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mand, and the others condemned to obey, the latter constantly seeking occasions for revolutions and war, and the former making use of tyrannical means to assure their supremacy. The idea of fraternity undoubtedly arose during those lengthened periods of peace and prosperity which form the golden thread of history. As to the idea of solidarity, who does not see from whence it came? Every one knows that the Romans, who represent an abridgment of all antiquity, gave the same name to foreigners and enemies. This name was undoubtedly symbolical of the solidarity of humanity! If these ideas cannot have had their origin in history, whose every page, blotted with tears and written in blood, condemns and refutes them, then we must look for them either in those primitive ages which precede the historic times, or we must seek them directly from pure reason. With regard to this latter origin, I will assert, without fear of contradiction, that pure reason can only find its exercise in things of pure reason. But, the question here is to establish what are the constitutive elements of human nature: it is not a subject for the investigations of unaided reason, but a fact, which is for us very obscure, and requires to be elucidated by careful observation, in order that a clearer light may be obtained. Respecting that primitive era, which was anterior to the ages of history, it is clear that we can have no knowledge of it, except through revelation. This granted, I am authorized to put my question in this manner: If what you affirm cannot originate either in the exercise of reason, which ignores it, nor in history, which contradicts it, nor in an era anterior to the ages of history, which is unknown to you, by what right, then, do you affirm that it has not