We need men who, like M.Leroux, call in question social principles,--not to diffuse doubt concerning them, but to make them doubly sure; men who excite the mind by bold negations, and make the conscience tremble by doctrines of annihilation.

Where is the man who does not shudder on hearing M.Leroux exclaim, "There is neither a paradise nor a hell; the wicked will not be punished, nor the good rewarded.

Mortals! cease to hope and fear; you revolve in a circle of appearances; humanity is an immortal tree, whose branches, withering one after another, feed with their debris the root which is always young!" Where is the man who, on hearing this desolate confession of faith, does not demand with terror, "Is it then true that I am only an aggregate of elements organized by an unknown force, an idea realized for a few moments, a form which passes and disappears?
Is it true that my mind is only a harmony, and my soul a vortex?
What is the ego?
what is God?
what is the sanction of society ?" In former times, M.Leroux would have been regarded as a great culprit, worthy only (like Vanini) of death and universal execration.

To-day, M.
Leroux is fulfilling a mission of salvation, for which, whatever he may say, he will be rewarded.

Like those gloomy invalids who are always talking of their approaching death, and who faint when the doctor's opinion confirms their pretence, our materialistic society is agitated and loses countenance while listening to this startling decree of the philosopher, "Thou shalt die!" Honor then to M.Leroux, who has revealed to us the cowardice of the Epicureans; to M.Leroux, who renders new philosophical solutions necessary! Honor to the anti-eclectic, to the apostle of equality! In his work on "Humanity," M.Leroux commences by positing the necessity of property: "You wish to abolish property; but do you not see that thereby you would annihilate man and even the name of man ?...