Page:Georges Sorel, Reflections On Violence (1915).djvu/271

Rh fine discovery the basis of their theology that the Jesuits have had so much success in contemporary middle classes. Our author distinguishes four motive forces capable of assuring the accomplishment of duty—"the power of society invested in the Governmental organism, the power of public opinion, the power of the individual conscience, and the power of religion"; and he considers that this spiritual mechanism perceptibly lags behind the material mechanism. The two first motive forces may have some influence on capitalists, but none in the workshop; for the workers the last two motive forces are alone effective, and they will become every day more important on account of "the growth of responsibility in those who are charged with the direction and surveillance of the working of machinery." Vut according to Molinari we could not conceive the power of the individual conscience without that of religion.

I believe, then, that G. de Molinari would be inclined to approve of the employers who protect religious institutions; he would only, however, like it done with a little more circumspection than Chagot used at Monceaules Mines.

The Socialists for a long time have been greatly prejudiced against morality, on account of these Catholic institutions that the large employers established for their workpeople. It seemed to them that, in our capitalist society, morality was only a means of assuring the docility of workmen, who are kept in the fear created by superstition. The literature which the middle class have admired for so long describes conduct so outrageous, so scandalous even, that it is difficult to credit the rich