What reason could I have for not desiring to see such a discovery made?  Indeed, the more I reflect upon it, the more do I see that nothing could be more convenient than that we should all of us have within our reach an inexhaustible source of wealth and enlightenment—­a universal physician, an unlimited treasure, and an infallible counsellor, such as you describe Government to be.  Therefore it is that I want to have it pointed out and defined, and that a prize should be offered to the first discoverer of the phoenix.  For no one would think of asserting that this precious discovery has yet been made, since up to this time everything presenting itself under the name of the Government is immediately overturned by the people, precisely because it does not fulfil the rather contradictory conditions of the programme.

I will venture to say that I fear we are, in this respect, the dupes of one of the strangest illusions which have ever taken possession of the human mind.

Man recoils from trouble—­from suffering; and yet he is condemned by nature to the suffering of privation, if he does not take the trouble to work.  He has to choose, then, between these two evils.  What means can he adopt to avoid both?  There remains now, and there will remain, only one way, which is, to enjoy the labour of others.  Such a course of conduct prevents the trouble and the satisfaction from preserving their natural proportion, and causes all the trouble to become the lot of one set of persons, and all the satisfaction that of another.  This is the origin of slavery and of plunder, whatever its form may be—­whether that of wars, impositions, violence, restrictions, frauds, &c.—­monstrous abuses, but consistent with the thought which has given them birth.  Oppression should be detested and resisted—­it can hardly be called absurd.

Slavery is subsiding, thank heaven! and on the other hand, our disposition to defend our property prevents direct and open plunder from being easy.

One thing, however, remains—­it is the original inclination which exists in all men to divide the lot of life into two parts, throwing the trouble upon others, and keeping the satisfaction for themselves.  It remains to be shown under what new form this sad tendency is manifesting itself.

The oppressor no longer acts directly and with his own powers upon his victim.  No, our conscience has become too sensitive for that.  The tyrant and his victim are still present, but there is an intermediate person between them, which is the Government—­that is, the Law itself.  What can be better calculated to silence our scruples, and, which is perhaps better appreciated, to overcome all resistance?  We all, therefore, put in our claim, under some pretext or other, and apply to Government.  We say to it, “I am dissatisfied at the proportion between my labour and my enjoyments.  I should like, for the sake of restoring the desired equilibrium, to