The ideal he expressed in a work of the period, "Equilibru între antithesi" ("A Balance between Antitheses") was moderate progressivism, with the preservation of social peace. In Tudor Vianu's view, partly based on earlier assessments by other critics, "Equilibru", with its stress on making political needs coincide with social ones through the means of counterweights, evidenced strong influences from Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's thought, as well as vaguer ones from that of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Nonetheless, his system parted with Hegelianism in that, instead of seeking a balance between the "Geist" and existence, it considered the three states of human progress ("Thesis, antithesis, synthesis") the reflection of a mystical number favored throughout history.