I will go farther: I will confess that, of all abuses, the most hateful to me are those of property; but once more, there is a remedy for this evil without violating it, all the more without destroying it.

If the present laws allow abuse, we can reconstruct them.
Our civil code is not the Koran; it is not wrong to examine it.

Change, then, the laws which govern the use of property, but be sparing of anathemas; for, logically, where is the honest man whose hands are entirely clean?
Do you think that one can be a robber without knowing it, without wishing it, without suspecting it?
Do you not admit that society in its present state, like every man, has in its constitution all kinds of virtues and vices inherited from our ancestors?
Is property, then, in your eyes a thing so simple and so abstract that you can re-knead and equalize it, if I may so speak, in your metaphysical mill?
One who has said as many excellent and practical things as occur in these two beautiful and paradoxical improvisations of yours cannot be a pure and unwavering utopist.

You are too well acquainted with the economical and academical phraseology to play with the hard words of revolutions.

I believe, then, that you have handled property as Rousseau, eighty years ago, handled letters, with a magnificent and poetical display of wit and knowledge.