Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/248

state to be the universal and absolute proprietor of all property. Although, as respects true principles, this idea is monstrous, yet, if we admit the views of the liberal school, it is not absurd. To be convinced of this, it is only requisite to reflect, that if, in accordance with these principles, the dissolution of the family is once consummated, the question of the right of property rests solely between individuals and the state. If we consider the subject under this aspect, it is clear that the titles of the state are superior to those of individuals, inasmuch as those of the first are by their nature perpetual, and those of the second cannot last longer than the family association.

From the principle of the perfect equality of all nations, as a logical deduction from the principles of the liberal school, the socialists infer, or I infer for them, the following consequences: as from the entire equality of all the families who compose the state, the liberal school deduces, as a logical consequence, the non-existence of the solidarity of the domestic association; in the same way, and for the same reason, from the perfect equality in the bosom of humanity of all nations, results the negation of the doctrine of a political solidarity. But if the nation has no solidarity, we are compelled to deny of it what we logically deny of the family, in the supposition of its having no solidarity. In depriving the family of its solidarity, we destroy, in the first place, that secret and mysterious link which unites the present with past and future ages, and consequently we deprive it of that which it holds as its imprescriptible right, that of participating in the renown of its ancestors, and likewise the power to transmit to its descendants a reflection of its own glory. Pur-