Key Arguments

• He says he does not intend 'to contradict and cope' with Blanqui despite the Academy’s censure, acknowledging his own inferiority: 'It never has been my intention, sir, in spite of the vigorous censure which you, in behalf of your academy, have pronounced upon the doctrine of equality of fortunes, to contradict and cope with you. In listening to you, I have felt my inferiority too keenly to permit me to enter upon such a discussion.'
• He asserts that, beneath differences of language, they believe in the same principles and that Blanqui 'share[s] all my opinions': 'And then⁠—if it must be said⁠—however different your language is from mine, we believe in the same principles; you share all my opinions.'
• He explicitly rejects the idea that Blanqui holds a double doctrine or secretly supports equality while publicly defending property, insisting instead that Blanqui sincerely, even enthusiastically, reaches egalitarian conclusions by scientific means: 'I do not mean to insinuate thereby, sir, that you have (to use the phraseology of the schools) an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine⁠—that, secretly believing in equality, you defend property only from motives of prudence and by command. I am not rash enough to regard you as my colleague in my revolutionary projects; and I esteem you too highly, moreover, to suspect you of dissimulation.'
• He explains the difference in their routes to the same belief: he arrived at equality through metaphysical reflection, while Blanqui does so 'with all the zeal of faith⁠—with all the spontaneity of genius' grounded in political economy and experience: 'I only mean that the truths which methodical investigation and laborious metaphysical speculation have painfully demonstrated to me, a profound acquaintance with political economy and a long experience reveal to you. While I have reached my belief in equality by long reflection, and almost in spite of my desires, you hold yours, sir, with all the zeal of faith⁠—with all the spontaneity of genius.'
• He characterizes Blanqui’s course at the Conservatory as an ongoing attack on property and inequality: 'That is why your course of lectures at the Conservatory is a perpetual war upon property and inequality of fortunes; that is why your most learned investigations, your most ingenious analyses, and your innumerable observations always conclude in a formula of progress and equality;'
• He notes that Blanqui is most admired when he rises to such egalitarian truths, which stir popular enthusiasm and terrify those with bad intentions: 'that is why, finally, you are never more admired and applauded than at those moments of inspiration when, borne upon the wings of science, you ascend to those lofty truths which cause plebeian hearts to beat with enthusiasm, and which chill with horror men whose intentions are evil.'

Source Quotes

In listening to you, I have felt my inferiority too keenly to permit me to enter upon such a discussion. And then⁠—if it must be said⁠—however different your language is from mine, we believe in the same principles; you share all my opinions. I do not mean to insinuate thereby, sir, that you have (to use the phraseology of the schools) an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine⁠—that, secretly believing in equality, you defend property only from motives of prudence and by command.

And then⁠—if it must be said⁠—however different your language is from mine, we believe in the same principles; you share all my opinions. I do not mean to insinuate thereby, sir, that you have (to use the phraseology of the schools) an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine⁠—that, secretly believing in equality, you defend property only from motives of prudence and by command. I am not rash enough to regard you as my colleague in my revolutionary projects; and I esteem you too highly, moreover, to suspect you of dissimulation.

I am not rash enough to regard you as my colleague in my revolutionary projects; and I esteem you too highly, moreover, to suspect you of dissimulation. I only mean that the truths which methodical investigation and laborious metaphysical speculation have painfully demonstrated to me, a profound acquaintance with political economy and a long experience reveal to you. While I have reached my belief in equality by long reflection, and almost in spite of my desires, you hold yours, sir, with all the zeal of faith⁠—with all the spontaneity of genius.

While I have reached my belief in equality by long reflection, and almost in spite of my desires, you hold yours, sir, with all the zeal of faith⁠—with all the spontaneity of genius. That is why your course of lectures at the Conservatory is a perpetual war upon property and inequality of fortunes; that is why your most learned investigations, your most ingenious analyses, and your innumerable observations always conclude in a formula of progress and equality; that is why, finally, you are never more admired and applauded than at those moments of inspiration when, borne upon the wings of science, you ascend to those lofty truths which cause plebeian hearts to beat with enthusiasm, and which chill with horror men whose intentions are evil.

Key Concepts

• however different your language is from mine, we believe in the same principles; you share all my opinions.
• I do not mean to insinuate thereby, sir, that you have (to use the phraseology of the schools) an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine⁠—that, secretly believing in equality, you defend property only from motives of prudence and by command.
• the truths which methodical investigation and laborious metaphysical speculation have painfully demonstrated to me, a profound acquaintance with political economy and a long experience reveal to you.
• your course of lectures at the Conservatory is a perpetual war upon property and inequality of fortunes;
• your most learned investigations, your most ingenious analyses, and your innumerable observations always conclude in a formula of progress and equality;
• those lofty truths which cause plebeian hearts to beat with enthusiasm, and which chill with horror men whose intentions are evil.

Context

Near the end of this passage in the Second Memoir, Proudhon turns from defending his own anti‑proprietary conclusions to an ironic yet respectful claim that his critic, Blanqui, by the logic of political economy and experience, actually advances the same egalitarian direction, thereby reinforcing Proudhon’s thesis about the scientific tendency toward equality.