the analogy will hold. I have not touched all the weak points, but perhaps I have said enough. At any rate, as Proudhon has been referred to, I cannot close more aptly than with these words from his "What is Property?" "There is one truth of which I am profoundly convinced,—nations live by absolute ideas, not by approximate and partial conceptions; therefore, men are needed who define principles, or at least test them in the fire of controversy. Such is the law,—the idea first, the pure idea, the understanding of the laws of God, the theory: practice follows with slow steps, cautious, attentive to the succession of events; sure to seize, towards this eternal meridian, the indications of supreme reason. The co-operation of theory and practice produces in humanity the realization of order,—the absolute truth. All of us, as long as we live, are called, each in proportion to his strength, to this sublime work. The only duty which it imposes upon us is to refrain from appropriating the truth to ourselves, either by concealing it, or by accommodating it to the temper of the century, or by using it for our own interests."
A SEED PLANTED.
[Liberty, May 26, 1888.]
Time: Thursday, May 17, 7.30 p.m.
Place: Residence of the editor of Liberty, 10 Garfield Ave., Crescent Beach, Revere (a town in the suburbs of Boston).
Dramatis Personæ: Charles F. Fenno, so-called tax-collector of Revere, and the editor of Liberty.
In answer to a knock the editor of Liberty opens his front door, and is accosted by a man whom he never met before, but who proves to be Fenno.
Fenno.—"Does Mr. Tucker live here?"
Editor of Liberty.—"That's my name, sir."
F.—"I came about a poll-tax."
E. of L.—"Well?"
F.—"Well, I came to collect it."
E. of L.—"Do I owe you anything?"
F.—"Why, yes."
E. of L.—"Did I ever agree to pay you anything?"
F.—"Well, no; but you were living here on the first of May last year, and the town taxed you one dollar."
E. of L.—"O ! if isn't a matter of agreement, then?"
