, when the latter confessed his feeling that, wanting to write
like Voltaire, he always seemed to end up writing like Rousseau.
Bakunin had come to Passy again at the end of 1863, and now,
in November, 1864, he broke a journey to Florence in order
to call on Proudhon for their final meeting. As o f old in the
Rue de Bourgogne, they argued long and good-humouredly,
and Bakunin, with considerable insight, accused Proudhon of
being swayed at one moment by the Bible and the next by Roman
law, and o f being an incorrigible idealist. What Proudhon replied
is not recorded, but we can well imagine that the enthusiasm
Bakunin displayed at this time for the rising workers’ movement
helped to sustain the flickering flame o f his activity.