[926] Théorie systématique des Droits acquis, vol. i, p. 274, note (Paris, 1904).
[927] Briefe von Lassalle an Rodbertus, p. 46 (Berlin, 1878).
[928] Ibid., p. 44.
[929] Freilich darf man das dem Mob heut noch nicht sagen. (Ibid., p. 46.)
[930] “No workman will ever forget that property whenever legally acquired is absolutely inviolable and just,” says he in an address delivered to the workers of Berlin on April 12, 1862, and published under the title of Arbeiterprogramm (Schriften, vol. i, p. 197). Elsewhere he defends himself against the charge of inciting the proletariat by claiming that his agitation was of a purely democratic character, and intended to facilitate the fusion of classes (ibid., vol. ii, pp. 126-127). (Our quotations are taken from Pfau’s edition. We were unable to obtain the latest and by far the best edition of Lassalle’s works, published by Bernstein.)
[931] Wagner’s introduction to Briefe von Lassalle an Rodbertus, p. 5. Lassalle has himself defined this somewhat Machiavellian attitude in a letter written to Marx in 1859, in which he speaks of a drama which he had just written dealing with Franz von Sickingen. “It looks like the triumph of superior realistic ability when the leader of a rebellion takes account of the limited means at his disposal and attempts to hide from other men the real object which he has in view. But the success achieved by deceiving the ruling classes in this way puts him in possession of new forces which enable him to employ this partial triumph for carrying out his real object.” (Aus dem litterarischen Nachlass von K. Marx, F. Engels, und Lassalle, vol. iv, p. 133; published by F. Mehring, Stuttgart, 1902.)
[932] Schriften, vol. ii, p. 99. This address has been published under the title of Arbeiterlesebuch. This is just the attitude of which Marx disapproved. In a letter written to Schweitzer on October 13, 1868, quoted by Mehring (Aus dem litterarischen Nachlass, etc., vol. iv, p. 362), he expresses himself as follows: “He is too liable to be influenced by the immediate circumstances of the moment. He exaggerates the trivial difference between himself and a nonentity like Schulze-Delitzsch, until the issue between them, governmental intervention as against private initiative, becomes the central point of his agitation.”
[933] Schriften, vol. i, p. 213.
[934] See, among others, the chapter entitled Hegel et la Théorie de l’État, in Lévy-Brühl’s L’Allemagne depuis Liebnitz, especially p. 398 (Paris, 1890). The State, according to Hegel, is an expression of the spirit realising itself in the conscience of the world, while nature is an expression of the same spirit without the conscience, an alter ego—a spirit in bondage. God moving in the world has made the State possible. Its foundation is in the might of reason realising itself in will. It is necessary to think of it not merely as a given State or a particular institution, but of its essence or idea as a real manifestation of the mind of God. Every State, of whatever kind it may be, partakes of this divine essence. For full information concerning the philosophical origin of State Socialism see Andler’s Le Socialisme d’État en Allemagne (1897).
[935] Fichte issued a very curious work in 1800 entitled Der geschlossene Handelsstaat, published in vol. iii of his complete works (Berlin, 1845), and containing ideas with many points of resemblance to those of State Socialism. Fichte thought that the State should not merely guarantee to every citizen his property, but should first of all rear its citizens, let them build their property, and then defend it. In order to do this everyone should be given the necessary means of livelihood, for the one aim of all human activity is to live, and everyone here has an equal right to live (p. 402)—a declaration of the right of existence. Until all are so provided for no luxuries should be allowed. No one should decorate his house until he feels certain that everyone has a house, and everyone should be comfortably and warmly clad before anyone is elegantly dressed (p. 400). “Nor is it enough to say that I can afford to pay for it, for it is unjust that one individual should be able to buy luxuries while his fellow citizens have not enough to procure the necessaries of life. The money with which the former purchases his luxuries would in a rational State not be his at all.” Adopting this as his guiding principle, Fichte proposes to organise a State in which the members of every profession, agriculturists, artisans, merchants, etc., would make a collective contract with one another, in which they would promise not to encroach upon one another’s labour, but would guarantee to everyone a sufficient number of the goods which each has made for his own use. The State would also undertake to see that the number of persons in every profession was neither too few nor too many. It would also fix the price of goods. Lastly, in view of the fact that foreign trade would naturally upset the equilibrium established by the contract which guaranteed security of existence to each individual, the commercial State would have to be entirely hemmed in by tariff walls. The whole work is original and interesting. A. Menger, who gives a brief résumé of it in his second chapter of The Right to the Whole Produce of Labour, thinks that Fichte was influenced by what he saw of the Convention during the Reign of Terror, by the issue of assignats, and perhaps by Babeuf. Fichte, on the other hand, takes care to point out that his commercial State is not realisable as such, but that a book like his is not less useful in view of the general hints which it affords a statesman.