PROUDHON (Pierre-Joseph.). - Lot 184

PROUDHON (Pierre-Joseph.). Born in Besançon. 1809-1865. French philosopher and sociologist. He made famous the formula "Property is theft" in "Qu'est-ce que la propriété? ". P.A.S. "P. J. Proudhon". S.l.n.d. 1 page 1/3 in-8 (thinning, sticky residue on spine and middle fold). PROUDHON ATTACKS THE AUTHOR OF LUNITÉIDE, PAULIN GAGNE, ON FAITH...M. Gagne, the mystical candidate, the author of l'unitéide and other mystagogic and versified volumes had his little correspondence with Proudhon; he had written to the philosopher that he had had a vision that represented him as being a new St. Paul and the greatest defender of religion... Proudhon replied: ..." ... Monsieur I can only be flattered by the things you tell me (...); but the very fervor of your faith should make you understand that it is not on the simple confidences of a pious soul that I can make up my mind. My action depends, according to you, on a higher order. Now, just as St Paul, to whom you dare to compare me and whose apostolate you promise me, could not, before his miraculous conversion, declare himself for Christ and his church, so I can do nothing for the faith as long as I shut myself away in my rationalism, and I have not yet received the spark that should change my conviction and my will... An anticlerical, Proudhon wished for the abolition of all forms of ecclesiastical thought and organization. Etienne Paulin Gagne (1808-1876) was a lawyer, journalist and poet, author of L'Unitéide, a poem in 25,000 lines in which we "encounter the most bizarre agglomeration of fantastic names and saucy verses that the human brain can invent". He was a "universal, perpetual, supernatural and irremovable candidate" in all elections, and is a literary madman.