"Liberty is an absolute right, because it is to man what impenetrability is to matter, a condition _sine qua non_ of existence. Equality is an _absolute right_, because without equality, there is no society." And you will thus show the second degree of sociability, which you yourself define, "the recognition in another of a personality _equal_ to our own." I appeal therefore from Proudhon drunk with theology to Proudhon sobered by facts and science, moved by the sorrows and disorders resulting from his own systems. I hope I shall not encounter his Herculean club raised against the holy banner of truth and right; against woman,--that being physically so weak, morally so strong, who, bleeding, and steeped in gall beneath her crown of roses, is just on the point of reaching the top of the rough mountain where progress will shortly give her her lawful place by the side of man. But if my hopes are deceitful, mark me well, M. Proudhon, you will find me standing firmly in the breach, and, whatever may be your strength, I vow that you shall not overthrow me. I will courageously defend the right and dignity of your daughters against the despotism and logical error of their father, and the victory will remain mine, for, definitively, it always belongs to truth." Proudhon replied by the following letter in the _Revue Philosophique_: "TO MADAME d'HÉRICOURT. "Well, Madam, what did I tell you in my last letter? "I consider the sort of crusade that is being carried on at this time by some estimable ladies in both hemispheres in behalf of their sex, as a symptom of the general revolution that is being wrought; but nevertheless as an exaggerated symptom, an infatuation that proceeds precisely from the inferiority of the sex and its incapacity to understand and to govern itself. "I begin by withdrawing the word _infatuation_, which may have wounded you, but which was not, as you know, intended for publicity. "This point adjusted, I will tell you, Madam, with all the respect that I owe you as a woman, that I did not expect to see you confirm my judgment so speedily by your petulant appeal. "I was at first at a loss to know whence came the discontent that impelled the bravest, the most distinguished among you, to an assault on paternal and marital supremacy. I said to myself, not without disquietude, What is the matter? What is it that troubles them? With what do they reproach us? To which of our faculties, our virtues, our prerogatives; or else of our failings, our perfidies, our calamities, do they aspire? Is this the cry of their outraged nature, or an aberration of their understanding? "Your attack, joined to the studies which I immediately commenced on the subject, came at last to solve the question.