And yet, in spite of these wonderful prerogatives which savor of the eternal and the infinite, they have never found the origin of property; the doctors still disagree.

On one point only are they in harmony: namely, that the validity of the right of property depends upon the authenticity of its origin.

But this harmony is their condemnation.
Why have they acknowledged the right before settling the question of origin?
Certain classes do not relish investigation into the pretended titles to property, and its fabulous and perhaps scandalous history.

They wish to hold to this proposition: that property is a fact; that it always has been, and always will be.

With that proposition the savant Proudhon [11] commenced his "Treatise on the Right of Usufruct," regarding the origin of property as a useless question.