"
I regret that a man like M. Rossi should suggest to me so sad a
thought; but, while reading the passage that I have just quoted,
I could not help saying: Science and truth have lost their
influence: the present object of worship is the shop, and, after
the shop, the desperate constitutionalism which represents it.
To whom, then, does M. Rossi address himself? Is he in favor of
labor or something else; analysis or synthesis? Is he in favor
of all these things at once? Let him choose, for the conclusion
is inevitably against him.
If labor is the source of all wealth, if it is the surest guide
in tracing the history of human institutions on the face of the
earth, why should equality of distribution, equality as measured
by labor, not be a law?
If, on the contrary, there is wealth which is not the product of
labor, why is the possession of it a privilege? Where is the
legitimacy of monopoly? Explain then, once for all, this theory
of the right of unproductive consumption; this jurisprudence of
caprice, this religion of idleness, the sacred prerogative of a
caste of the elect.
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