alculated according to the locative value of
the portion belonging to him.--But here his obligations cease. In fact
as in law, the community (of property) is restricted; the associates
take good care not to extend this, not to pursue other aims at the same
time, not to add to their primitive and natural purpose a different and
supplementary purpose, not to devote one room to a Christian chapel
for the residents of the house, another room for a kindergarten for the
children that live in it, and a side room to a small hospital for those
who fall ill; especially, they do not admit that a tax may be imposed
for these purposes and each of them be subject to a proportional
increase of assessment at so many additional centimes per franc.[4103]
For, if the proprietor of the ground-floor is an Israelite, the
proprietor of a room on the second story is a bachelor, the proprietor
of the fine suite of rooms on the first story is rich, and has a doctor
visit him at the house, these must pay for a service for which they get
no return.--For the same reason, their association remains private; it
does not form part of the public domain; they alone are interested in
it; if the State let us use its tribunals and officials, it is the same
as it is with ordinary private individuals. It would be unjust both
against it and against itself if it would exclude or exempting it from
common right, if it put it on its administrative rolls. It would deform
and disrupt its work if it interfered with its independence, if added
to its functions or to its obligations. It is not under its tutelage,
obliged to submit its accounts to the prefect; it delegates no powers
and confers no right of justice, or police; in short, it is neither
its pupil nor its agent. Such is the lien which permanent proximity
establishes between men; we see that it is of a singular species:
neither in fact, nor in law, can the associates free themselves from
it; solely because they are neighbors, they form a community for certain
indivisible or jointly owned things, an involuntary and obligatory
community. To make amends, and even owing to this, I mean through
institution and in the natural order of things, their community
is limited, and limited in two ways, restricted to its object and
restricted to its members, reduced to matters of which proprietorship
or enjoyment is forcibly in common, and reserved to inhabitants who, on
account of situation and fixed residence, possess this e