Thus far our analysis has only set forth the simple

principles of equality. We have revolted and invited

others to  revolt against those who assume the right to treat

their fellows otherwise than they would be treated

themselves; against  those who, not themselves wishing to

be deceived, exploited,  prostituted or ill-used, yet behave

thus to others. Lying, and  brutality are repulsive, we have

said, not because they are  disapproved by codes of

morality, but because such conduct  revolts the sense of

equality in everyone to whom equality  is not an empty

word. And above all does it revolt him who  is a true

anarchist in his way of thinking and acting.

	 If nothing but this simple, natural, obvious

principle were  generally applied in life, a very lofty

morality would be the  result; a morality comprising all

that moralists have taught.

	The principle of equality sums up the teachings of

moralists. But it also contains something more. This

something  more is respect for the individual. By

proclaiming our  morality of  equality, or anarchism,  we

refuse to assume a  right which moralists have always

taken upon themselves  to claim, that of mutilating the

individual in the name of  some ideal. We do not

recognize this right at all,  for ourselves or anyone else. 

	 We recognize the full and complete liberty of the

individual; we desire for him plentitude of existence, the

free development of all his faculties. We wish to impose

nothing  upon him; thus returning to the principle which

Fourier  placed in opposition to religious morality when

he said:

 	"Leave men absolutely free. Do not mutilate them

as religions have done enough and to spare. Do not fear

even their passions. In a free society these are not

dangerous."

	  Provided that you yourself do not abdicate your

freedom, provided that you yourself do not allow others

to enslave  you; and provided that to the violent and anti-

social passions  of this or that person you oppose your

equally vigorous social  passions,  you have nothing to

fear from liberty.

	We renounce the idea of mutilating the individual

in the  name of any ideal whatsoever. All we reserve to

ourselves  is the frank expression of our sympathies and

antipathies  towards what seems to us good or bad. A man

deceives his  friends. It is his bent, his character to do so.

Very well, it  is our character, our bent to despise liars.

And as this is  our character, let us be frank.  Do not let us

rush and press him to our bosom or cordially  shake

hands with him, as is sometimes done today. Let us 

vigorously oppose our active passion to his.

	 This is all we have the right to do, this is all the

duty we  have to perform to keep up the principle of

equality in  society. It is the principle of equality in

practice.

 But what of the murderer, the man who debauches chil-

dren? The murderer who kills from sheer thirst for blood

is  excessively rare. He is a madman to be cured or

avoided.  As for the debauchee, let us first of all look to it

that society  does not pervert our children's feelings, then

we shall have  little to fear from rakes.

All this it must be understood is not completely

applicable  until the great sources of moral depravity--

capitalism, religion, justice, government--shall have

ceased to exist. But  the greater part of it may be put in

practice from this day  forth. It is in practice already.

	 And yet if societies knew only this principle of

equality;  if each man practiced merely the equity of a

trader, taking  care all day long not to give others anything

more than he  was receiving from them, society would die

of it. The very  principle of equality itself would

disappear from our relations. For, if it is to be maintained,

something grander, more  lovely, more vigorous than

mere equity must perpetually find  a place in life.

	And this greater than justice is here.

	 Until now humanity has never been without large

natures  overflowing with tenderness, with intelligence,

with goodwill, and using their feeling, their intellect, their

active force  in the service of the human race without

asking anything in  return.

	 This fertility of mind, of feeling or of goodwill

takes all  possible forms. It is in the passionate seeker after

truth, who  renounces all other pleasures to throw his

energy into the  search for what he believes true and right

contrary to the  affirmations of the ignoramuses around

him. It is in the  inventor who lives from day to day

forgetting even his food,  scarcely touching the bread with

which perhaps some woman  devoted to him feeds him

like a child, while he follows out  the intention he thinks

destined to change the face of the  world. It is in the ardent

revolutionist to whom the joys  of art, of science, even of

family life, seem bitter, so long  as they cannot be shared

by all, and who works despite misery  and persecution for

the regeneration of the world. It is in  the youth who,

hearing of the atrocities of invasion, and  taking literally

the heroic legends of patriotism, inscribes  himself in a

volunteer corps and marches bravely through  snow and

hunger until he falls beneath the bullets. It was  in the

Paris street arab, with his quick intelligence and  bright

choice of aversions and sympathies, who ran to the 

ramparts with his little brother, stood steady amid the rain 

of shells, and died murmuring: "Long live the Commune!" 

It is in the man who is revolted at the sight of a wrong 

without waiting to ask what will be its result to himself, 

and when all backs are bent stands up to unmask the

iniquity  and brand the exploiter, the petty despot of a

factory or  great tyrant of an empire. Finally it is in all

those numberless acts of devotion less striking and

therefore unknown and  almost always misprized, which

may be continually observed,  especially among women,

if we will take the trouble to open  our   eyes  and notice

what lies at the very foundation of  human life, and

enables it to enfold itself one way or another  in spite of

the exploitation and oppression it undergoes.

	 Such men and women as these, some in obscurity,

some  within a larger arena, creates the progress of

mankind. And  mankind is aware of it. This is why it

encompasses such  lives with reverence, with myths. It

adorns them, makes  them the subject of its stories, songs,

romances. It adores in  them the courage, goodness, love

and devotion which are  lacking in most of us. It transmits

their memory to the  young. It recalls even those who have

acted only in the narrow circle of home and friends, and

reveres their memory in family tradition.

	 Such men and women as these make true morality,

the only morality worthy the name.  All the rest is merely 

equality in relations. Without their courage, their

devotion,  humanity would remain besotted in the mire of

petty calculations. It is such men and women as these who

prepare  the morality of the future, that which will come

when our  children have ceased to reckon, and have

grown up to the  idea that the best use for all energy,

courage and love is to  expend it where the need of such a

force is most strongly felt.

	 Such courage, such devotion has existed in every

age. It  is to be met with among sociable animals. It is to be

found  among men, even during the most degraded

epochs.

	 And religions have always sought to appropriate

it, to turn  it into current coin for their own benefit. In fact

if religions  are still alive, it is because--ignorance apart--

they have  always appealed to this very devotion and

courage. And it  is to this that revolutionists appeal.

	 The moral sentiment of duty which each man has

felt in  his life, and which it has been attempted to explain

by every  sort of mysticism, the unconsciously anarchist

Guyau says,  "is nothing but a superabundance of life,

which demands to  be exercised, to give itself; at the same

time, it is the consciousness of a power."

	All accumulated force creates a pressure upon the

obstacles placed before it. Power to act is duty to act. And 

moral "obligation" of which so much has been said or

written is reduced to the conception: the condition of the

maintenance of life is its expansion.

	 "The plant cannot prevent itself from flowering.

Sometimes to flower means to die. Never mind, the sap

mounts  the same," concludes the young anarchist

philosopher.

	 It is the same with the human being when he is full

of  force and energy. Force accumulates in him. He

expands his life. He gives without calculation, otherwise

he could not live. If he must die like the flower when it

blooms, never mind. The sap rises, if sap there be.

	 Be strong. Overflow with  emotional and

intellectual energy, and you will spread your intelligence,

your love, your energy of action broadcast among others!

This is what all moral teaching comes to.