[What is Property? by P. J. Proudhon]@TWC D-Link bookWhat is Property? PART SECOND 267/323
It is heart, courage, will, virtue.
Now, if we are equal in that which makes us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties detract from our manhood? Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak; and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome apprenticeship.
It is easier for M.Lamennais to recite a philippic, or sing a humanitarian ode after the Platonic fashion, than to discover a single useful truth; it is easier for an economist to apply the laws of production and distribution than to write ten lines in the style of M. Lamennais; it is easier for both to speak than to act.
You, then, who put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me to admit your inferiority? But, what am I saying? Yes, you are inferior, for you lack virtue and will! Ready for labor and for battle, you have, when liberty and equality are in question, neither courage nor character! In the preface to his pamphlet on "Le Pays et le Gouvernement," as well as in his defence before the jury, M.Lamennais frankly declared himself an advocate of property.
Out of regard for the author and his misfortune, I shall abstain from characterizing this declaration, and from examining these two sorrowful performances.
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