Full text: The Socialism of to-day

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THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
systems of social reform. It was in the discussions which 
took place among this band of friends, all of them imbued 
with their master’s ideas of equality, that the author formed 
his convictions on the social question, which have varied 
little since then, and which contemporary events have served 
only to confirm. Huet also published, in 1864, La Science 
de VEsprit. He presided over the education of Prince Milan, 
now King of Servia, and even followed him to Belgrade. 
Having returned to Paris to undergo treatment for a severe 
disease, he died from the effects of a surgical operation. His 
friends have erected a monument to his memory in the cemetery 
of Mount Parnassus. 
I shall here mention only those views of Huet which 
relate to social organization. For the basis of his system he 
takes the principles of 1789, and endeavours to realize in 
everything the motto, “ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” His 
ideas, on this point were, without his knowing it, similar to 
those of Fichte as contained in the book already mentioned, 
“ Materials for justifying the French Revolution.” The 
following is a summary of them ;—Men are by right equal. 
The individual ought to be able freely to develop himself ; 
but property is a necessary condition of liberty. Property 
is, therefore, a natural right, and as such should belong to 
everybody. 
“ Either words have no meaning, or to place property among natural 
rights implies that the original investitive title to the good things of the 
earth is the quality of humanity ; that the quality of humanity gives rise 
in itself to an immediate right to a determinate share in these good things ; 
an original property which would become for everybody the source, the 
foundation, and the means of obtaining all the rest. This is the direct 
consequence of the right to live. Is not this right the same for all, and 
do not all equally need the means of living? Has not everybody, born 
in the image of (Jod, a right to his original patrimony, to this magnificent 
present from God ? 13y reason of his place in the series of the generations 
of men, has not every man also a right to the capital handed down by his 
forefathers, the joint acquisition of men ? Nobody ought to live at another’s 
expense. Every man who has not forfeited it has the right to live free. 
It is his right that his subsistence, his labour, should not be dependent 
on the good will of others ; and however free he may be in his person, if 
he does not possess, of natural right, anything in advance, any capital,
	        
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