"But, gentlemen, of all the masters whom I have followed, to none
do I owe so much as to you. Your co-operation, your programmes,
your instructions, in agreement with my secret wishes and most
cherished hopes, have at no time failed to enlighten me and to
point out my road; this memoir on property is the child of your
thought.

"In 1838, the Academy of Besancon proposed the following
question: TO WHAT CAUSES MUST WE ATTRIBUTE THE CONTINUALLY
INCREASING NUMBER OF SUICIDES, AND WHAT ARE THE PROPER MEANS FOR
ARRESTING THE EFFECTS OF THIS MORAL CONTAGION?

"Thereby it asked, in less general terms, what was the cause of
the social evil, and what was its remedy? You admitted that
yourselves, gentlemen when your committee reported that the
competitors had enumerated with exactness the immediate and
particular causes of suicide, as well as the means of preventing
each of them; but that from this enumeration, chronicled with
more or less skill, no positive information had been gained,
either as to the primary cause of the evil, or as to its remedy.

"In 1839, your programme, always original and varied in its
academical expression, became more exact. The investigations of
1838 had pointed out, as the causes or rather as the symptoms of
the social malady, the neglect of the principles of religion and
morality, the desire for wealth, the passion for enjoyment, and
political disturbances. All these data were embodied by you in a
single proposition: THE UTILITY OF THE CELEBRATION OF SUNDAY AS
REGARDS HYGIENE, MORALITY, AND SOCIAL AND POLITICAL RELATION_.