Proudhon and Thore are deceiving themselves, it follows, that they are leading the people astray--that they are showing them the evil where it does not exist; and thus giving a false direction to their ideas, to their antipathies, to their dislikes, and to their attacks.

It follows, that the misguided people are rushing into a horrible and absurd struggle, in which victory would be more fatal than defeat, since, according to this supposition, the result would be the realization of universal evils, the destruction of every means of emancipation, the consummation of its own misery.
This is just what M.Proudhon has acknowledged, with perfect good faith.
"The foundation stone," he told me, "of my system is the _gratuitousness of credit_.

If I am mistaken in this, Socialism is a vain dream." I add, it is a dream, in which the people are tearing themselves to pieces.
Will it, therefore, be a cause for surprise, if, when they awake, they find themselves mangled and bleeding?
Such a danger as this is enough to justify me fully, if, in the course of the discussion, I allow myself to be led into some trivialities and some prolixity.
CAPITAL AND INTEREST.
I address this treatise to the workmen of Paris, more especially to those who have enrolled themselves under the banner of Socialist democracy.

I proceed to consider these two questions: 1st.

Is it consistent with the nature of things, and with justice, that capital should produce interest?
2nd.