We have now our thesis and our antithesis. The synthesis is found in POSSESSION. I may possess the instruments of labor of every kind in order to enable me to labor. It is labor which renders them mine—my own individual labor. So long as I cultivate myself a piece of land, it is mine and the product is mine. I may not rob another by charging for the use of the instruments of labor. It will be seen thus that what Proudhon really is fighting against is rent[129] and profits of capital. He allows inheritance—everything except individual ownership. Of course, when this is analyzed, it becomes apparent that inheritance can amount to very little. What is the ideal of government? ANARCHY. We desire absolute liberty. Any control of man by man is oppression. “What form of government shall we prefer? Ah, how can you ask? replies one of my youngest readers.—You are a republican? Republican, yes; but this word defines nothing. _Res publica_—that is, the public thing; now, whoever wishes the public thing, under any form of government, can call himself a republican. The kings also are republicans.—Ah, well, you are a democrat? No.—What! are you a monarchist? No.—A constitutionalist? God forbid.—You are, then, an aristocrat? Not at all.—Do you wish a mixed government? Still less.—What are you, then? I am an anarchist.... Anarchy—the absence of master, of sovereign—such is the form of government which we approach every day, and our inveterate habit of taking man for a guide and his will for law makes us regard it as a heap of disorder and an expression of chaos.... No one is king.... Every question of internal politics ought to be solved according to the data of the Department of Statistics; every question of international politics is a question of international statistics. The science of government belongs of right to one of the sections of the Academy of Sciences, of which the perpetual secretary necessarily becomes the first minister; and since every citizen may address a _mémoire_ to the Academy, every citizen is a legislator; but as the opinion of no one counts except in so far as it is demonstrated to be true, no one can substitute his will for reason—no one is king.... Justice and legality are two things as independent of our consent as mathematical truth.... In order that truth should become law, it must be recognized. Now, what is it to recognize a law? It is to verify a mathematical or metaphysical operation. It is to repeat an experience, to observe a phenomenon, to prove a fact.”[130]