THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

246

of  his  scheme  of  reform  is,  “  Immovable  property  belongs
to  all.”
In  1848  Colins  was  accused  of  having  participated  in  the
revolution  of  June,  but  was  pardoned.  He  died  at  Paris  on
the  12th  of  November,  1859,  after  having  published  a  great
number  of  works  and  leaving  numerous  manuscripts  afterwards
brought  out  by  his  disciples.*
Colins  and  his  disciples  attach  great  importance  to  their
philosophical  views,  on  which  they  assert  their  whole  system,
which  they  call  “  Rational  Socialism,”  is  founded  ;  but  here
the  want  of  special  study  is  clearly  felt.  They  admit  the  immortality ­
  of  our  spiritual  being,  which  they  call,  by  a  strange
abuse  of  language,  “Sensibility,”  while  they  deny  the  existence
of  a  Deity.  They  are  eager  to  prove  that  our  notions  of
morality,  justice,  and  equality  of  rights  are  based  solely  on  the
permanence  of  the  human  personality,  but  they  fail  to  perceive
that  the  pursuit  of  a  rational  order  implies  an  ideal  and  an
origin  outside  of  ourselves.  They  are,  then,  at  once  Spiritualists
and  Atheists.
All  men,  they  say,  are  equal,  as  being  all  formed  by  the
union  of  a  “  sensibility  ”  to  an  organism.  All  men  are  brothers,
as  having  all  the  same  origin.  Man  alone,  among  all  animate
beings,  is  responsible  for  his  actions,  for  he  alone  is  a  conscious
*  The  following  are  his  principal  works  :—
Le  Pacte  Sociale,  2  vols.,  8vo,  1835.
L'Économie  politique  source  des  r'evolutions  et  des  utopies  pretendtus
Sociales,  3  vols.,  i2mo,  1856-57.
Qu’est-ce  que  la  science  Sociale  ?  3  vols.,  8vo,  1851-54.
La  Société  nouvelle,  sa  nécessité,  2  vols.,  8vo,  1857.
La  Souveraineté,  2  vols.,  8vo,  1857-58.
La  Science  Sociale,  5  vols.,  8vo,  1857.
La  Justice  dans  la  Science,  hors  V  Église  et  hors  la  Révolution,  3  vols.,
8vo,  1861.
Colins  also  wrote  in  1848  in  certain  journals  :  La  Révolution  démocratique ­
  et  Sociale,  the  Tribunal  des  Peuples,  and  the  Presse.
He  left  numerous  manuscripts,  the  publication  of  which  has  been  commenced ­
  by  his  disciples.  In  this  way  the  Philosophie  de  Pavenir,  the  organ
of  the  Rational  Socialists,  has  published,  among  other  works,  the  fourth
volume  of  Colins’  L'Économie  politique  ;  two  volumes  of  his
the  sixth  and  the  eleventh  ;  different  minor  works,  such  as  the  Choléra
moral.  Qui  donc  est  peuple  I  Examen  critique  de  la  décadence  de  V  Angleterre, ­
  by  Ledru-Rollin,  L'impôt  pratique  confirmant  la  théorie,  etc.,  etc.
The  editors  of  the  Philosophie  de  Pavenir  announce  that  they  will  publish
in  succession  all  the  manuscripts  left  by  the  master.