some of its advocates, as St. Simon, Fourier, and others, were sincere and benevolent men. Some of them, indeed, said that they only desired to carry out the principle of brotherly love so often inculcated by Christ. Communism and socialism are not properly convertible terms, although often used to desig- nate the same system. The one has reference more espe- cially to the principle of community in property ; the latter to the mode of social organization. With Fourier, the former was subordinate to the latter. He did not entirely deny the right of property, but insisted that society was badly organized. In- stead of living in distinct families, each struggling for support and advancement, men should be gathered in large associations having common property, and all labouring for a common fund. That fund was to be distributed according to the capital contrib- uted by each member, and according to the time and skill em- ployed in the common service. Proudhon, immortalized by the book in which the question " What is property ? " is answered by saying, " Property is theft," makes the rule for the distribution of the common fund to be the time devoted to labour. Louis Blanc puts capital, labour, and skill out of consideration, and makes the wants of the individual the only rule of distribution. It is common to all these schemes that the right to property in land or its productions is denied. The two latter deny to a man all property in his own skill or talents ; and the last, even in his labour, so that the idlest and least efficient member of society
" Die originellste und selbstandigste religibs-politische Secte der neuesten Zeit aber, von einem Manne gegriindet, dem erst durch verungliickten, Selbstmord ' der gbttliche Mensch Bich kund that ' (dem franzbsischen Grafen Claude Henri St. Simon, geb. zu Paris 1760, gest. am 19. Mai 1825), und sodann durch die Juli-Revolution 1830 erst in rechten Schwung gebracht, welche, als die Quintessenz des tief verderbten antichristischen Zeitgeistes, als die einzig ganz consequente unter alien widergottlichen Richtungen der Zeit, Welt und Gott, Staat und Kirche, Fleisch und Geist, Diesseits und Jenseits, Bbse und Gut, (auch Weib und Mann) sowohl wissenschaftlisch als praktisch umrte und identificirte, unbeschrankte vollstandig organisirte Herrschaft des widergottlichen Fleisches, ungebundenes system- atisches Leben nur f ur diesseitige (die einzige) Welt, unbedingte Geltung eines consequenten politisch-religibsen Materialismus in gluhender Beredtsamkeit predigte, und auf den Thron des heiligen Gottes den ' reizenden ' Fiirsten dieser Welt setzte, wollte nicht etwa eine christliche Parthei oder Secte, sondern die neue Welt-religion sein; und diese seligen 'Menschen der Zukunft,' so verschollen auch mit all ihrer abenteuerlich glanzenden Aeusserlichkeit sie wieder fur den Moment sind, — aber in einem ' Jiingen-Deutschland,' (zuerst 1834 und besonders 1835) sowie im vollkommen organisirten englischen Socialisten- und in den continentalischen Communisten-Vereinen, und nun nach modischerem Schnitt, verjiingt auch bereits wider erstanden, und in allerlei neuen Formen stets neu erstehend, — bahnten so einer furchterlichen Weltepoche den grasslich anmuthigen Weg." Unless the reader is somewhat accustomed to find his way through the mazes of Dr. Guerike's sen- tences, he may experience some difficulty in threading the above labyrinth. It is, how- ever, interesting, as characteristic of the man and of his book. One of his countrymen flailed his history a Strafpredigt.
432 PART m. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
should, according to it, receive as much as the most industrious and useful.
The denial of the right of property is, to a great extent, con- nected with the rejection of religion and of marriage. Marriage, next to religion and property, was declared to be the greatest means of social misery. Children were not to belong to their parents, but to the state ; inclination and enjoyment were to be the motive and the end and the rule of life.1
International Society.
France has been the birthplace and the principal seat of Com- munism in its modern form. The principles involved in the sys- tem have made wide progress in other countries, and leavened to a fearful extent the minds of the labouring classes both in Europe and in America. Organization and combination among the scat- tered millions said to be included in the membership of this soci- ety have given it an importance which has forced itself on the attention of almost all Christian states. What the principles and aims of this formidable body are, it is not easy satisfactorily to state. There has been no authoritative annunciation of prin- ciples recognized by all the affiliated societies. They differ, within certain limits, doubtless, among themselves. Some find their fit representatives in the Communists of Paris as they revealed them- selves during the current year (1871). Others would shrink from the excesses which rendered the name of Communists an object of execration and abhorrence in all parts of the civilized world. Enough, however, is known of the designs of the society in question, to render it certain that its success would involve the overthrow of all existing governments ; in placing all power in the hands, not of the people, but of a particular class, the opera- tives, the proletariat (the men without land) ; in the dissolution of society as at present organized ; the abolition of private prop- erty; the extinction of the family; the abrogation of all mar- riage laws ; and the proscription of religion, and especially of Christianity, as a public evil. Such are the avowed objects of some of the leaders of the movement, and such are the logical consequences of the principles advocated by the more reticent of their number.
1 See Herzog's Real-Encyklopadie, art. " Communismus und Socialismus." Stahl's Philosophic des Rechts, Rechts- und Staatslehre, i. iii. 2. 2. §§ 31-34; 4th edit. Heidel. berg, 1870, vol. ii. part 1. pp. 367-376. Cyclopcedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesi- astical Literature, prepared by the Rev. John McClintock, D. D., and James Strong, S. T. D., New York, 1869, art. " Communism." The Cyclopaedias above referred to give eopious references to the literature of this subiect.