Fourier’s _Traité de l’Association domestique et agricole_ (1822), which followed his _Théorie des Quatre Mouvements_ (1808), proposed the formation of associations or groups, _phalanges_, in which workers unite with capital for the self-government of industry. He, like Saint- Simon, attacks idlers, but the two thinkers look upon the capitalist manager as a worker. The intense class- antagonism of capitalist and labourer had not yet formulated itself and was not felt strongly until voiced on behalf of the proletariat by Proudhon and Marx. Fourier’s proposals were those of a _bourgeois_ business man who knew the commercial world intimately, who criticised it and condemned the existing system of civilisation. Various experiments were made to organise communities based upon his _phalanges_. Cabet, the author of _Icaria_ (1840) and _Le nouveau Christianisme_, was a further power in the promotion of socialism and owed not a little of his inspiration to Robert Owen. The most interesting and powerful of the early socialist philosophers is undoubtedly Proudhon (1809- 1865), a striking personality, much misunderstood. While Saint-Simon, a count, came from the aristocracy, Fourier from the _bourgeoisie_, Proudhon was a real son of the people, a mouthpiece of the proletariat. He was a man of admirable mental energy and learning, which he had obtained solely by his own efforts and by a struggle with poverty and misery. Earnest and passionate by nature, he yet formulated his doctrines with more sanity and moderation than is usually supposed. Labels of “atheist” and “anarchist” have served well to misrepresent him. Certainly two of his watchwords were likely enough to raise hostility in many quarters. “God,” he said, “is evil,” “Property is theft.” This last maxim was the subject of his book, published in 1840, _Qu’est-ce que la propriété_? (_ou, Recherches sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement_) to which his answer was “_C’est le vol!_” Proudhon took up the great watchword of _Egalité_, and had a passion for social justice which he based on “the right to the whole product of labour.” This could only come by mutual exchange, fairly and freely. He distinguished between private “property” and individual “possession.” The latter is an admitted fact and is not to be abolished; what he is anxious to overthrow is private “property,” which is a toll upon the labour of others and is therefore ultimately and morally theft. He hated the State for its support of the “thieves,” and his doctrines are a philosophy of anarchy. He further enunciated them in _Système des Contradictions économiques_ (1846) and _De la Justice_ (1858). In 1848 he was elected a _député_ and, together with Louis Blanc and Pierre Leroux, figured in the Revolution of 1848. Blanc was a man of action, who had a concrete scheme for transition from the capitalist régime to the socialist state. He believed in the organisation of labour,