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ofKant , andthe " Contradictious" of Hegel . According- to it , every positive idea implies a riegatitie , and the truth lies in the antithesis of the two ; thus , Competition as a positive idea , implies its opposite Association ; Good implies Evil ; Virtue implies Vice . Competition , alone , is anarchy 5 Association , alone , is sterility . Safety lies in the antithesis , or equilibrium of the two . If you suppress Competition , you suppress individual Liberty , attd Society becomes truncated . If you leave Competition urtchecked , you produce immeasurable misery . For a fuller development of his views , which we here so briefly indicate , we refer to his great work ( Sysieme des Contradictions Eeonomiques , vol . i . chap . 5 ) , and with this preface , address ourselves to the chapter on Association in the work now under
review . He confesses that he has always looked upon Association as an equivocal engagement , which , like Pleasure , Love , Friendship , and many other thirig 9 , conceals beneath a seductive appearance more evil than good . " It is , perhaps , the result of my temperament , but I am as suspicious of fraternity as of luxuriousness : I have met with few men who have had reason to l ) oast of either . " But , passing from his individual partialities into the domain of science , he says : — " Let us apply the criterium . " " What does society now require ? " That its tendency to sin and misery should become a movement towards comfort and virtue .
" How is this change to be wrought ? «« B y reestablishing equilibrium in the Economic Forces . 44 Is Association the equilibrium of Forces ? " No . 44 Is Association a Force at all ? " No . 44 What is Association ? u A dogma . 44 Association is so thoroughly in the eyes of those who propose it as a revolutionary expedient , a dogma , something settled , complete , absolute , immutable , that all who have given in to this Utopia , have tended without exception , towards a system . By
constantlyviewing all the parts of the social body through the medium , of a fixed idea , it was natural that they should end , as they have ended , by reconstructing society 011 an imaginary plan , somewhat after the fashion of that astronomer who , out of respect for his own calculations , reconstructed the system of the universe No ; Association is no more a directing prineiple than it is an industrial power ; Association , in iiself , has no organic or productive virtue , nothing which , like the Division of Labour , Competition , &c , renders the workman stronger and more expeditious , diminishes the cost of production , obtains a greater value from lesser elements , or like the administrative hierarchy , offers a glimpse of harmony mid order . "
The reader will be disposed to pull up at this assertion , and declare Proudhon unworthy of being listened to when he says that Association does not increase the production nor diminish the cost . But Proudhon is perfectly aware of all that can be said on this subject—indeed , he has said it himself over and over again , with his usual vigour ; he calls it , however , the Collective Force , and classes it ainonj , ' the Economic Forces . In the Memoir on Properly , he pointed out how the Division of Employment conjoined with the Combination of Labour ( we use Gibbon Wakefield's serviceable distinction ) increases production , and how , in consequence , the labourers ought to be paid , over and above their salary , a portion of this produce due to the collective force .
Why this distinction ? asks the reader . We direct attention to it , for he will presently see that it ia of capital importance in this question . Understand , therefore , that the Cooperation of Labour is a Collective Force to be classed among the Economic Fortes ; but that it ; is an impersonal tiling : it is different from Association , which is A voluntary engagement on the part of men . We may now quote Pi omUion ' s demonstration , that Association is not a Force : —
" In a word , is Association mi Economic Force ? It haH been cried up , und marvels promised from it , for the last twenty yearn . How in it , that no one demonstrates its eflieaey ? Ih the efficacy of Ashociatiou more difficult of demouHtraiioii than that of commerce , credit , or tho division of labour ? " For myself , I will answer categorically . No ; Association is not an Economic Force . Association 10 in its very nature Hterile , oven hurtful , for it is an obstacle to the liberty of the workman . Tho retrponsible authors ofthoHe fraternal Utopias , by which o many people still allow themselves to be Reduced , have , without proof , attributed to the contract of society a viituo and efficacy which belong onlv to colloctivo force , tho diviwion of labour , or to exchaago .
The public has not perceived this confusion ; hence , the hazird of the constitutions of societies , their various fortunes , and tne uncertainty of public opinion . 44 When a society , whether industrial or commercial , has for its object either to put in action one of the great Economic Forces , or to work some property the nature of which requires it to remain undivided , a monopoly , or a good will ; the society
formed for this object may have a prosperous result ; but this result is not due to its principle , but to its means . This is so true that whenever the same result can be attained without Association , it is preferred . Association is a bond naturally repugnant to liberty , and no one consents to submit to it , unless he finds in it a sufficient indemnity for so doing , so that this practical maxim may be opposed to all Utopian societies . Man never associates _ but unwillingly , and because he cannot do otherwise . 44
Let us , then , distinguish between the principle of Association and the infinitely varying means of which a society , by the effect of external circumstances foreign to its nature , can dispose , and among which I rank the Economic Force as first . The principle would cause the enterprise to be given up , if no other incentive could be found ; the means are the cause of men ' s inclining to it , in the hopes of Obtaining an increase of riches through a sacrifice of independence . " Let us examine this principle : we will afterwards come to the means .
Whoever says Association , says solidarity , general responsibility , fusion of rights and duties with others . This is understood by all fraternal and even harmonist societies , in spite of their dreams of emulative competition . " In Association , he does all he can , does all he ought : it may be said that Association is productive of utility to the weak or idle associate , and to him only . Hence the equality of wages , a first law of Association . 41 In Association , all are answerable for all ; the smallest is as much as the greatest ; the last comer has the same right as the first . Association effaces all faults , levels all inequalities , hence the solidarity of aukwardness as well as of incapacity ft
Thus explained by Socialists and J urists , can Association become general—the universal and superior law—the public and civil right of an entire nation—of humanity ? 44 Such is the question put by the various Associative schools , which , whilst varying their rules , have unanimously answered in the affirmative . 44 To that I reply—No ; the contract of Association , under whatsoever form , can never become the universal law ; because , being in its nature unproductive and troublesome , applicable only under special conditions , its disadvantages increasing much more rapidly than its advantages , it is repugnant both to tlie ajconomy of labour and the liberty of the workman . Whence I conclude that one Association could never include all the workmen of one branch
of industry , nor all the industrial corporations , nor , of course , a nation of thirty-six millions of men ; therefore , that the Associative principle does not contain the required solution . " To drag the whole of Proudhon ' s position into light , and thereby lay bare the fallacy , we have now only to place in juxtaposition with the foregoing , the sarcasm which escapes him some pages onwards : — " Association in and for itself is a pure act of religion , a Hupi-rnatural bond , without positive value— - a myth ! " Do you see the fallacy ? Do you see where this redoubtable logician has wandered out of the path ? Let us endeavour to make it clear .
The Socialists say that , as a matter of Economics , Association , because it implies Concert , greatly increases the production and diminishes the cost ; that over and above this Economic result , it is for tin ; fulfilment of our moral nature that we should cease to keep up a struggle ayainst each other , and unite our efforts against the obstacles of Nature ; in other words , that we should endeavour to make all our relations with each other friendly instead of inimical . Here you see a doctrine with two aspects , corresponding with the twofold condition of society : a doctrine which lias an Kconomic aspect and a Moral aspect . We reduce it to its simplest terms , setting aside all questions of detail for the present .
JNow , what does . Proudhon prove ? lie proves that what he calls the Collective Force is one of the Economic Forces ; and he then attaches himself to the second aspect of the doctrine—tho moraland proves that it in not a Force , but a Religion . In other words , he provcH that Concert in the division of employments m economically a force , and that Socialism in right in declaring so much ; and the fallacy of Iuh argument lies in identifying the moral with the economical awpootB—a faljacy very common among the writers on Political Economy ,
who , because ( heir science onfy concerns its * i # with the «• wealth of nations , " are apt to fort *? that Socialism uniformly elaims a wider and mor exalted office , refusing to separate the moral from the economic condition . We ( that is , the present writer ) by no means share in the common feeling against competitionone of the transitional conditions 6 f outf industrial movement—nor do we at all believe in the practicability of Association becoming universal for a very long while . But nothing seems clearer to us thaa that the tendency of society is towards such
a goal } and that the task which lies before all the present generation is , that of accelerating the movement by intellectual , moral , and experimental means ( of which Cooperative Stores and Working-Men ' s Associations are such admirable examples ) . We mast become fitted to such a condition before we can realize it . The change must be moral , no les # than economical : hence the vanity of all attempts at immediate systematization only those men who are morally fitted for such a state being competent to carry out successfull y the principle of Association . We agree with Proudhon : — " Association in itself is not solution of the revolutionary problem . On the contrary , it is itself a problem , the solution of which requires that the associates shall have all the advantages of union with . all tbeir independence . " It is , however , a conviction based upon evidence irresistible to our minds that Association is the dominant Idea this century has to realize : because it , and it alone , meets the twofold need of social life—because it , and it alone , is the principle which contains within itself the Economic and the Moral solution of our difficulties .
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LADY SELINA CLIFFORD . Lady Selina Clifford . A Novel and other Tales . Edited by Lady Dormer . 2 vols . Bentley . Gray ' s idea of Paradisiacal felicity was : Lying on a sofa and eternally reading new novels;—a Paradise preferable , perhaps , to that wherein eternity is passed in drinking the blood of enemies out of skulls ; but , on the whole , not the Paradise which a well-informed Reviewer would be disposed to conceive ! Eternally reading new novels—what
a task ! That of Sisiphus ( so often alluded to by gentlemen desirous of giving a " classical" air to their compositions or conversations ) was an agreeable relaxation in comparison : he , at any rate , exercised his muscles ; whereas the eternal novelreader can exercise nothing but his patience—his mind is prostrate . You cannot eat a pigeon thirty days in succession , vary its mode of cooking how you please ; and , if the mental stomach ( excuse the odious phrase for the sake of the parallel !) be somewhat less rebellious—less fastidious with its
food , yet even that " ravenous maw" has its limits . Just ; picture to yourself the prostrate Felix , after thirty days of consecutive novel-reading , wearied , emaciated , sated , yet horribly conscious of the ever-arriving tidal velocity of new novels remorselessly handed to him by the messenger of some supernal Cawthorne ! Picture this , however faintly , and you will become aware of the ghastliness of Gray ' Paradise !
The truth is that condiments are not food : a fact very commonly disregarded , and espe cially by novel-readers . Novels are delightful works , not only fascinating but morally beneficial , if they are read sparingly and with some discrimination ; but to devour them with the voracity and recklessness noticeable in many young ladies and gentlemen , in to dine oil" olives , peppercorns , dates , capsicums , and jam . " We yield to none" ( as elegant writers aay ) in appreciation of the pleasure and benefit derived from a good novel ; and we fancy that those who rail indiscriminately against novel-reading do ko because they destroyed their capacity loi it by excesses at the time they did read novels .
There is one sense , however , in which we would gladly undertake to read all novels , viz ., ' * l ' (! adjective new be confined to the novel , and not simply to the name ; in other words , if the novel l >« something more than a dexterous rearrangement of old characters , old incidents , old remarks , and old language . Let the writer but tell us what lie has actually seen and suffered , and we are but too happy to read him . Does this seem exacting t < j > ° much ? It in tho rarest of fulfilled conditions ! VVc could name novelists who have made reputations , and whose printed pagen must be reckoned l > y tt ' of thousands , who have never fulfilled that tump' *' und primary condition of all Literature—the having something to say !
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924 © 0 $ & * £ & £ *? [ SATukfuY ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1851, page 924, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1902/page/16/
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