"PROGRESS." HEYWOOD.-By a letter from Mr. Connard we learn that he was Advertisements. solicited by our friends at Heywood, to attend a lecture in that village THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS. By C. J. announced by placard to be delivered by a "Mr. Bradley" for the purpose of "exposing the abominable doctrines of Socialism." At the appointed time Mr. C. attended the Church School Room, anxious to know who "Mr. Bradley" was, when "lo and behold" Mr. Brindley made his appearance under this new cognomen! How many other aliases he rejoices in, deponent knoweth not. The Rev. Mr. O'Brien occupied the chair, and commenced business by prayer, after which, Mr. C. rose and asked if any questions or remarks would be allowed at the close of the lecture; the answer was in the negative, and Mr. Bradley alias Brindley proceeded with his "lecture" which was the usual compound of falsehood, buffoonery and mountebankism he is accustomed to serve up under that title. On the following evening Mr. C. lectured in the room occupied by the Socialists, in reply, and exposed the base and malicious proceedings of Bradley v Brindley and his co-adjutors in taking away the bread from poor men, because they were becoming too wise to support out of their scanty earnings an idle, useless, and luxurious class of men. This turned the tables. The audience saw into the whole scheme, expressed themselves well pleased, a few only among whom was the great double "B." looked disappointed. Fresh ground is broken up, and more seed sown-the harvest will come. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. CENTRAL BOARD. COMMUNITY FUND.-The following sums have been paid into the Bank: SPECIAL CONGRESS.-The attention of the Society having been called in tions passed at a meeting of Brae Central Bound have to unsul for UST PUBLISHED, PRICE ONE PENNY, LETTER XIX. TO HASLAM. May be had of Abel Heywood, 60, Oldham Street, Manchester; of whom may be had also all the previous Letters. T PRICK THREEPENCE ONLY, is recommended as the Advocate THE SOCIAL REFORMER, a Stamped Sunday Newspaper, OFFICE, for Advertisements, No. 4, Brydges Street, Covent Garden, London, where Communications for the Editor (Post paid) are to be addressed. Also, price ONE PENNY, the AMERICAN ANTITHEISTI- FLEMING. and all Booksellers. No. I. of THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED, PRICE THREE HALFPENCE, MISREPRESENTATIONS of The REV. J. E. GILES, BAPTIST MINISTER, LEEDS. SECOND EDITION. Great efforts have been made to circulate Mr. Giles's work, throughout the country, by "Christian" Ministers, Christian Booksellers, and Tract Distributors. Those who wish well to the Social Cause will not be less assiduous in getting the above Lectures extensively read. They are a complete and triumphant answer to the misrepresentations of the Rev. Gentleman. As an Exposition of the Leading Principles of Socialism, it is the best work extant to put into he hands of a stranger. It is really what it purports to be, a settingforth of SOCIALISM AS IT IS! a special Session of Congress, the Central have to announce that they propose to consider the subjects of the resolutions referred to with the President, during his next visit to Birmingham, where he is expected to be on the 23rd instant; and they deem it desirable Or, LECTURES IN REPLY TO THE FALLACIES AND that the general consideration of those matters by the Branches, should be deferred until the sentiments of the Board thereon hare been made known to the Society. The only vacancy in the Central Board is that caused by the resignation of Mr. Weston, who has left Birmingham. TRANSFER OF SHARES.-In reply to the enquiries relative to the transfer of Shares, the parties enquiring, are referred to the law 134. A copy of the resolution by which the election specified in the law is made, should, in every case, be forwarded to the Central Board, signed by the Chairman of the Meeting, and the Secretary of the Branch. MEMORIAL TO GOVERNMENT-The immediate attention of the Branches to the notice under this head, given in the "New Moral World" of last week, is requested. OFFICIAL NOTICES.-The Central Board are desirous that it should be distinctly understood by all parties, that no instructions or suggestions are to be considered as emanating from the Board, which are not given as notices of the Board: and also that the Board is the only authority from which, during the intervals between the sessions of Congress, any general orders or instructions can, with propriety, or validity emanate. NEW MORAL WORLD. OBJECTIONS received from Arundel. J. L. EDINBURGH.-Received the matters mentioned, shall receive the RECEIVED from Mr. John Cleave, London, 5s. for Mr Connard; also AMO received. Other Correspyndents next week. twelve numbers at 1d. each. THE PORTRAIT OF MR. OWEN. MR PAINTED BY BROOKE AND ENGRAVED BY RYALL. R. OWEN has expressed his Opinion that this is the best Portrait of him ever published; and, in Testimony of his Approbation, affixed his Autograph, a Fac-simile of which is engraved under the Portrait. Impressions of the Size of THE NEW MORAL WORLD, for binding with it, &c., Price 6d. ; on larger Paper, for framing, 1s.; on India Paper, 1s. 6d. Orders from the Branches and the Trade to be sent to the Secretary, at 30, Bennett's Hill, Birmingham; or the Publisher of the New Moral World. Leeds: Printed and Published for the "Universal Community Society of Rational Religionists," by JOSHUA HOBSON, at his Printing and Publishing Office, 5, Market-Street. THE OR GAZETTE OF THE UNIVERSAL COMMUNITY SOCIETY OF RATIONAL RELIGIONISTS. Enrolled under Acts of Parliament, 10 Geo. IV. c. 56, and 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 40. "THE CHARACTER OF MAN IS FORMED FOR HIM AND NOT BY HIM."-ROBERT OWEN. THE PERMANENCY OF MARRIAGE UNIONS IN THE of too shameless a nature to allow any one to be deceived by the hy NEW STATE OF SOCIETY. The garbled extracts from Mr. OWEN's writings, upon the subject of Marriage, which are going the rounds of the press and the pulpit “arcades ambo,' blackguards both,"--deserve a little more attention than has hitherto been bestowed on them. It is sometimes requisite to expose error, as well as to state truth. The object of these extracts is to support the position of the writers and speechifiers, that Mr. OWEN is totally opposed to Marriage in any form, and advocates a system of unbridled licentiousness. It must be confessed that the mode in which these extracts are made, does honour to the tact and cleverness, however much it may detract from the truth or honesty of the defamers. Foremost among the parties who have ransacked Mr. OWEN'S writings for the purpose of torturing them into meanings which they never bore, is the Rev. Mr. GILES, of Leeds. The forgery, falsification, interpolation, suppression, and twisting of writings, has, in all ages, formed a prominent feature in the clerical character; and certainly judging from the specimen afforded by Mr. GILES, the priests of the nineteenth need not fear comparison with those of any former century. It will be admitted, that justice to any writer demands that in quoting from him, the real meaning intended by him should be given, the separation of a sentence from its context, or the suppression of any qualifying sentence for the purpose of giving colour to false imputations, is, in the highest degree, immoral and dishonest. We shall prove that Mr. GILES and his compeers have been guilty of this immorality, dishonesty, and slander—and that they have knowingly falsified and misrepresented the sentiments of Mr. OWEN upon the subject. We refer to Mr. GILES in particular, because his first "lecture," which, like the second, just issued, was the cautious product of months of study; although both of them bear the lie on their title pages, of having been "delivered in South Parade Chapel," has lately been frequently commented upon, and extracted from by the newspapers. Among others, the Standard has appropriated Mr. GILES's falsities, and made them the basis of strictures utterly false in fact, and inapplicable to Socialism. The following extract forms the text for ranting article upon the subject of Marriage in that paper:- a "The avowed object, however, of the Socialists is to lay this rampart of chastity in the dust; and though he attempts to dignify his purposes with the names of virtue and philanthropy, his writings are pocrisy of his pretentions. As to the present system of marriage, he 1 Marriage System of the New Moral World, p. 21 6 Ibid, p. 11 5 Thid, p. 7 The Liverpool Courier, in a leading article, quotes the same passage that "in the published lecture Mr. GILES gives chapter and verse for with some additions, and adds, that the references are omitted; but every opinion which he ascribes to the author of this hellish compound of madness and obscenity." has travelled backwards and forwards through the pages of the work A glance at the references given above will shew how Mr. GILES referred to, in order to find something which would substantiate his assertion, that "the avowed object of the Socialist is to lay the rampart of chastity in the dust." We have first page 21 cited; back to page 12; forward to page 15; forward to page 16; back to page 7 ; forward to page 11; and then, all at once, a jump to page 55! This is truly a novel mode of treating a book; and the rev. gentleman (!) deserves all the credit due to him for such an ingenious invention. It is, however, a weapon that cuts both ways; and, as he seems to consider it quite legitimate in reference to works explanatory of the Social system, there can be no harm in applying it to works upon his own. In preference to any other we would take the "Holy Bible." We have looked over that immaculate book for some quota tions, to support a supposed application of the elegant phrase of the Liverpool Courier to it, namely, that it "is a hellish compound of madanticipated, that it was impossible to pollute our pages with such filness and obscenity;" but we found the reality so much worse than we thiness. There are too many women of pure minds who read our journal-too many families of elevated and refined morality, in which it is a welcome guest and instructor-to permit us to sully our columns with aught so vilely obscene in language, so depraved and licentious in conception, as in the course of one half-hour's reading in that "holy book" we stumbled upon. It is no wonder that minds accustomed to its filthy stories, should be unable to appreciate truth or virtue, when they meet it. That we may not, however, be accused of assertions without Whether the picture he has drawn be correct or not may be safely left proof, we would direct the attention of our male readers of mature to the readers. years to a few passages. Gen. xix. 30-36; Gen. xxx. 1–12; Gen. xxxi. 34, 35; Gen. xxxiv. (this is a horrible story); Gen. xxxviii., (this beats it); immediately follows, in chap. xxxix. that intensely interesting tale about Joseph and Potiphar's wife; Leviticus, c. 15, v. 16, to the end; c. 18, and c. 20; Numbers, c. 5 and c. 31; Deuteronomy, c. 25, v. 5-12. Incidental allusions are however made by Mr. OWEN in these lectures, which serve to shew what his views are on the subject. In page 9, it is said, "Instead of natural connexions being formed between those whose sympathies or qualities of mind and body are in harmony with each other, wealth, family, titles, or privileges of some kind, have been the artificial uniting motive in opposition to the We might proceed with hundreds of similar passages, but we re-natural desires, or pure and chaste feelings.” frain, the sample may serve for the stock; and be it remarked, that we do not point to isolated passages, but to whole chapters and conse cutive paragraphs. Of all the impudent things perpetrated by the preachers and believers of the Bible, the most impudent is their pretence to morality and refinement, either of language or sentiment, while such passages as those referred to are suffered to remain in a book which constitutes the subject of their sermons, and is put without reserve into the hands of the young of both sexes, to prepare them by its disgusting recitals for the practice of the licentiousness which is there so accurately and revoltingly described. In this sentence is described at once the characteristics and basis of that system which is, and of that which Mr. OWEN wishes to be—and, he adds in the next sentence, “It is full time that this increasing degeneration of the species, bodily and mental, should cease, and that the natural association of the sexes should be resumed, but improved by all the experience of the past;" and in order that there may be no misunderstanding as to his views respecting the time when a natura! and improved system of Marriage should be commenced, he proceeds in the two following paragraphs as follows: Recrimination, however, forms no part of our object. The unhappy beings who have been trained to the belief of these absurdities, and to receive as divine, the book in which such debasing and criminal recitals are contained, are not aware of their true character, any more than the devotee of Bhowanee is, that he is committing murder when pursuing his avocation as a Thug. Nothing is too monstrous for belief and practice, when the institutions and tuition of society combine to render it fashionable and orthodox; and the unfortunate children who are brought up in the belief of the varying erroneous creeds of false religion and morals, are objects of pity-not of blame, to the rational and enlightened mind. One thing is however remarkable in these attacks, which is, that the reasoning or facts by which the assertions of Mr. OWEN are sup ported, is never in any case met by reasoning or contrary facts. They merely string together a series of declamatory and vituperative sentences-exhaust the vocabulary of Billingsgate, and-end there. An attentive examination of Mr. OWEN's writings upon this subject will prove, that while he is the uncompromising opponent of the system of priestly marriages, to which he ascribes so many evils-evils of which he triumphantly proves it to be the source, he is at the same time the equally sincere and earnest advocate of pure chastity and permanent marriages of affection. It is against the unnatural and artificial marriages of interest, without affection, that he directs the severest rebukes; and, unlike his opponents, he defines what he means by the terms he uses: they never define anything, they dare not ; they would be fixed to a point then, forced to reason upon it, and that is not their object. In 1830, Mr. OWEN published in a course of lectures, then deli vered, his opinions as to the regulations which ought to be adopted at the commencement of new arrangements for producing and distributing wealth, and accompanied by a change in the social and domestic position of the sexes, which would render them equal in their command of the requisites to happiness in both these respects. These regulations were again published in 1833, in the "Charter of the Rights of Humanity." The "lectures on marriage" were delivered in 1834, and it must be evident to all who read them that they are meant as a delineation of the errors and evils of the present system, and not an exposition of the new, because he does not in them advert even to what he had twice before published on that part of the subject. This book cannot, therefore, be referred to as an exposition of Mr. OWEN's views of marriage as it should be, but only of marriage as it is. "Previous to the great changes which we have ultimately in view, relative to the new position in which the sexes will be placed, many highly necessary arrangements and provisions must be made, to render these changes practicable and beneficial. For in the present irrational condition of the human race, relative to the association of the sexes, and to the single-family arrangements, to mix the two most opposing principles and practices together, would be to make the present confusion of ideas, and feelings, and conduct, ten times more perplexed and irrational. Many of our friends have, perhaps naturally, with their very limited views of the great changes which must be made in passing from a state of moral evil to moral good, supposed that the principles and practices of the one state were intended or could be made to assimilate or amalgamate with the other. Yet, had they any clear conception of these two systems, they would, at once, discover that the greatest of all impossibilities will be to unite the practice of the one with any part of the practice of the other. We have now the pure unadulterated system of moral evil, both in principle and in practice, producing a individually, to introduce any of our principles and practices of moral perfect terrestrial pandemonium. Were any of our friends to attempt, good into this pandemonium of single-family feuds and mal-arrangements, they would increase, tenfold, the evils which now reign triumphant throughout almost all the families of mankind." Having thus carefully and explicitly guarded himself against n isconstruction, Mr. OWEN proceeds to examine in detail the effects of "priestly and law-made Marriages," with the individualised amily arrangements, made necessary by their existence. It seems to us that no candid reader, who shall attentively follow Mr. OWEN through that exposition, can fail to come to the conclusion that the causes enumerated have been, and now are, the source of nine tenths of all the evils endured by humanity. What, then? Does Mr. OWEN advise a hasty and precipitate abandonment of the present system? No! on the contrary, he earnestly cautions against such conduct in the passage we have quoted above; and indicates the domestic, social, and political changes which must first be made before any change can be ventured upon in the institution of marriage," without increasing ten-fold the evils" which have excited his indignant censure and eloquent exposition. That Mr. OWEN is an enemy to permanent single unions is a deduction in no way sanctioned by his writings. On the contrary, wherever he refers to the probable effects of the new arrangements of society, in reference to Marriage, it would appear that an idea of the permanence of these unious has always accompanied such a reference to the subject. We have already alluded to his views in 1830, 1833, and 1834; in 1837 he speaks thus, in the lectures delivered previous to the discussion with Mr. ROEBUCK, in Manchester: "The fourth class will be formed of those from fifteen to twenty years complete. This class will enter upon a most interesting period of human life; within its duration, its members will become men and women of a new race, physically, intellectually, and morally; beings that the passages we have quoted have been written because of the far superior to any yet known to have lived upon the earth-their odium and hostility excited in the minds of the people against Mr. thoughts and feelings will have been formed in public, without secrecy of any kind; for as they passed through the previous divisions, thy OWEN'S system of marriage. This is nonsense, because these passages would naturally make known to each other, in all simplicity, their uncontain Mr. OWEN's system of marriage, and extending as our disguised thoughts and feelings. By this rational conduct, the precise feelings which they were obliged to entertain for each other, would extracts do over a period of nine years, in fact from the time that he be accurately known to all. Thus would it be ascertained who had fairly brought the subject before the public, it will be seen that in this the strongest attachment for each other, and these will naturally unite as in all other portions of the new system propounded by him, the and associate together, under such wise and well-prepared arrangements, as shall be the best devised, to insure to the individuals uniting, utmost harmony and consistency is observable. There is neither rethe greatest amount of permanent happiness with the least alloy to traction nor addition, and they point to a very different conclusion than themselves, and injury to society. that so zealously inculcated by the press and the pulpit, as the ultinatum at which Mr. OWEN aims. In a future article we shall resume the subject, and compare the views of Mr. OWEN on this subject with those entertained by many eminent men. "Under this classification and consequent arrangement of society, every individual will be trained and educated, to have all his faculties and powers cultivated in the most superior manner known; cultivated too, under a new combination of external objects, purposely formed, to bring into constant exercise the best and most lovely qualities only of human nature. Each one will be, thus, well educated, physically, intellectually, and morally. Under this classification and consequent arrangement of these associated families, wealth unrestrained in its production by any of the artificial absurdities now so common in all countries, will be most easily produced in superfluity; all will be secured in a full supply of the best of it, for all purposes that may be required. They will, therefore, all be equal in their education and condition, and no artificial distinction, or any distinction but that of age, will ever be known among them. "There will be then, no motive or inducement for any partics to unite, except from pure affection arising from the most unreserved knowledge of each others character, in all respects, as far as it can be known before the union takes place, There will be no artificial obstacles in the way of the permanent happy union of the sexes; for under the arrangements of this new state of human existence, the affections will receive every aid which can be devised to induce them to be permanent; and under these arrangements, there can be no doubt, that, as the parties will be placed as far as possible in the condition of lovers during their lives, the affections will be far more durable, and produce far more pleasure and enjoyment to the parties, and far less injury to sosociety, than has ever yet been experienced, under any of the varied arrangements which have emanated from the imagined free-will agency of the human race. "If, however, these superior arrangements to produce happiness between the sexes, should fail in some partial instances, which it is possible may yet occur, measures will be introduced by which, without any severance of friendship between the parties, a separation may be made, the least injurious to them and the most beneficial to the interests of society. "No immorality can exceed that which is sure to arise from society compelling individuals to live continually together, when they have been made, by the laws of their nature, to lose their affections for each other, and to entertain them for another object. How much dreadful misery has been inflicted upon the human race, through all past ages, from this single error? How much demoralization! How many murders! How much secret unspeakable suffering, especially, to the female sex! How many evils are experienced over the world, at this moment, arising from this single error of the imaginary freewill system by which men have been so long, so ignorantly and miserably governed !—pp. 76-78. In the "Address to Congress," 1839, he thus unequivocally expresses himself :— Commence, without delay, your communities of equal education and condition; and, as soon as practicable, abandon all private property, by repaying to the old immoral world, from wealth of your own creation, the money you borrow from it. You may THEN adopt rational marriages, such as I have recommended in my public annual address of 1833, permitting the means of divorce the least objectionable under the sexual errors in which all have been trained, and which you may adopt without any inconvenience as soon as private property shall cease to exist within your communities. BUT ON NO ACCOUNT ABANDON REGULATED MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE, or listen to those who recommend promiscuous intercourse in your societies. My present impressions are, that FOR EVER THERE MUST BE RATIONALLY DEVISED MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE-improved as society advances in knowledge and goodness." Such then is a fair and impartial statement of Mr. OWEN's views on the permanency of marriage unions. The passages are given without garbling or suppression, and it will be evident to all that they are decided and explicit in their condemnation of that very licentiousness which his opponents and calumniators say he desires to encourage. It has been recently said by some of the opponents of Socialism FOURIERISM. ARTICLE V. If the reader will turn to page 866 and notice FOURIER'S analysis of human nature, he will find that after the sensuous and gregarious divisions of human nature, comes the distributive division. We have already explained the five senses which compose the sensuous division, and also the four groups which compose the gregarious division. We have now to notice the three constituents of the distributive division, viz,-The Cabalistic, the Restless, and the Composite characters. These three propensities exercise an influence over the whole social fabric. The Cabalistic propensity is the sentiment of emulation-the taste for intrigue-the principle of discord and dissidence. So imperious are its cravings, says FOURIER, that if it have no real medium in which to exercise itself, it will seek with avidity the excitement and intrigue of the romance, the gambling table, or the theatre. La Papillonne on alternante or the Restless propensity is the desire of variety and of contrasts which is a general law in nature. In ordinary occupations this desire is felt at intervals of every one or two hours, and if it be not satisfied by rest or change, it will produce weariness, indifference, and finally disgust. The Composite is not so easily to be explained. It is a sort of enthusiasm which results from the simultaneous excitation of two or more pleasures. It is a sort of mental rhapsody, and is the principle of accord and harmony; and unlike the Cabolistic propensity which is the principle of discord, a principle which is notwithstanding quite as necessary to social harmony as the Composite. These three passions or propensities have not a healthy employment in society as it is at present constituted; they consequently become an incessant source of disorder, for which reason people regard them as vices. Nevertheless their existence is necessary to establish harmony between the sensuous and the gregarious departments of the attraction passionnelle. We have now finished FOURIER's analysis of human nature, and we have noticed five sensous, four gregarious, and three distributive passions forming in all, the twelve radical passions of human nature; and of which the collective tendency is to produce UNITY, or in other words, ORDER and UNIVERSAL HARMONY and HAPPINESS. This spirit of unity is the most elevated of which man is susceptible: it comprises an anxiety for the public weal, and for the interests of humanity, it also comprehends every portion of the religious sentiment. Each of these twelve radical passions exist in each individual, and by their co-existence and intermixture produce mixed passions in great number. Thus the seven primary colours co-exist in the solar ray, and according to their relative prepondence, produce mixed colours and shades in great number. The dominance of any one or more of these twelve radical passions bewildering and so pitifully based, that, absolutely, you are no longer able to understand one another; as in every ill-begun discussion. Those people, however, who have occupied all their lives in quarrels and fights, will consider as highly ridiculous we who direct our intelligence to the study of the means which may lead to the convergence of the interests now opposed. It is with them a fixed principle, an axiom, that if you speak before them as believing in the possibility of universal happiness and harmony, they think you a fool, even if they say nothing from politeness. Now, I pray you, would you have them find the means for a thing which they regard a priori as impossible? Is this a disposition of mind which can lead to the discovery? Yet, in despite of the ridicule that may attach to our opinion, instead of continuing vain and baneful quarrels, we shall dream about harmony. Others have intended the same thing; and it is a pity that the best hearts in the world have committed the fault of taking their intentions, their vows, their good desires, for means. Thus, for so long a time one has thought to have done all, when one has preached about charity, love of peace, philanthropy, virtue, &c. If we could put side by side the sheets of paper containing all that has been written of Christian or philosophic morals, not in all the world, but only in this little European corner, and without going farther back than eighteen hundred years, such paper would abundantly cover the whole world; which is tolerably great, having nine thousand leagues of circumference. constitute what we call the character of the individual. The value of a character is in proportion to the number, the nature, and the intensity of the prevailing or dominant passions. At least two of the gregarious passions are necessary to form an elevated character. The interest of a romance or of a theatrical piece, generally consists of the struggle of one of these passions against one or more others. The knowledge of character so indispensable for the proper classification of society, is rendered almost impossible in the present state of society, by the constant temptations to repression, to secrecy, and deception, under which persons labour from their youth, and also by the absence of those social conditions which are necessary for their free and natural developement. According to FOURIER, nature does not produce characters at hazards; but, in a just proportion with the wants of the social régime, which is the proper destiny of man. As an interesting analogy, FOURIER might have mentioned the sexes which are not produced at hazard, but in fitting proportions for the wants of the sexual desire, and the continuance of the species. Since then we have learnt the passions to which man yields so spontaneous and willing an obedience; let us endeavour to elicit, under the influence of these truly inagnetic passions, all the activity which society requires, ere it can become rich, flourishing, and prosperous. A system is needed which shall transform into agreeable And to what has all this led? We neither agree together nor love pleasures all the useful labour which society requires, and which shall each other any more than they did two thousand years ago. We are resolve to the satisfaction of all, the question of political and social more or less gross, more or less polished, according to epochs and cir liberty, so little comprehended, after years of discussion and declama-cumstances; but the outside alone has changed, our vices having taken tion. This system is alone to be founded in that organization of different forms, colours, tones, but they have not diminished in the least. society, called by FOURIER, "SERIES DE GROUPES." AMO. SELECTIONS FROM THE BREAKING-UP CHAPTERS III. AND IV.-TO WHAT THE PRINCIPLES OF FALSE We say, therefore, to the party before mentioned, you wish to have order; in which you are undoubtedly right-as right as are your adversaries in wishing to have liberty. You wish not to have any acquired rights injured; not to have your position deranged; not to have your interests attacked; and you are right—as right as your adversaries, when they desire that society should gather to itself, should aid and protect, all new interests, which have not yet their acknowledged place. You say that society has need of some belief, that man has need of the religious sentiment; and you are still right; because in all times and places man has loved to develope in himself this sentiment. Consequently, at the bottom we are all agreed about the end; we all wish the happiness of all the world, because each of us makes a part of the world; and the happiness of none of us can exist but on condition of the happiness of others; sceing, first, that one is never happy when alone in his happiness; and seeing, secondly, that if one was happy alone, the others who were not would not long let him be So. Since then you are agreed in the object, and that it is only necessary to discover the means of obtaining it, why do you remain apart in your ancient wanderings, in which both logic and experience prove that you can never arrive at it? Are you so fond of receiving each other's blows? At bottom you understand each other, you have the same intentions; but then, instead of accepting for a rallying point the common end of satisfying all interests, you dispute about questions so All this morality has only opened a ditch for cunning falsehood and hypocrisy, which epochs of more frankness and less bloated with morals, divine or human, were far from seeing spread so largely. As to the characters who have taken the thing seriously, they were for the most part, those natures which would have passed on without doing harm under any changes. We demand of parties what they know and what they propose; they answer with the purity of their intentions. We ask again why they attack each other, they answer because of the perversity of the intentions of their opponents. Is it, however, with intentions that you will combine hostile interests, that you will rally divergent actions? Is an intention to do good, and the process for doing good, the same thing? We must love and honour honest people. But if, to-morrow, we had power to unite in a political assembly, the four hundred most devout and honest men in all France, be certain that in our actual circumstances, they would begin the day after to-morrow to say and do many foolish things. And if, whilst these four hundred most honest men of the kingdom, were saying and doing anything whatever, there should arrive even a chief of robbers or freebooters, who had the advantage to maintain good harmony among his people in his mountain or his island, and had discovered the art of associating interests, it would still be expedient to hasten to adopt and employ his process. Why not confess our actual condition, and say "Yes, there are unfortunate classes, naked, suffering, wanting everything, wanting bread, wanting instruments of work, wanting work itself; their strength wasted, their health altered by wretchedness, their intelligence stunted, their faculties smothered under gross habits. Now, if all those people who have no work, or at most that which is precarious, had work insured to them; if those without instruments had instruments; if those who are ill, were made well; if those precluded from |