French utopias: an anthology of ideal societies.

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French Utopias

A N ANTHOLOGY OF IDEAL Edited, with an Introduction

SOCIETIES

and Translations by

Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel

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schocken paperback edition 1971 Copyright 1966 by The Free Press Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 67-10427 Manufactured in the United States of America First

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Sir

i

John Mandeville

THE BLESSED

17

ISLES

OF PRESTER JOHN

François Rabelais

25

THE ABBEY OF THELEME Anonymous

35

THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS CONSTITUTION OF ANTANGIL Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac

43

WARFARE ON THE MOON Denis Vairasse d'Allais

49

THE ECONOMY AND EDUCATION OF THE SEVARAMBIANS Gabriel de Foigny

LIFE

59

AND DEATH AMONG THE AUSTRALIANS

François de Salignac de

la

Mothe-Fénelon

69

SALENTUM FRUGAL AND NOBLE SIMPLICITY :

Charles Irénée Castel,

Abbé de

St. Pierre

81

A PROPOSAL FOR PEACE EVERLASTING Morelly

91

nature's domain 1.

The Abundant Life

2.

A Model Code of Laws

(vi)

Contents

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

117

THE PEOPLE OF THE IDEAL COMMONWEALTH AND THE EXPRESSION OF THEIR GENERAL WILL Louis Sébastien Mercier

IN THE

131

YEAR 25OO

Denis Diderot

149

LOVE IN TAHITI Nicolas-Edme Restif de

la

Bretonne

167

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS THROUGH RULES AND REGULATIONS 1.

Megapatagonian Maxims

2.

On Marriage

Constantin François Chasseboeuf,

Comte de Volney

183

THE END OF PRIVILEGE Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet

191

THE FUTURE OF MAN Donatien Alphonse François, Comte (called Marquis) de Sade

217

A BEDROOM DISCOURSE François Noël (Caius Gracchus) Babeuf

245

A SOCIETY OF EQUALS vi.

Manifesto of the Equals

2. Analysis

of the Doctrine of Babeuf

Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon

A GOLDEN AGE FOR POSTERITY 1.

The Rule of the

2.

European Community

3.

A Parable

4.

On

Scientists

Social Organization

259

Contents

The

( vn )

283

Saint-Simonians

THE LOVING AND PRODUCTIVE SOCD2TY 1

On Moral Education

2.

The Emancipation of

Women Y 299

Charles Fourier

THE SYSTEM OF PASSIONATE ATTRACTION 1.

Development of the Senses

2.

Arts, Sciences, and Spectacles in the Combined Order

3. Epilogue on Social Chaos

Etienne Cabet

WORK AND PLAY

IN ICARIA

Auguste Comte

345

THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY Pierre-Joseph

Proudhon

361

ANARCHISM AND ORDER 1.

What

is

2. Society

Property?

without Authority

Joseph Ernest Renan

381

THE HIGHER ORGANISMS OF THE CENTURIES TO COME Anatole France

393

THE YEAR 220 OF THE EUROPEAN FEDERATION Pierre Teilhard de

Chardin

THE EVOLVING NOOSPHERE

403

French Utopias

Introduction

While

a rich Utopian tradition

was inherited from antiquity, three works are

modern European literature name to the genre, Tommaso and Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627).

primarily responsible for establishing the type in

— Thomas More's

Utopia (1516),

which gave

Campanella's City of the Sun (1623),

a

Translated soon after their appearance, they quickly took hold in France.

Campanella's influence on Cyrano de Bergerac and Vairasse, More's on Morelly, Francis Bacon's on Condorcet are transparent and freely avowed.

Utopian literature did not flourish in post-Renaissance a distinguished

Italy,

nor was

ever

it

form in either Spain or Germany. For four centuries,

it

has

remained predominantly English and French, and though the English Utopias

may have

greater originality of conceit, the French chain binding Rabelais

to Anatole France

is

the more strongly linked. After the type had been

acclimated in France in the seventeenth century grand

et

admirable royaume d'Antangil (1616)

French Utopia

full-fledged

—successive

is

—the anonymous

Histoire du

usually regarded as the

generations had a

way

first

of repeating

one another's main themes, with variations of course: Cyrano echoes in Restif de Utopia,

la

Bretonne, and Restif in Fourier.

when

it

was almost universal

from about 1750 to 1850.

The hey-day

in its cultural

of the French

impact, spans the century

When Marx adopted "utopian socialism" as a term own "scientific socialism" from current

of opprobrium to dissociate his

French and English radical writings, he unwittingly bestowed upon the literature a

are

still

new

lease

on

life.

In

many

parts of the

modern world these works

read and studied primarily as a prologue to Marxist thought, though

of late there has been revived interest in the French Utopias in their as

own

right

penetrating revelations of grave faults in the structure of society and of the

aspirations of

men

to

remold

it.

By the twentieth century the Utopian

had departed from France. "Socialist dreams"

like the

spirit

one incorporated into

Anatole France's novel The White Stone are mechanically syncretistic, pieced together from bits of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Proudhon.

The French

Republics, Third through Fifth, have been so thoroughly imbued with a

French Utopias

(2) realistic

temper that they have banished

While there

is

future, these are the

task with the

work of matter-of-fact

same

The

is

dreams of paradisiacal happiness.

is

Utopias

we have

are

ideal society, or present a

program

for

begun with Mandeville's adaptation of Rabelais's delightful description of the

in France.

books

—Vairasse

recital

is

We have

from Vincent of Beauvais, classical tradition.

Abbey of Theleme

in the Gargantua,

Thomas More

strain to introduce dramatic episodes into their

an example of the

with anecdotes

grand

an imaginary

organizing such a society.

a discrete Utopia, already reflects the influence of

While some authors

in the

that in brief

detail, describe

a passage

their

included him.

with the medieval and

in order to establish a filiation

though not

who approach

any communistic or

drawn from works

compass, though often with excessive and prosy

and

in

contemporary French Utopian

a

Teilhard de Chardin, and

selections in French

social planners

do planners

practical spirit as

capitalistic society. If there

manner, he

all

present-day France a proliferation of "programs" for the

in

futile

attempt to enliven

ponderous

a

— most Utopias are matter-of-fact and earnest

treatises

which plod rather laboriously through the major aspects of social organization.

The early Utopias have a curtain raiser in which the hero-narrator recounts how he happened to visit Utopia and an epilogue in which he explains how he got back to European civilization. By the eighteenth century the stage props and the great nineteenth-century Utopias,

are sometimes dispensed with;

which had pretensions

to scientific historical prophecy, usually found

them

superfluous. But on occasion even they resorted to the artificial machinery

of the shipwreck, the.dream, and the waking vision.

Offhand

it

seems paradoxical that the Utopia should have become stylish

in France, cultivated

The

more extensively there than elsewhere on the continent.

land of clear and distinct ideas has not been remarkable for

cality.

A

incredulity and a flood of ridicule.

obvious that the Utopian temper it is

its

forthright French reaction to Utopia ought to have been

nowhere, Utopia, unlike

mathematical, "logical" in

real

its

On is

further reflection, however,

whimsi-

a

shrug of

it

becomes

not an affront to Cartesian clarity. Since

life,

can be simple, consonant with

itself,

arrangements, compartmentalized, defined,

sharply limned and demarcated. Utopias are not fuzzy. Their laws are perhaps all

too clear and their societies

all

too smoothly engineered.

The

fascination of

Utopian thought for École Polytechnique students in the nineteenth century is

understandable.

Utopias have rarely been great works of art; their aesthetic qualities are

meagre and they

fit

more

readily into a history of social thought than into a

history of literature. Their implicit condemnation of contemporary

life

is

Introduction telling than their evocation of the future.

more

often

(3)

of existence as

much

imaginary worlds,

as

They

many

not surprising that they sometimes prognosticate the

it is

shape of things to come with a measure of accuracy. Like

an admixture of dissonant elements and they may eternal fantasies of

are dream-mirrors

they are anticipations. Since they predict so

dreams, they are

all

reflect universal,

perhaps

mankind, along with particular embodiments of the

universal in time and place. In their social origins, the French visionaries ranged from top to

bottom

of the hierarchy; and their invention of Utopias doubtless appeased a wide

gamut of psychic

needs.

Our

selection includes the free intellectual play of

Cyrano de Bergerac; the

the libertine Renaissance humanists Rabelais and

moral preachments of Archbishop Fénelon for the guidance of princes rigid plans for reform of the

human

species

eighteenth-century peasant's profligate son tion

by Henri Saint-Simon,

erotic

a declassed

daydreams of Charles Fourier,

;

by Restif de

la

;

the

Bretonne, an

vast projects of world organiza-

noble of the Revolutionary epoch; the

a frustrated clerk of the Restoration;

the megalomaniac structures of that academic

raté,

Auguste Comte, who

was rejected by the university potentates of the July Monarchy; and the rather disenchanted musings of one of the great scholars of the nineteenth

century, Ernest Renan.

The

individual fortunes of the French Utopians were touched with failure

and tragedy. Cyrano de Bergerac, estranged from misery of a in

wound

accidentally inflicted

Vincennes,and subversive pieces

ville

by

his ducal patron, died in

a servant. Diderot

like the Supplement to the

was imprisoned

Voyage of Bougain-

could be published only after his death. Condorcet wrote his vision of the

future scientific society while hiding from Robespierre's police in a garret,

and he died

in a sans-cuiottes

detention

cell.

Babeuf was guillotined

for his

attempt to implement the Manifesto of the Equals. Restif de la Bretonne lived in abject poverty during his declining years, though he did receive a rather grand

official

funeral under Napoleon. Saint-Simon stood trial for publishing

the Parable, charged with inciting the

Duke

of Berry's assassination, and in his

advanced age despair drove him to an attempt at

suicide.

Though

Simonian leaders were rehabilitated and "returned to the world" a short

term

in a not

public morals,

Messiah.

A

many

uncomfortable

for

committing

acts

which outraged

adepts perished in North Africa seeking the Female

hapless lot of

Frenchmen

Texas and succumbed to fever obscurity

jail

the Saint-

after serving

in the

set sail to establish Cabet's Icaria in

swamplands. Fourier and Comte died

in

—a modern martyrdom.

The French

social Utopias

have always been more than wild personal

French Utopias

(4)

The

phantasmagorias.

wish-fantasy of the writer, whatever

its

genesis, has

been tamed, adapted, and generalized. Utopias are to be distinguished from private worlds and mad delusions. Their publication alone is proof that they are not solipsistic but are, at the very least, folie a deux

Sometimes they expressed so

printer.

of

men

that their

—of the writer and the

forcefully a poignant longing of masses

words reverberated throughout

society. Volney's Ruins

enjoyed an international renown; Morelly's austere Nature's Code inspired

lawmakers of successive French revolutions; and Condorcet's liberal

official

Sketch

became

doctrine for more than a century. Saint-Simon, the Saint-

Simonians, Fourier, and

Comte

exerted a far-flung influence upon committed

groups of disciples, from the lower depths of Czarist Russia through the intellectual elite of Latin America.

In response to their

movements were organized and dreams were tional

where

social

Attempts to pragmatize the French Utopias were more communities of the United States than any-

practices.

numerous

summons,

translated into concrete institu-

in the experimental

else in the world.

But even when the Utopias did not become the pattern

for

communities

such as those inspired in the nineteenth century by Fourier and his follower Cabet, they indirectly affected political programs.

reduced to encompassable

social

The Saint-Simonian

fulfilled.

cultists

senators under the Second Empire their souls

—are a

goals,

classical instance

a Utopia

anyway

or

is

is

itself

The

Utopia was in time

of which were eventually

of the thirties turned bankers and

— but with

a residue of Utopian

imagery

in

of this contraction of the boundless ideal

to the real in the course of a generation.

whether

many

There

is

of course no

way of gauging

merely a sensitive recording of change that the spark plug of social reform

is

taking place

— most great Utopias have

been both reflections and stimuli. In this collection, the

writers

own

who expected

term Utopians has not been restricted to those

to see an ideal society usher in a golden age in their

time or for their immediate posterity.

If this

were the criterion

for

admission into the French canon, only Condorcet, Babeuf, Saint-Simon and

Comte would be certain of Though they described the future

the Saint-Simonians, Fourier, Cabet, and Auguste a place; perhaps Mercier

and Morelly,

also.

only in vague terms, the historical prognoses of Volney and Renan have been included because they presuppose the existence of a institutions. Rabelais

and Cyrano depict

life

in

new framework

of social

an imaginary abbey and on the

moon to castigate by implication the France of their day, without commitment to every image of their literary "fancies"; but whatever their sun and

principal intent they have been read as Utopians

and are so considered

here.

Introduction

A

seventeenth-century work, the History of

(5)

the Sevarambians,

has been selected

as a transition type: Vairasse does not believe in the possibility of this

Abbey of Theleme

ary world any more than did Rabelais in the his lunar society,

but the emphasis

more pronounced. Only serious,

shifting; the reformist zeal

is

in the eighteenth

and then they are dead

serious,

imagin-

Cyrano

or is

in

becoming

century do the Utopias grow really

though Diderot

still

remains ambivalent

about the introduction of Tahitian ways into the kingdom of France.

The French travel literature

societies, either in the authentic

which saw contemporary savages through heavily tinted rose

glasses or in garret-produced fantasies

who had

century is sometimes confounded

social Utopia of the eighteenth

with run-of-the-mill depictions of primitive

never ventured outside of

Rousseau were able to

raise their

about the

Paris.

lives of aborigines

by men

Great moralists like Diderot and

"primitivism" to another

level.

Rousseau's

description of both the historical and the contemporary primitive was a

contrasting image held up to his society.

He

steadfastly asserted that he did

not remotely advocate a return to the state of nature, and to read the Discourse on Inequality the to the ideal future political state of

Diderot's dialogue about primitivist

a

which

it is

probably right

did, as a critical introduction

mankind delineated

in Tahiti,

life

daydream and

way Kant

lies

in the Social Contract.

on the border between the

proper Utopia, merits inclusion for

aesthetic quality, as well as for its

mordant

satire

its

rare

on sexual morality in

eighteenth-century France.

Once

a serious social

they are impatient

for

purpose becomes predominant among the Utopians,

immediate

fulfillment.

Fénelon described

a

productive

enlightened monarchy that seemed quite practicable to the eighteenth century.

There was nothing

fantastic

about the legislative program of Morelly and the

hopes of Volney. Condorcet thought in terms of the next decade for the initiation of his

world republic of science. As

for

Saint-Simon and the Saint-

Simonians, Fourier, Comte, and Proudhon, they conceived of themselves as social

prophets not in the sense that they were prognosticating for a distant

future but for

tomorrow

at nine. In fact, they persistently upbraided their

fellow citizens for delaying the institution of a felicity to

which there were no

longer any historical, scientific, or technological barriers. stupid,

mad,

cruel,

The world was

and impractical to ignore "the system"; they,

others called Utopian, were the supreme realists.

Toward

whom

the second half

of the nineteenth century, the optimist groundswell began to subside. Renan's

dream, with

its

negative Utopia. verbal mist.

uncertainties

The time

and

anxieties, stands

on the borderline of the

scale of realization has again

become shrouded

in a

French Utopias

(6)

The a

general tone of Utopias varies, and does not easily define the genre as

form of intellectual expression. Even when

example

a depiction of the

a

work

contemporary world

in

is

primarily satirical, for

an alien costume either to

escape censorship or to pique the reader's curiosity,

genuine Utopian Louis

qualities.

Reybaud,

a

Jerome Paturot

in

may

it

still

preserve

guest of the Best of Republics

by

witty nineteenth-century antecedent of the negative

Utopias of George Orwell and Zamiatin, remains half-possessed by the beliefs it is

ridiculing. Occasionally a Utopia appears to be sheer

conceive of

man

at this sort of

serious purpose. Playful

and

literary elements are

difficult to

whimsy, though

game without

it is

the intrusion of a

most marked

in the earlier

French works, those of Rabelais and Cyrano, perhaps Vairasse, men who never expected their Utopia to be realized, though like

may have wished

for

it.

By

Thomas More they

contrast, the nineteenth-century Utopians

were

conspicuously lacking in humor; they were party leaders, directors of move-

ments

for

whom

new

the written text of the Utopia was a gospel for a

religion.

In eighteenth-century France, the description of imaginary societies

were nowhere, idealized places that were supposedly somewhere

which in

the

Americas or the Southern Seas, and accounts of what a good society should or

might look

like at

another. While

some future date were not sharply distinguishable one from

it is

possible to separate out pastoral dreams of

imaginary worlds with no prospect of realization,

bygone days, portrayals of

fictitious

distant lands, and works written with the conscious purpose and expectation that the world can and should be transformed into Utopia, the simon-pure

forms are few. As the newly discovered continents came to be taken for granted, there was perhaps some tendency to

temporary exotic lands and to locate them

move

distance in time replaced distance in space. But clear-cut progression in the for

example,

is

Utopias

away from con-

in the historical future of it is difficult

Europe;

to establish a

geography of Utopias. The extraplanetary Utopia, Lucian and as

as ancient as

new

as the

most recent work of

science fiction.

Most and

Utopias can be significantly illuminated by a study of the economic

social conditions of the periods in

which they were composed, despite

their absorption with the world of the future. Scholars have

Thomas More's communist

shown

that

Utopia reflects the problems of the disinherited

during the English enclosure movement of the sixteenth century. Similarly, the historical context of French eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Utopias is

readily definable. In the eighteenth century, an extraordinary preoccupation

with uniform regulations expresses a wish that the chaotic legal and institutional structure of the ancient

regime might be simplified, normalized, so that

Introduction

(7)

the bewildering feudal and customary laws would cease interfering with the

achievement of elementary rational goals of production and consumption. The regulated character of

extension to the

work

in the

eighteenth-century Utopias

is

largely an

whole of society of certain prevailing corporate practices

in

the compulsory organization of artisans. Instead, however, of the bewildering variety of rules, distinct for each of hundreds of crafts

which had survived

from the Middle Ages, the uniform provisions governing labor the simple uniformities of

reflect

The eighteenth-century

life

perceived in the

new

Utopia

in

physical science.

Utopias promise agrarian security either through

guaranteed individual holdings to farmers or through communistic peasant cooperatives. Small-scale agriculture remains the productive base, whether

the future

government of society

Fénelon, Restif de

is

envisaged as an enlightened monarchy in

Bretonne, and Mercier, or as a democracy in Volney.

la

Manual labor on the land

is

the primary source of health and prosperity, and

the evils of the city are painted in lurid colors.

and of Rousseau

The

fortified

threat of industrial problems to

The

horizon.

The

doctrines of the physiocrats

each other in French eighteenth-century Utopias.

come

is

faint; it

is

and systems spawned during the century which preceded clear

enough.

Many

practical plan to be

natural "de la

way

of

life

it is,

in retrospect,

writers had a premonition that a revolution was in the

For Morelly, despite

offing.

only on the distant

relationship of the French Revolution to the ideal legal codes

his

disavowals, communist legislation was a

adopted forthwith once men had resolved to return to a

and to sweep aside the debris of the old order. For Restif

Bretonne, the communist agrarian system had more complex roots:

through

his carefully

regulated social mechanisms he hoped to avoid the

bloody horrors of a revolution that would inevitably follow once "the people,"

whose passions he had diagnosed with such brutal honesty, broke their chains and were let loose

By heavals

upon

society.

the nineteenth century, French Utopias respond directly to the up-

engendered by the

industrial-scientific

revolution.

Whether the

Fourierists proposed a system of phalansteries with a high degree of local

autonomy

or their rivals the Saint-Simonians planned a worldwide industrial-

scientific-artistic society, these for

were alternative remedies, equally sovereign,

the manifold economic and psychological

ills

of the times.

The French

Utopians were precocious. Using English examples and parallels, or generalizing from the experience of the few factory centers established in France in the early years of the century, they

chaos.

Men

had to

refuge to Utopia.

drew

a

dramatic picture of social and spiritual

recoil in horror at the prospect before

Under the "new systems," the

cyclical

them and

economic

flee for

crises

which

French Utopias

(8)

brought starvation, the brutal factory regulations which denatured man, the pestiferous living conditions of industrial cities which ruined his health, the cheats of false bourgeois love which degraded him, and the deadly wars of

competition would

all

be abolished.

The

physical sufferings of the proletariat

and the psychic pain of the rootless members of the other

classes

would end.

Association would replace the antagonisms of capitalist society. There would

be neat

houses or communal dwellings, orderly work arrangements,

little

cleanliness, peace

and

tranquillity,

and love aplenty

Within the chronological arrangement which

for

everybody.

parallels

changing

social

and

economic conditions, French Utopias since Rabelais can, broadly speaking, be divided along the lines of the major cleavage between the

rival ancient

prescriptive moral philosophies of the eudaemonist tradition: those which

hoped to achieve ing,

a state of perfect happiness

by arousing, multiplying, increas-

and varying sensations, and those which established

a tolerable

minimum

of pleasure that they tried to maintain as stable as possible, training the inhabitants to find complete satisfaction within the fixed norms. There are

thus expansive and restrictive Utopias: Rabelais and Fourier would clearly

belong to the former type, Fénelon, the Morelly of Nature's

and Restif

Code,

to the latter. In general in the eighteenth century, the hard Utopias predomin-

ate over the visions of the soft

The stark Manifesto more common Spartan

and luxurious blessed

of the Equals

of the

ideal of the age.

dichotomy of the expansive and the

is

the manner of

isles in

the final programmatic statement

Diderot.

But

as

with

all

categorizing, this

restrictive has its inadequacies.

One

of

the least sensate Utopias of modern times, Auguste Comte's description of the ultimate stage of is

extolled

by

its

Humanity

being accomplished by

women without

free. It is sexless,

new

desires,

time

is

fruitful distinction

Once men

are emancipated

whiled away in the invention of ever

expressions of spiritual love; the gate

Perhaps a more

procreation

the intervention of male bodies, and

alimentation consists solely of liquids and gases.

from material needs and

been achieved,

after the subjective synthesis has

author as emotionally the most

Comte calls it. made between the

science,

could be

static

and

the dynamic Utopias. Here too the chronological arrangement which we

adopted

in

our presentation lends

teenth-century Utopias tend to be

itself to a logical division. static. If their

The

prenine-

authors could witness the

establishment of a never-changing society, they would look upon their work as

done and pronounce

Newtonian universe

is

it

good.

The

imitation of the natural order of the

intentional. Constant sameness

is

the ideal; the revolu-

was Not unlike the

tions of planets in accordance with a lawful design in a finite universe

adopted

as the

most appropriate model

for the social world.

Introduction

whom

ancient Greeks

(9)

they admired, the early eighteenth-century Utopians

believed that continual innovation was evil, that only the unchanging was

good. Utopia should therefore approximate a state of immutability, or at least

The

invariance, as nearly as possible.

elements in

human

Utopian reformer sought out those

nature and in the organization of society which tended to

create disturbances in domestic tranquillity

and either curbed them, trans-

formed them, or ruthlessly eradicated them

—at

easily

least

on paper. This was

accomplished by limiting severely the number of

variables a society

would have

Spartan, the

Roman

Restif de

Bretonne turned to writing

la

and

artifacts

social

to cope with; hence the predilection for the

republican, and the Puritan ideals.

When

the sensualist

stream of Utopias, he drew up

his

authoritarian schemes for the sharp curtailment of pleasures

by

law. In a

personal sense, this was an expression of the reverse side of his nature, the Jansenist one, but

also

it is

symbolic for the age.

sensationalist philosophy, acutely drafts laws for itself,

comes to Utopia

it

when

and often

resorts to simple

differences

When

inflexible rules.

romantic moderns with their striving for the

static

civil strife in their

infinite, this

Utopia without confrontations and conflicts

peacefulness

Trouble

and distinctions multiply and unregulated

innovations disrupt the rational social forms bringing

To

a society soaked in the

aware of the "ravages of the passions,"

would drive some of us to

distraction,

is

deadly.

wake.

image of

The

a

idyllic

and so would the unrelieved

sameness. But to the prenineteenth-century Utopian, this constancy was the essence of the good poetry.

When

life. It

was the prosy embodiment of the

ideal of pastoral

Aristotle analyzed the nature of the social maladies

which

generated change and described the circular variations in the government of the polity to which they gave

rise,

revolutions were

tures from the enduring good. Ixion's fate

is

all

conceived as depar-

not a happy one. Progression in

either an Augustinian sense or in the late eighteenth-century secularized

version of Condorcet

is

a derogation of the Utopia itself because perfection

cannot be improved upon.

When toward

idea of progress took possession of Utopia,

the end of the Enlightenment the it

radically altered the nature of the

dream. If poetry

and music are not banished from the eighteenth-century Utopian

is. At best, history is a record of horrible examples inhuman conduct preserved from barbarous times. Static Utopians like Mercier do not know quite how to treat the historical. Shall they expunge its

republics, history usually

of

evil

images from the memory of man forever and limit the history of the past

to the history of the

good which led to the

perfect, lest the

example of past

wickedness be contagious even in Utopia? Or shall they retain the history of

(io)

French Utopias

recorded evil in

all its

solution, the historical

The

odious forms to teach moral lessons? Whatever the is

substantially devalued.

nineteenth-century Utopias, unlike their predecessors, are profoundly

Condorcet (who

historical in character.

for

our purposes

more intimately

is

related to his successors than to his eighteenth-century antecedents), Saint-

Simon, Fourier, and Comte are reformers critique of the existing order that

who may

start

writings; but a historical analysis of how the present is

out with

a

trenchant

often the most cogent part of their

is

came

essential for their extrapolation of the curve of social

to

assume

development

Full-scale philosophies of historical progression invariably

its

shape

in Utopia.

accompany the

attacks on contemporary society; they demonstrate that the ultimate

fulfill-

ment of

in

their social ideal

inevitable.

is

There

is

usually

some leeway

the

may come about fast or it may be delayed; the process may be peaceful or it may be revolutionary; but a Utopia is always the culmination of the historical series. The whole of the past has been building up to a moment of crisis; the present transition stage, painful though it is, will determinist prediction:

pass;

and the future

is

it

a

dynamic crescendo of ever-increasing

commence. Whereas the ordinary eighteenth-century Utopias

joys about to

settled

down

to

reasonable steadiness, those of the nineteenth century, beginning with Con-

dorcet

—who bridges the gap even though he died

to indefinite perfectibility. final goal,

known and

mathematical infinity;

The

fixed;

"could only be revealed in time. set

— were committed

was

a

new

higher goal as well as

it

for the

in 1795

process was not envisaged as growth toward a

Up

proclamation of infinite progress, like its

achievement

to the nineteenth century, purposes were

the "social art" of which the prerevolutionary Utopian was master con-

:

sisted in devising

and implementing

antiquity, and then maintaining

it

a plan, like the

mythical lawgiver of

in the face of natural tendencies

toward

corruption. After the concept of progress suffused Utopia, the ideal order lost its static

and finished quality. Heaven

itself

became changeable. The image of

the good society became as dynamic as the vision of the expanding universe

was

in the

If

new astronomy.

they are examined as a body of psychological rather than historical

documents, many Utopias appear to be expressions of the obsessive, somewhat paranoid personality.

How

else shall

one interpret the regulatory minutiae

of Restif and Fourier, the repetitive details, the reduction of reality to a

symmetrical uniform structure, the autarchy and isolation of most ideal

commonwealths, the

piling

up of restrictions, the

artificiality

of relationships?

They describe a two-dimensional world which lacks emotional depth. There may be some sorrow allowable but nothing tragic, some orderly joy but no

(il)

Introduction

ecstasy. Life

flattened out: everything

is

The extremes

adequate, nothing magnificent.

is

of existence have been lopped

off.

The

petty bourgeois,

strait-

Frenchman of the nineteenth century could move into the better Utopias without knowing the difference. Poets are not ousted from modern French

laced

behave

Utopias, as they were from Plato's Republic; but they are required to

themselves.

Marriage, education, work, distribution and consumption,

ment,

festivals,

and

civil

punish-

"departments" of life covered seriatim

religion are the

in

most Utopias and their solutions are often remarkably similar: a monogamous family in which partners have

some

free choice; a gentle rather

than a harsh

education with more emphasis on virtue than bookish knowledge; compulsory labor for

more

all,

accompanied by

a rehabilitation of the

worth of the manual

avoiding the vices of excess miscreants (Beccaria's

equal and rather lenient punishments for

;

little treatise

of the Utopians and punishment

which

is

is

has found

way

its

always made to

fit

the crime); a religion

an amalgam of deism and inspirational civic ceremonies. Scientific favored over the literary

—

Anatole France's Utopia, reading

is

declines

and communication becomes phonographic. The

social virtues.

human

all

into the consciousness

culture

is

arts;

or less equal consumption of an adequate quantity of simple products,

There

Good

dignity.

everywhere

is

in

arts serve to inspire

widely diffused love and an atmosphere of respect

health

is

for

based on continent and regular habits. Reason

and the passions, though not condemned outrightly, With the appearance of the nineteenth-century romantic a movement to dethrone Reason in the name of Love as the

in control

are held in check.

Utopians, there

is

guiding principle, but

still

the love

is

reasonable, not extravagant or destruc-

tive.

The Utopian

treats of society

He

manipul?ble object, as "it."

and each individual who comprises

view of the cosmos and society where man "thou." Almost by definition, the Utopian in

which he actually

lives, so

model

inanimate. Those Utopians

faces all creatures

is

it

is

Attempts to describe Utopian failures.

whom

exude

he disposes

this spirit of the

new

society, never

feelings,

man who,

despite his

was emotionally part of it.

when they do

occur, are always dismal

When we say we are probably misleading they have none of the powerful

Utopias are generally wooden, mechanical, contrived.

they are dreamlike,

as

created an imaginary contemporary character

magically transported to a future age constructed a

admiration for the ways of the

and things

driven to construct another

with creatures

for a stageset. All Utopias

who

as a

alienated from the social order

alienated that he

world cut of synthetic blocks and people like dressed dolls in a

it

stands in sharp contrast to the mythopoeic

;

(i2)

French Utopias

affective qualities of the dream.

Their emotional range

narrow. Rarely do they succeed in conveying what

it is

is

extraordinarily

like to live in Utopia

perhaps because there are no Utopian feelings other than the mild content-

ment and sense of adequacy experienced Looked

from

at

this viewpoint, the

an eventemperatured room.

in

considered a presage of the well-policed, comfortable

advanced technological age. Cabet's Texas and

Nauvoo,

in

Illinois,

may

emotionally impoverished Utopias

Icaria

was

civil societies

be

of our

a fiasco in nineteenth-century

but with certain organizational changes,

could be looked upon as a social blueprint with recognizable

it

affinities to

contemporary suburbia.

Most

would be considered harshly authoritarian by the standards

Utopias

of nineteenth-century liberals like John Stuart Mill; they surely did not abide

by

his

and forbearance. Some of them express

principles of tolerance

niggardly, closed

spirit.

They do not

a

allow for spontaneity: the details of

supervision are meticulous, often boring, like government regulations any-

where. Only from Utopia there in

is

no escape to Utopia because you are already

it.

Utopias tend to be plainly utilitarian.

You

organization of the distribution of produce, but

Mercier tried without

or literature?

much

can describe a more perfect

how do you

success.

depict a

eighteenth century, the idea of "socially conscious" art assumed the Utopias, but

— the

When

religion

was preserved

it

theophilanthropic cults of the French

antecedents and followers

—or

it

excludes even the intuitive. Excellence

esteemed, there

Love

in

place in

Revolution had

was "generalized science"

the mystical in any of these matter-of-fact

it

its

was of the Roman

is

little

civic

many

called religion as

in Saint-Simon's project for a High Council of Newton. There

and though

art

did not flower in the center of the Utopian gardens until

it

the Saint-Simonians.

type

new

Beginning with the

is

no room

usually cultivated

by hard work,

is

recognized that talents vary and natural superiority

is

no appreciation of romantic genius.

Utopia

is,

more often than

for

worlds and the practical

not, respectable.

Even

is

in Rabelais's

Abbey of Theleme,

the magnificently costumed inmates taking their pleasure

in exercise, display,

and learned conversation, were decently paired

Vairasse allowed his public

introducing Utopias. practice.

By

officials a

a realistic note,

a

The

off.

When

measure of polygamy, he may have been

but he overstepped the bounds of most French

consensus of Utopians,

monogamy

is

the only permissible social

Saint-Simonians provided for some variety in love relationships,

but only under the guidance of the great priests of mankind, insight into the

who had an

amorous character of their adepts. Morelly permitted divorce,

Introduction

a

proposal in eighteenth-century

radical

many

procedures with so

(13) but he enveloped the

France,

restrictions that

it

was no

Only the

light matter.

Marquis de Sade and Fourier would open wide the floodgates of promiscuous sexual encounters to those who desired them. De Sade's companies of pleasure-

La

seekers were rather elitist in character, but in our selection from dans

boudoir,

le

he adapted his prescriptions to

Republic and there Utopians. Restif de little

is

sound reason Bretonne

la

for

all

welcoming him among the

in his Andrographe

agrarian society of patriarchal units that

from that of Mercier or Morelly, except that restrictive.

commitment

Diderot's

Philosophie

ranks of society in the French

is

virtually indistinguishable

it

is

more

and sexually

rigid

to the free love of Tahiti

absolute, nothing like Fourier's faith in the

social

portrays a rather proper

amorous

far

is

from

series of the phalanstery.

But while Diderot did not expect to introduce the amatory customs of the

South Seas into France, he used this ideal image of natural behavior in

his plea

against the terrible punishments which certain prohibited sexual relations entailed in his

abolished

own

itself,

Comte's future

society. Since in

love

is

a spiritualized

state of Humanity sex has

and sublimated relationship,

remains indissoluble and widowhood eternal

—

a

rich in its

Humanity, marriage

incorporeal expressions. In the Positivist Religion of

more rigorous

rule than the

Catholic state of France ever imposed.

With the

possible exception of Renan's dream, eugenics do not play a

crucial role in the

French Utopias. For the most part, essential human nature

remains fixed and biological transformations reflecting the influence of a crude

Darwinism are lacking. sexual

If

Auguste Comte envisioned

and appetitive nature,

it

religion rather than sexual selection. in the

a

change

in

man's

was to come about through the power of Such eugenic measures

as

were proposed

seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Utopias aimed to improve the

species, to breed healthier

Of all

progeny

— but not to

alter

man's nature.

the Utopians, only Fourier seriously attacks the family structure as

the basic unit of social

life.

The others

direct themselves

toward strengthening

the relationship, ennobling

it,

forthrightly espoused only

by the Saint-Simonians and

purifying

it

of dross. Equality for

women

is

in late nineteenth-

century imitations of their ideas in Anatole France, though most Utopias provide for a in

rise in

the social status of women from their position of subjection

the patriarchal family structure of France. This holds true for Utopias

written both under the ancient regime and the postrevolutionary bourgeois state.

Since the Utopians wish to teach a

prominence to

a

new system

new way

of

life,

they always give

of education. Again Fourier's reflections on the

(i4)

French Utopias

nature of children have greatest originality. tion for practical education, in

no

is

the whole, there

economy where

a predilec-

is

to the emphasis on classical

the prevailing system. Children are trained to

literature in

established social niches in an

there

On

marked opposition

fit

into pre-

persons are productive and

all

Utopias written after Rousseau's Emile were

leisure class.

subject to his influence and the novel systems deal with education

all

by example,

by doing, rather than with learning things by rote or by rational argument. educational projects of Utopias, whether in Vairasse or in the Saint-

The

Simonian lectures, are among their most

significant? sections,

even more

prominent than those on courtship and marriage.

While passion

for

eighteenth century,

men

is

The eighteenth-century

nineteenth. all

is marked among the Frenchmen of the condemned by the "classical Utopians" of the

equality

it

eat the

plans are often mechanically egalitarian

same food and perform

minimal differentiation of tasks.

virtually the

Men are

same amount of labor

with

a

The

nineteenth-century organizations were more complex: the egalitarian

ideal took the

desires

more

like interchangeable counters.

shape of an opportunity for equal self-actualization, and because

and capacities varied, the whole

intricate.

fabric of the Utopia

tended to become

With the introduction of imagery from the biological

men were regarded

as parts of a social

sciences,

organism and they assumed distinctive

characters as well as functions in the Saint-Simonian, Fourierist, Comtist, and

Proudhonian systems. Differences among men were innate qualities

human

organismic analogies.! Fourier recognized that

were radically varied, hence

a

complicated social mechanism with

work patterns! The Saint-Simonians,

alternative

emphasizing profound variations

in

human

Gotha Program which combined was

clearly derivative

total

many

in the spirit of their master

capacity, built a society out of

gigantic professional hierarchies of natural talent.

capacities

in these

psychological needs

The Marxist dictum

of the

actualization of all needs and all

from these French Utopians. From the

eighteenth century through the middle of the nineteenth, the Utopians are

without

exception

anti-aristocratic,

Renan's vision of a world ruled by represents the

Most

who

tendency driven to

not

necessarily

who become

its logical

anti-elitist;

virtual

supermen

extreme.

Utopias are humanitarian asylums where nothing

ill

befalls

anyone

stays within the rules. Punishments are both deterrent and corrective,

and there

is

of physical

of

elitist

though

scientists

the

frequent resort to the vague sanctions of public obloquy in place force,

Sevarambians

though seventeenth-century Utopias still

retain

In the eighteenth-century

whipping

Utopias

as

— Mercier's

a

like

punishment

the

for

History

adultery.

"Execution of a Criminal,"

Introduction

example

for

— there

the criminal

welcome

is

are

grim

brought to

touches

realize

(15)

of totalitarian

when

modernity

the justice of his punishment and to

it.

Utopias are unanimous in their elimination of the violent clashes of great

mind

armies that western society has known. Cyrano de Bergerac's playful

substituted a combat of champions or a well-regulated war in which honorable forms, often rather outlandish ones, were strictly observed.

and nineteenth-century Utopias were premised on the

The

eighteenth-

feasibility of the total

abolition of war, either through the complete atrophy of the aggressive instinct or its sublimation. Fourier stands out as an exception in recognizing

the persistence of the combative and competitive instincts even in the state of

Harmony up sham

and, more than any other Utopian, he devoted himself to dreaming battles of the sexes

torious army.

No modern

with captives of love

massacres which have been the reality of

life.

others, the French follow the early Utopians,

move

as the

reward to the

vic-

Utopians have been able to countenance the In this respect, as in so many More and Campanella. As we

into the nineteenth century, universal peace

becomes the overriding

Thomas More's isolated From Emeric Crucé and the Abbé de Saint-

passion of Utopia; even the minor limited wars of island

no longer seem

Pierre

through Anatole France, Frenchmen multiplied the schemes

tolerable.

universal federation of mankind. Utopia had to real,

and peace was

for a

become international

to be

indivisible.

Since the French Revolution, "utopian" has often been an abusive epithet.

As might be expected, one man's architectural plan another man's blueprint for

for

heaven on earth became

Reflections on social change with which one

hell.

disagreed were labeled "utopian," though the visionaries of a

order conceived of themselves as the great rejected the universal happiness

realists,

which was proffered

new

social

and their enemies who to

mankind,

as evil

men

blind with illusion.

Contemporary attitudes vary. The twentieth-century French

Raymond Ruyer

"lateral possibilities of reality"

tone

is critical.

sociologist

has described Utopias as a mental exercise or play on the ;

while he recognizes their uses his general

A school of German sociology has made the distinction between

ideology and Utopia into a major systematic premise. In England, a theoretician of science has levelled a ferocious attack against "utopia" as contrasted with

the realistic engineering of social change. Lewis Mumford's felicitous definition of the twenties

still

has great merit, though our generation

is

under-

standably cool or at best ambivalent toward the Utopian vision after so horrible crimes have been

committed

in its

name.

many

f

(i6)

French Utopias

We have set our Utopias that make the world and mansions that people dream of are those in which they

Utopia has long been another name tolerable to us; the cities

and the impossible.

for the unreal

Utopia over against the world. As a matter of fact,

it is

The more men

react upon their environment and make it over after a more continuously do they live in Utopia; but when there is a breach between the world of affairs and the overworld of Utopia, we become conscious of the part that the will-to-utopia has played in our lives, and we see our Utopia as a finally live.

human

pattern, the

separate reality.

The

selections that follow

Utopian thought

wasteland

—

its fertile

aim to present

a

balanced sampling of French

inventiveness as well as

its

stretches of barren

—from among the hundreds of works that have appeared

four centuries. While the excerpts

may

skeptical reader of the intellectual riches

in the last

not be long enough to convince the

which

lie

hidden beneath the surface

of some Utopias, they do spare him the aridity and monotony of others.

SIR

JOHN MANDEVILLE (ca.

1300-1372)

The Blessed Isles

of

Presterjohn*

Mandeville

is

reputed to be an English traveler

who was

long supposed to

out on a voyage to the East in 1322, and whose narrative seems to

have

set

have

first

appeared

in

Norman French

—early manuscripts give 1356 and

1357 as the date of completion. In a documentary history of French Utopias, the justification for the intrusion of this

man he was

—

is

Englishman

—

English-

if

twofold. All extant versions of his tales are apparently

derived from French originals. Moreover,

it is

now

generally agreed that

these travels were not solely an account of Mandeville's peregrinations,

but in large measure a compilation of other authors, among them Vincent de Beauvais heavily.

(d. 1264),

The

from whose encyclopedic Speculum Mundi

Speculum itself was a

rivulets from the Utopian

Oriental antiquity, and tradition. Mandeville's

it

compendium

into

it

drew

which flowed many

and paradisiacal tradition of Greco-Roman and can thus serve as a starting point for the French

famous thirty-second chapter, with

its

image of

the good society of the "Bragmans," had a tenacious hold on European imaginations.

'From

Sir

John Mandeville, Mandeville's

the Douai (1624) edition (London:

Travels^ texts

and translations by Malcolm Letts from

The Hakluyt 17

Society, 1953),

I,

pp. 204-10.

Woodcut,

illustration for Mandeville's Travels, ca. 1500.

Goodness of the Folk of the

Of the

Isle

of Bragman; of King

Alexander; and Wherefore the Emperor of India

Is

Cleft Prester John

Beyond good

this isle

folk

is

another

And

conversation.

if all it

by law of kind they flee all vices

for

good and great and

isle

and true and of good

and

sin

live a

faith

and good

life

full

of folk

;

and they are

manner of

after the

their

be so that they are not Christian men, not forbye

commendable

life,

and are

good virtue and

folk of

and malice, and they keep well the Ten Commandments,

they are neither proud, ne covetous, ne lecherous, ne gluttons; and they

do nought to another man but as they would were done to themselves. They set

nought by

riches of this world, ne

no leasings, ne swear none oaths for

they say he that swears

by having of earthly goods. They make

for nothing,

this folk dwells in is called the Isle of

Land of Thebe. truer

Faith.

And

And through

generally

all

his

Bragmans

;

or

it is

not;

neighbour. This

isle

that

men

of that

isle

it is

and some men

this isle runs a great river, the

the

and rightwiser than are

but simply say

about to beguile

is

and of other

call it

which

isles

in other countries. In this isle are

is

thereby are

no thieves, ne

men murderers, ne common women, ne liars, ne beggars; but they are men of conversation and als good as they were men of religion. And,

clean als

mickle as they are so true folk and so good, there

country neither thunder ne levening [lightning], tempests of

ill

hail

is

the

called

nevermore

als

for

in that

ne snow, ne other

weathers; ne hunger, ne pestilence, ne war, ne other tribula-

among them, as do among us because of our sin. And God loves them well and is well paid of their living and of their faith. They trow in God that made all thing, and him they worship at all their might; and all earthly things they set at nought. And they live so tions

come

therefore

it

there none

seems that

temperately and so soberly in meat and drink that they are the longest living folk of the

world; and

when the kind

When

many

of

them

die for pure eld [age] without sickness

fails.

Alexander the conqueror reigned and conquered

that time he

came by that

isle

and sent 19

his letters to

all

the world, in

them that dwelt

in that

isle

John Mandeville

Sir

(20)

and

said that he

would come and destroy

under

his subjection, as other lands were.

in this

manner: 'What thing might

may

not suffice?

Thou

;

would be

letters again

whom all

til

him

the world

nothing with us wherefore thou should

we have no

for

man, to

suffice to that

shall find

werray [make war] upon us

their land, but if they

And they wrote

riches of this world, ne

covet for to have. All the places of our land and

all

none

our goods mobile and

common

til ilk man. All our riches that we have is our meat and we sustain our bodies; our treasure is peace and accord and love that is among us. Instead of array of our bodies we use a vile cloth for to cover with our caitiff carrion. Our wives also are not proudly ne richly arrayed to pleasing of our eyes, for we hold such enornement great folly to put to the wretched body more beauty than God has kindly given it; our wives

unmobile are

our drink, wherewith

Our land serves us of two we live with, and of sepulture, when we are dead. And aye to this time have we been in peace, of the which thou will now despoil us and disherit us. A king we have among us, not for to do right to any man, for among us no man does wrong til other,

covet no more beauty than kind has given them. things, that

but

all

among

is

to say of our lifelade [livelihood], which

only to 1ère [teach] us to be obedient. Judges need us none to have us, for

none of us does

til

other but as he would were done

til

him.

Forbye from us may thou reave nothing but peace, the which has aye unto time been

this

among

us.'

And when

and read them, him thought

unmanhood

king Alexander had seen their letters

in his heart that

were great harm and great

it

to grieve such folk or trouble them,

and he granted them surety

of peace, and bade that they should continue forth their good manners and use their good customs without dread having of him, for he should not dere

[harm] them.

Near beside that that

is

another

isle is

called Gynoscriphe,

where

isle

that

for the

men

call

Oxidrace, and another

most part they hold the manners of

the Bragmans, living innocently in lewty [loyalty] and in love and charity ilk

one

til

other; and they go evermore naked. Into these

isles

came Alexander

the conqueror; and from the time that he saw their conversation and their

lewty [loyalty] and love

ilk

one

til

other, he said he

would not grieve them,

but bade them ask of him whatso they would, and he should grant them.

And they answered and but

all

said that worldly riches

would they none ask ne have,

only meat and drink wherewith the feeble body might be sustained.

this world, quoth they, are not lasting but and he might give them things that were ayelasting and not deadly, then would they thank him mickle. The king answered them and said that that might he not do, for he was deadly himself als well as they.

For the goods and the riches of deceivable. But

The Blessed

of Pr ester fohn

Isles

(21)

'Whereto, then' quoth they 'gathers thou the riches of this world, that are

may

transitory and

not last; but, whether thou will or not, they shall leave

thee, or else thou them, as

them that were before

has befallen to

it

And

thee.

out of this world shall thou bear nothing with thee, but naked as thou came thither shall thou pass hence,

and thy

flesh shall turn again to earth that

thou

And therefore should thou think that nothing may last everbut God that made all the world. And yet, not having regard thereto,

was made more,

of.

thou art so presumptuous and so proud that, right as thou were God, thou

would make thy

all

the world subject unto thee, and thou

ne the day ne the hour.'

life,

When

knows not the term of

Alexander had heard these words and

such other, he had great wonder thereof and was greatly compunct and went

from them and did them no dis-ease. folk

have not the

faith that

and not forbye

And

if all

latter

I

for their living, as

there be

my

and

this fold', as if

And Jaffa,

he

ovili,

said,

that

And

as Job did. eis

is

set

not by the vainglory of the

therefore said our Lord

also in the

to say,

'Other servants

'I I

'I

Gospel he says, Alias

by the

shall

put

ores babeo,

have other sheep which are not of

have than are under Christian law.'

hereto accords the vision that was showed to Saint Peter in the city of

how

beasts

an angel came from heaven and brought with him

and nedders [snakes] and fowles, and bade him take and

Peter answered and said,

'I

eat never of unclean beasts.'

again to him, §luod deus mundavit, tu ne immundum

thou not unclean that that

men

for their good them well and the which was a paynim,

loves

multipliées leges rneas, that is to say,

And

laws manifold'.

que non sunt ex hoc

trow that

God

he did of Job,

and serve him meekly and truly and

Prophet Ysai [Hosea], Ponam

them

I

deeds were acceptable to

world, as this folk does

to

be so that this manner of

God as of his loyal servants. many divers laws and divers sects in the world, never the God evermore loves well all those that love him in sooth-

his

trow that

fastness

if all it

they have of kind and their good intent,

him well paid

holds

And

articles of our belief, nevertheless

despise no

loves ne

whom

De Profundis,

I

men

God

for the diversity

of their laws. For

;

say

it

when

for all Christian souls

And

of this folk

I

and

pray

we wot

for the

also for

all

say thus mickle, that

I

acceptable to God, they are so true and so good.

And

among them and have been of old

time; for in these

incarnation of Christ prophesied,

how

three thousand year and

that

dixeris,

manner of and Saint

the angel said is

to say, 'Call

has cleansed.' This was done in token that

he hates and therefore

to be prayed for.

And

all

eat;

I

whom God my

the souls that are

trow they are

there are isles

not

dead and say

full

many prophets

was some time the

he should be born of a maiden, yea

more before the time of his incarnation. And they trow

well the incarnation of Christ, but they

know not the manner of his passion.

Sir

(22)

Beyond these neither

till

isles

is

John Mandeville

another

isle

that

are right fair folk

where the

called Pytan,

is

And

ne sow no land, ne neither eat ne drink.

and well coloured and well shapen

folk

nevertheless they

after the stature that

they

somewhat more than the pigmens. This folk live with the smell of wild apples that grow there; and, if they gang over far from home, they take with them of these apples, for alsone as they forgo the smell of them they die. This folk is not full reasonable, but right are of; for they are little like dwarfs,

simple and as

were beasts.

it

There near

is

another

where the

isle,

and rough,

folk are all full of feathers

men go

out-taken the visage and the palms of the hand. These

well

all

the water as upon the land; and they eat flesh and fish raw. In this great river the breadth of river

is

two mile; and

a great wilderness, as

men

the river. But

men

I

Wymare. Beyond that came not beyond

called

it is

told me, for

saw

it

upon

isle is a

not, ne

that dwell near the river told us that in those deserts are

Moon, which spake til King Alexander and told him of his death. And men say that folk that keep the trees eat of the fruit of them and of the balm that grows there, and they live four hundred year or five through the virtue of that fruit and of that balm. For there grows great plenty of balm and nowhere else that I could hear of, out-taken in Egypt beside Babylon, as I told you before. My fellows and I would fain have gone thither; the Trees of the Sun and the

but, as

men

hundred thousand men of arms should unnethe pass

told us, a

that wilderness because of the great multitude of wild beasts that are in that wilderness, as dragons and divers manners of nedders and other ravissant beasts that slay

and devour

many

all

elephants

number; there beasts.

Many

many

are also

other

all

that they

white and some

isles

all

may

get. In this foresaid isle are

blue and of other colour without

many

unicorns and lions and

other hideous

there are in the lordship of Prester John and

many

marvels and also mickle riches and noblay of treasure and precious stones and other jewels, the which were over long to

Now

will

I tell

you why

some time an emperor

this

emperor

in that land

tell. is

called Prester John.

which was

a noble prince

and he had many knights with him that were Christian,

emperor

there.

manner of the

men many

And on

a time this

There was a

doughty;

as he has that

now

is

emperor thought that he would see the

service in Christian kirks.

And

that time occupied Christian

countries towards those parts, that

Tartary, Jerusalem, Palestine,

and

is

Arabia, Aleppo and

that this emperor and a Christian knight with

to say,

all

Turkey, Syria,

Egypt.

him came into

And

so

a kirk in

it

fell

Egypt

upon a Saturday in Whitsun week, when the bishop gave Orders. And the emperor beheld the service and the manner of the making of priests, how

The Blessed

how

solemnly and

Isles

of Prester John

(23)

busily and devoutly they were ordained.

And

then he

asked the knight that was with him what manner of folk those were that were so ordained

and what they hight; and he

said that they

were

priests.

And

then

the emperor said he would no more be called king ne emperor but priest, and also he it fell

would have the name cf the

that the

fore that

that

first

priest that

emperor and

is als

all

came

first priest

first

came out of the

that

kirk.

So

out of the kirk hight John; and there-

other emperors syne have been called Prester John,

mickle at say as Priest John. In the land of Prester John are

good Christian men and well

living,

and men of good

faith

many

and of good law,

and namely of men of the same country. And they have that sing

priests among them them masses; but they make the sacrament of leavened bread, as

the Greeks do.

And

do; but they say

all

also they say not their masses in

with which the sacrament in old time.

all

things as our priests

only the Pater Noster and the words of the consecration is

made,

as Saint

Thomas

the Apostle taught

But of the ordinances and additions of the court of

our priests use ken they nought.

them

Rome which

FRANÇOIS RABELAIS (ca.

I495-I5S3)

The Abbey

of Theleme'

François Rabelais was born at La Devinière in Touraine. Successively a Franciscan, a Benedictine, a physician in a Lyons hospital, a courtier, this

vagabond

spirit

shifted back

and forth between religious and secular

employments. Rabelais was an enthusiast merciless in deriding

fluctuated as orthodoxy

new,

for the

some aspects of religious

waxed and waned

life

liberal learning

and

and dogma. His fortunes

in France.

During

his years at

Lyons, where he was part of an enlightened and intellectual society, the first

of his great satiric tales appeared, and was forthwith condemned by

the Sorbonne theologians for obscenity and sacrilege (1533). Despite

skirmishes with the religious authorities, Rabelais to Italy in the retinue of the

Bellay

humanist Bishop,

made

several journeys

later Cardinal, Jean

du

and of his brother Guillaume, and through their patronage secured

livings at

Meudon and St. Christophe de Jambet. It is doubtful, however, Meudon" ever presided there, and in the last year of

that the "canon of his life

he resigned these benefices to take up the honorary court post of

maître des requêtes. Rabelais's powerfully inventive stories of Gargantua

and

two decades and issued death, are animated by a robust

Pantagruel, published piecemeal over a period of in a

complete edition (1567) only after

wit, a sharp sense of ridicule,

monastic

life

and

his

a reformer's zeal. His

gives the chapters on

Theleme an

*From François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, trans. Motteux (newly annotated; Oxford: Oxford University 25

Sir

own

especially

experience of

pungent

Henry Urquhart and

Press, 1934),

I,

flavor.

Peter Le

pp. I47~9> 154-60.

The Abbey

of Theleme, as conceived by Charles Lenormant in his Rabelais

y

et

ï architecture de

la Renaissance. Restitution de

l'Abbaye de Theleme, Paris, 1840.

How

Gargantua Caused To Be Built for

Monk

the

the

Abbey of Theleme

There was

left

onely the

Monk

made Abbot of Seville, but he

to provide for,

refused

whom

Gargantua would have

he would have given him the Abbey

it;

of Bourgueil, or of Sanct Florent which was better, or both,

Monk

but the

upon him the charge nor government of Monks; For how he) to rule over others, that have not if

you think

give

me

I

if it

pleased him;

gave him a very peremptory answer, that he would never take

have done you, or

leave to found an

full

may

shall

I

be able (said

power and command of

hereafter

my

do any acceptable

self:

service,

Abby after my owne minde and fancie; the motion who thereupon offered him all the Countrey of

pleased Gargantua very well, Tbelem

by the

river of Loire,

till

within two leagues of the great forrest of

Port-huaut: the

Monk then requested Gargantua

contrary to

others. First then (said Gargantua)

all

about your convent, for

about

:

you must not build

other Abbies are strongly walled and

See (said the Monk) and not without cause {seeing wall and mure

but one and the same thing;) is

all

to institute his religious order

store of

where there

is

Murmur, envie, and mutual

Mur

before,

a wall

mured signifie

and Mur behinde, there

conspiracie. Moreover, seeing there are

custome is, if any woman come in mean chaste and honest women) they immediately sweep the ground which

certaine convents in the world, whereof the (I

they have trod upon; therefore was

it

ordained that

entered into religious orders, should by chance all

if

any man or woman

come within

this

new Abbey,

the roomes should be throughly washed and cleansed through which they

had passed; and because

in all other

passed, limited, and regulated

Monasteries and Nunneries

by houres,

it

was decreed that

all is

in this

com-

new

structure there should be neither Clock nor Dial, but that according to the opportunities, and incident occasions, for (said

hours,

Gargantua)

The

all

their hours should be disposed of;

greatest losse of time that

what good comes of

it?

now

I

know,

is

to count the

can there be any greater dotage in the

world, then for one to guide and direct his courses by the sound of a Bell, and

not by his Item,

owne judgement and

discretion.

Because at that time they put no 27

women

into Nunneries, but such as

François Rabelais

(28)

were either purblinde, blinkards, lame, crooked, fooles, senselesse,

ill-favoured,

mis-shapen,

spoyled or corrupt; nor encloystered any men, but those

that were either sickly, subject to defluxions, ill-bred lowts, simple sots, or

A woman

peevish trouble-houses: but to the purpose; (said the Monk)

that

is

what use serves she? To make a Nunne of, said the Monk) and to make shirts and smocks; therefore was

neither faire nor good, to

Gargantua: Yea (said it

ordained that into this religious order should be admitted no

were not

faire,

well featur'd, and of a sweet disposition; nor

men

women

that

that were not

comely, personable and well conditioned. Because in the convents of

Item,

and by

privily,

be no

women

Item,

stealth,

it

in case there

Because both

women men come

was therefore enacted that be not men, nor

men and women

men

ordered, that

should have

all

full

whatever,

all

men

house there

in case there

were constrained and

the days of their

life;

it

was therefore

women, admitted within

or

shall

be not women.

that are received into religious orders

after the expiring of their noviciat or probation-year,

forced perpetually to stay there

not but under-hand,

in this

this

Abbey,

leave to depart with peace and contentment, whensoever

it

should seem good to them so to do. Item, for that the religious

Vows, to stituted

men and women

wit, those of chastity, poverty

and appointed, that

in this

&

did ordinarily

obedience,

it

make

three

was therfore con-

Convent they might be honourably

married, that they might be rich, and live at liberty. In regard of the légitimât

time of the persons to be initiated, and years under and above, which they

were not capable of reception, the fifteen,

and the men from twelve

What Manner

women were

til

to be admitted from ten

of Dwelling the Thelemites

In the middle of the lower

till

eighteen.

Court there was

Had

a stately fountain

of faire Alabaster;

upon the top thereof stood the three Graces, with their cornucopias, or

homes

of abundance, and did jert out the water at their breasts, mouth, eares, eyes,

and other open passages of the body; the inside of the buildings in this lower Court stood upon great pillars of Cassydonie stone, and Porphyrie marble, made arch-wayes after a goodly antick fashion. Within those were spacious galleries, long and large, adorned with curious pictures, the homes of Bucks and

The Abbey of Theleme

( 29 )

Unicornes: with Rhinoceroses, water-horses called Hippopotames, the teeth and tusks of Elephants, and other things well worth the beholding.

of the Ladies (for

so

we may

call those gallant

Arctick unto the gate Mesembrine: the

men

women) took up

all

The lodging

from the tower

possessed the rest. Before the said

lodging of the Ladies, that they might have their recreation, between the first

towers, on the out-side, were placed the tilt-yard, the barriers or

turnements, the hippodrome or riding Court, the

and Natatorie or place to swim

in,

theater or

publike play-house,

with most admirable bathes

situated above one another, well furnished with

all

two

lists for

in three stages,

necessary accommodation,

and store of myrtle- water. By the river-side was the faire garden of pleasure: and in the midst of that the glorious labyrinth. Between the two other towers were the Courts

for the tennis

stood the Orchard

full

of

all

and the baloon. Towards the tower

fruit-trees, set

and ranged

Criere

in a quincuncial order.

At the end of that was the great Park, abounding with

all

sort of Venison.

Betwixt the third couple of towers were the buts and marks for shooting

with a snap-work gun, an ordinary bowe for Crosse-bowe. high.

The

The

stables

office-houses

common

were without the tower

were beyond the

offices,

archery, or with a Hesperie,

of one story

and before them stood the

falconrie,

managed by Ostridge-keepers and Falconers, very expert in the Art, and it was yearly supplied and furnished by the Candians, Venetians, Sarmates (now called Moscoviters)

with

sorts of

all

most excellent hawks,

gosehawkes, sacres, lanners, falcons, sparhawks, Marlins,

so gentle

eagles, gerfalcons,

and other kindes of them,

and perfectly well manned, that flying of themselves sometimes

they encountred.

own disport, they would not faile to catch whatever The Vénerie where the Beagles and Hounds were kept, was

a little farther off

drawing towards the Park.

from the Castle

for their

All the halls, chambers, tapestrie,

and

and hangings of divers

closets or cabinets, sorts,

were richly hung with

according to the variety of the seasons

of the year. All the pavements and floors were covered with green cloth: the

beds were

was

all

embroidered: in every back-chamber or withdrawing room there

a looking-glasse of pure crystal set in a frame of fine gold, garnished

about with pearles, and was of such greatnesse, that full

it

would represent

the whole lineaments and proportion of the person that stood before

At the going out of the

halls,

which belong

to the Ladies lodgings,

perfumers and trimmers, through whose hands the gallants past

were to

visit the Ladies;

all

to the it.

were the

when they

those sweet Artificers did every morning furnish the

Ladies chambers with the spirit of roses, orange-flower- water and Angelica;

and to each of them gave

a little precious casket

vapouring forth the most

odoriferous exhalations of the choicest aromatical sents.

François Rabelais

(30)

Horn the

Men and Women

Theleme

The

of the Religious Order of

Were Apparelled

own

Ladies at the foundation of this order, were apparelled after their

pleasure and liking: but since that of their

reformed themselves, their accoutrement

own is

accord and free will they have

in

manner

wore stockins of scarlet crimson, or ingrained purple three inches above the knee, having a

list

as followeth.

They

which reached

die,

just

beautified with exquisite embroi-

and rare incisions of the Cutters Art. Their garters were of the colour

deries,

of their bracelets, and circled the knee a

pumps, and

shoes,

pinked and jagged

Next

to their

like

little,

both over and under. Their

were either of red,

slippers

or crimson-velvet,

violet,

Lobster wadles.

smock they put on the pretty

chamlet; above that went the gray, or any other colour:

kirtle or

taffatie or tabie vardingale,

Above

this taffatie petticoat

vasquin of pure

silk

of white, red, tawnie,

they had another of

cloth of tissue or brocado, embroidered with fine gold, and interlaced with

needlework, or as they thought good, and according to the temperature and disposition of the weather, had their upper coats of sattin,

damask or

velvet,

and those either orange, tawnie, green, ash-coloured, blew, yelow, bright crimson or white, and so forth; or had them of cloth of gold, cloth of or

some other choise

stuffe, inriched

red,

silver,

with purle, or embroidered according to

the dignity of the festival dayes and times wherein they wore them.

Their gownes being

still

correspondent to the season, were either of

cloth of gold frizled with a silver-raised work; of red sattin, covered with gold

purle: of tabie, or taffatie, white, blew, black, tawnie,

chamlot, velvet, cloth of velvet,

or figured

silver, silver tissue, cloth

sattin

tinselled

&c,

of

silk serge, silk

of gold, gold wire, figured

and overcast with golden threads,

in

divers variously purfled draughts.

summer some dayes in stead of gowns they wore light handsome made either of the stuffe of the aforesaid attire, or like Moresco rugs, of velvet frizled, with a raised work of gold upon silver purle: or with a

In the

mantles, violet

knotted cord-work of gold embroiderie, every where garnished with Indian pearles.

They alwayes

carried a faire Pannacbe} or

little

plume of feathers, of

the colour of their muffe, bravely adorned and tricked out with glistering spangles of gold. In the winter-time they had their taffatie gownes of

all

colours, as above-named: and those lined with the rich furrings of hinde-

wolves, or speckled linxes, black-spotted weesils, martlet-skins of Qalabria,

The Abbey of Theleme sables,

(31)

and other costly furres of an inestimable value. Their beads,

bracelets, collars, carcanets

and neck-chaines were

as carbuncles, rubies, baleus,

all

diamonds, saphirs, emeralds, turkoises, garnets,

and excellent margarits. Their head-dressing

agates, berilles,

rings,

of precious stones, such

also varied

with

the season of the yeare, according to which they decked themselves. In winter it

was of the French

fashion, in the spring of the Spanish: in

summer

upon the holy dayes and Sundayes,

fashion of Tuscanie, except only

of the

which

at

times they were accoutred in the French mode, because they accounted

more honourable, and better

The men were

it

befitting the garb of a matronal pudicity.

apparelled after their fashion: their stockins were of famine

some other ingrained colour:

or of cloth-serge, of white, black, scarlet, or

their

breeches were of velvet, of the same colour with their stockins, or very near,

embroidered and cut according to their fancy; their doublet was of cloth of

same

gold, of cloth of silver, of velvet, sattin, damask, taffaties, &c. of the colours, cut, embroidered,

were of

silk

and suitably trimmed up

of the same colours

;

in perfection

:

the points

the tags were of gold well enameled

their

:

coats and jerkins were of cloth of gold, cloth of silver, gold, tissue or velvet

embroidered;

as

they thought

fit:

their

gownes were every whit

those of the Ladies: their girdles were of

every one had a gallant sword by his gilt,

silk,

as costly as

of the colour of their doublets;

and handle whereof were

side, the hilt

and the scabbard of velvet, of the colour of his breeches, with

gold,

a

chape of

and pure Goldsmiths work: the dagger was of the same: their caps or

bonnets were of black velvet, adorned with jewels and buttons of gold: upon that they wore a white plume, most prettily and minion-like parted

many rowes

of gold spangles, at the end whereof

hung dangling

in a

by so more

sparkling resplendencie faire rubies, emeralds, diamonds, &c. But there was

such a sympathy betwixt the gallants

& the Ladies, that every day they were

apparelled in the same livery: and that they might not misse, there were certain

Gentlemen appointed

to tell the youths every

the Ladies would on that day weare; for

handsome

of the Ladies. In these so

all

morning what vestments

was done according to the pleasure

clothes,

and abiliaments so

rich,

think not

that either one or other of either sex did waste any time at all; for the Masters

of the wardrobes had

all

their raiment

and the chamber-Ladies so well

and compleatly

in their clothes

and apparel so ready

for

every morning,

skilled, that in a trice

they would be dressed,

And

to have those accoutre-

from head to

foot.

ments with the more conveniency; there was about the wood of Teleme

a

row

of houses of the extent of half a league, very neat and cleanly, wherein dwelt the Goldsmiths, Lapidaries, Jewellers, Embroiderers, Tailors, Gold-drawers,

Velvet-weavers, Tapestrie-makers and Upholsters,

who wrought

there every

François Rabelais

(32)

in his own trade, and all for the aforesaid jollie Friars and Nuns of the new stamp; they were furnished with matter and stuffe from the hands of the Lord Nausiclete, who every year brought them seven ships from the Perlas &

one

Cannibal-ishnds, laden with ingots of gold, with

precious stones.

And

somewhat of

lose

if

any

raw

margarites (called unions')

their natural whitenesse

and

silk,

with pearles and

began to grow

lustre, those

old,

and

with their Art

they did renew, by tendering them to eat to some pretty cocks, as they use to give casting unto hawkes.

How

the Thelemites

Were Governed and of

Manner of

Their

hiving

All their

own

life

was spent not

free will

in lawes, statutes or rules,

and pleasure. They rose out of

but according to their

their beds,

when they thought

good: they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a minde to

were disposed

for

it.

to eat, drink, nor to In

all

their rule,

and

None

it,

did awake them, none did offer to constrain

do any other thing;

for so

and

them

had Gargantua established

strictest tie of their order, there

was but

this

it.

one clause

to be observed.

Do what Because

men

thou wilt.

that are free, well-borne, well-bred, and conversant in honest

companies, have naturally an instinct and spurre that prompteth them unto vertuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which

is

called honour.

Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they

are brought

under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition, by which they formerly were inclined to vertue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude,

wherein they are so tyrannously inslaved;

for

it is

agreeable with the nature

of man to long after things forbidden, and to desire what

is

denied

us.

By this liberty they entered into a very laudable emulation, to do all of them what they saw did please one; if any of the gallants or Ladies should say, Let us drink, they would all drink: if any one of them said, Let us play, they all played;

go

a

if

one

they went all: if it were to mounted upon dainty well-paced nags,

said, Let us go a walking into the fields,

hawking or

a hunting, the Ladies

The Abbey of Tbeleme

(33)

seated in a stately palfrey saddle, carried on their lovely

fists,

miniardly be-

gloved every one of them, either a Sparhawk, or a Laneret, or a Marlin, and the

young

gallants carried the other kinds of

Hawkes:

so nobly

were they

taught, that there was neither he nor she amongst them, but could read, write, sing, play

upon

several musical instruments, speak five or sixe several

languages, and compose in them

all

very quaintly, both in Verse and Prose:

never were seene so valiant Knights, so noble and worthy, so dextrous and skilful

both on foot and a horseback, more brisk and

quick, or better handling

all

lively,

more nimble and

manner of weapons then were

there.

Never

were seene Ladies so proper and handsome, so miniard and dainty,

lesse

froward, or more ready with their hand, and with their needle, in every

honest and free action belonging to that sexe then were there; for this reason

when the time came, that any man of the said Abbey, either at the request of his parents, or for some other cause, had a minde to go out of it, he carried along with him one of the Ladies, namely her whom he had before that chosen for his Mistris, and were married together: and in Tbeleme lived in

increase

it

to a greater height in their state of

that mutual love

if

they had formerly

good devotion and amity, they did continue therein and

till

matrimony: and did entertaine

the very last day of their

fervency, then at the very day of their wedding.

life, .

.

.

no no

lesse

vigour and

ANONTMOUS

The

Civil and Religious

Constitution of Antangil*

The

first

"complete" French Utopia, describing

geography,

political institutions,

in circumstantial detail the

army, educational system, and religion

of an imaginary kingdom, appeared anonymously in

whole century length upon profession

its

was

more about

after

More's

Utopia.

He was

his person can

its

syntax defective.

ambiguity of the Cyrano.

earlier

for three centuries until

•From

L'Histoire du

Royaume

in 1616, a

some have conjectured

his

apparently a Protestant, but nothing

be said with certainty, despite a number of

The

style of his

work

is

rather

wooden

has none of the wit, charm, elegance, and

Utopian fragments of Rabelais, nor the fantasy of

The book had no

primary and perhaps

It

Saumur

creator of Antangil dilates at such

military establishment that

soldiering.

scholarly attempts at identification.

and

The

traceable influence,

and lay buried

uncovered by Frédéric Lachèvre

sole distinction

is its

d' Antangil, éd. Frédéric

pp. 38-42, 124-5; translated by the editors.

35

in oblivion

in

1922. Its

priority.

Lachèvre (Paris: La Connaissance, 1933),

HISTOIRE

DV GRAND ET ADMIRA BLE ROYAVME DANTANGIL

Incogncu jufqucs à prcfcnt à tous Hiftoriens Cofmographes composé de fix vingts

&

:

Provinces tref-belles&tref-fettiles. la

description d 'icelui,

Avec

& de fapolice nom-

pareille, tant civile que militaire. Definftrudrjon delà jeunefTç.Etdela Religion,

Le tout compris en cinq

livres,

A LEIDEN, Pa r

Jea h ie Maire. XVI. M.

DC

Title-page, Le Royaume d'Antangil, Saumur, 1616.

The Confusion of All

the Provinces

of This Empire before

They Were joined Together, and to

Unite

Some 2,200

Means Employed

the

Them

years ago this great expanse of territory that

was divided among

a

number of kings,

princes, lords,

we have

described

and republics. Because

of the disorder of their governments as well as the multiplicity of rulers, they

were perpetually involved a virtual desert

by the

in

wars and disputes; and the land had been made

battles

and continual massacres resulting from the

ambition and covetousness of each of them. At long tired of the eternal chaos

and

last,

the wisest of them,

clearly seeing that they faced utter ruin,

with the kings, princes, and ambassadors of the republics in easy of access.

And they mutually swore by

all

met

a neutral place

the gods they worshiped that

they would maintain and hold inviolate whatever was resolved and deter-

mined by that solemn assembly. This done, each one proposed the form of government he judged most appropriate, tion of the nobility, the city-dwellers, Finally, after everything

useful,

and

fitting for the preserva-

and the ordinary people.

was weighed, debated, and

carefully considered,

they ordained the government of this flourishing Monarchy in such

manner

—described

below

— that

we must

disorder and confusion, presided over this

a

enemy of all venerable assembly. For human believe God, the

minds would not have been able to transform such deplorable conditions into such a state of perfection that for the to remodel, change, or alter

promulgated.

kingdom

may

And

last

2,200 years there has been no need

any of the laws,

this has neither

or monarchy, no matter

statutes,

and regulations then

been seen nor will be seen

how

be.

37

in

any other

well governed and administered

it

Anonymous

(38)

The Division of

the Kingdoms, Principalities y

and Republics

The Establishment of Capital

into Provinces.

Cities

and

Their Authority

They

decreed that the whole of this great continent of land, which had

first

many

once held so

kingdom

different sovereignties, should be united into a single

to be called Antangil, signifying celestial grace, since they were

thoroughly agreed to found a permanent and invincible empire, without any

heed to infringements on the authority and sovereign power of any one of them. After they dealt with dividing the land into 120 provinces, they provided

would have

that each one jurisdiction

power and authority This done,

if

cities

name, and that under

and parishes over which

cities,

all

houses

—those of the

size

capital as well as

towns, and villages dependent upon

tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands,

warranted by the

its

would have

it

as a court of last resort.

was decreed that

it

those of the other

grouped by

a capital city bearing its

would be 100 other

and extent of the

cities.

it

— would

be

and hundred thouands,

Over each

most competent and able family man among them was

ten houses, the

command,

to take

watching over their conduct, calling them to account and admonishing them, keeping informed at well as real estate,

all

up

times of the value of their property, movable goods as

to the last half-farthing.

It

prevent the quarreling and disputes that arise

them work and If it

live in

was

his

among

duty furthermore to neighbors, to

an orderly and modest manner as

happened that those under

a dispute difficult to decide, he

his jurisdiction

would appeal

make

befits gentle folk.

were refractory, or there was to his Chief-of-Hundred,

and

the other nine Chiefs-of-Ten having assembled, they would resolve the problem

and summarily impose on the disobedient one any punishment short of death, this last being reserved solely for sovereign judges. And if the matter was of still

greater consequence, the Chief-of-Hundred was obliged to notify the

Chief-of-Thousand,

who summoned

the matter and conclude

it if

his ten

Chiefs-of-Hundred to consider

possible. If not, he

Thousand, who then assembled

his

would advise the Chief-of-Ten

Chiefs-of-Thousand and,

if

necessary,

summoned

the Chief-of-Hundred Thousand, and together they would settle

the dispute

—

all this

penalty of death.

while enjoined from taking any salary or

gift,

under

The Civil and Religious Constitution of Antangil

(39)

This manner of proceeding cuts off a world of disputations and litigations apparently born of nothing, which are thus

any

stifled right

from the start without

trouble.

The Council of State and

Why

It

Was

Established

After the division into provinces had been made, and the cities, towns, and villages

had been grouped by tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, and

hundred thousands,

it

was decreed that from each province three men who

were distinguished, prudent, wise, and informed

and

dweller,

man

a

number of 360

for

would permanently

to involve the public weal, to

approve or

the instructions of His Majesty, transmit before the Council the business with

sum, they were to act

all

city

the

body would represent and

matters which seemed to them

reject as

them

they pleased, to receive

to the provinces,

and lay

which the provinces had charged them.

as if the entire people

was assembled.

was further provided that every deputy be clad

province and wear on his breast and back the arms and city, that

a in

reside in Sangil to give advice

help to the King and his Council regarding

It

a

to constitute the Estates General. This

the entire people and

In

— to wit, noble, — would assemble

the towns and villages

in the colors of his

name of

his capital

he might be identified and that such adornments might render the

court more brilliant and impressive.

The

deputies' term of office was limited to one year, as

the corruption that

managing

affairs

administrators.

is

much

to prevent

bred by too long a tenure as to train more people in

and to recognize their value and merit by making them

Anonymous

(40)

The Council of His Royal Majesty All these great statesmen

saw that

would be no one to

was not enough to have established the

it

among them there harmony and also the yearly rotation would make of state. And it would not even be as satisfactory as

Council of Provinces, since

if

some

serious difference arose

restore

them novices in affairs number chosen and

a small

selected from

among

the most capable

men

of all

the provinces.

Moved by

this consideration,

power, but

they resolved then to elect a hundred great

Kingdom not in riches, prestige, and These men would be more congood than with their own welfare. They would be at

and wise personages, the

first in

the

competence and good

in

cerned with the public least forty years of

age (for youth

will.

is fit

not for governance, but rather for

hasty action, and though there are some modest, wise, and informed young

men, they are quite give).

Inasmuch

and without

named

it

rare

as the

and cannot have the training that time and experience

King and

this

Council were to constitute but one body

he could not dispose of important matters of state,

it

was

the Council of His Royal Majesty and was given sovereign authority,

for instance, to

finances

elect judges,

the same

choose the King or Viceroy, determine peace or war, regulate

and subsidies, confirm or invalidate

removing and punishing anyone

way with

alliances or

make new

derelict in his duty,

ones,

and act

in

the King and Viceroy should they try to disturb existing

arrangements or introduce new ones into the state or disregard the instructions of the Council. In short, every sovereign

when

there

is

power

a question of provincial interest, in

is

vested in them, save

which event the Council of

States deliberates, and grants, refuses, or modifies the request. All these venerable Senators

wear long robes of crimson velvet embroidered

with gold rosettes and hats of the same color, also covered with embroidery, along with a ribbon of gold and of white

silk.

Their slippers are of the same

material and color, their cassocks of white satin.

For their maintenance, the people give them annually two thousand

crowns

in wages, plus a magnificent

house near the royal palace. Besides, they

receive several tributes of honor from princes and neighboring republics as

well as from the generosity of the Provinces. to Sangil in recognition of their merit

are equally distributed

among

all.

The

gifts are

brought each year

and splendid service to the

In this

way they can

live

state

and

decently and

comfortably in accordance with the honor and dignity of their position.

The Civil and Religious Constitution of Antangil

How

Were Removed and True

the Idols

(41 )

Divine Service

Was

Established

By Senatorial decree published throughout the provinces, all the idols were removed from the temples and stowed in a designated place; for once the abuse was corrected,

many

grieved these gentlemen that so

it

fine statues

and

pic-

which could adorn public buildings and private houses, should be

tures,

shattered and totally ruined. Also,

the inscriptions honoring the false gods

all

were effaced, and were replaced by the most meaningful passages from Scripture in veneration of

God Almighty and

Then curved

renunciation of error.

benches were installed in the form of an amphitheatre, and others were divided in the middle by aisles to seat the

women. There were

still

others for

the clergy, and a lofty seat for the bishop, as will be later described.

When needed

the temples had been cleansed and equipped with everything

for the

Senate to

tell

divine service, that great personage, Byrachil, asked the

him about the might

ances, so that he

with

it.

They

set

civil

administration of the state and

up the

its

ecclesiastical establishment in

graciously acceded to this request.

And when

appurten-

accordance

he had absorbed

and understood everything, he told them how he truly recognized that had

at all times

been

concern of their republic, since

a particular

it

God

was so

well administered that they lacked only the last details of perfection,

these the true religion had supplied.

Thus he found

bishop in each of the 120 capital

who would

cities,

it

and

expedient to place a

reside with his clergy near

the greatest temple to celebrate the divine service there and to have supervision

and authority over

diocese.

As

it

would be

all

the

little cities

pastors, for every ten parishes there

would have oversight of

among them and

visit

and parishes comprised

one man to keep

difficult for

would be

a

month

eye on so

in his

many who

a suffragan or archpriest,

their conduct, doctrine,

them once

his

and

faith,

who would

to report to the bishop

live

on their

deportment. Once a year, at the Easter holiday, these pastors would appear before the bishop, along with three elders of each parish their lives, conduct, their duties they

and

faith, so that in

would receive the

who would

testify to

accordance with their attitude toward

praise they

had earned, or the blame and

punishment they deserved. The most severe penalty was deprivation of office. If the

clergy committed

some crime against the ordinances and

bishop would not take cognizance of

it,

since he

civil laws,

the

had jurisdiction only over

purely ecclesiastical matters. But the magistrates would punish

them much

(42)

more severely than laymen,

Anonymous since they

had been better instructed and had

more knowledge of virtue and piety, and thus reprehensible and deserving of punishment.

their misdeeds

were more

SAVINIEN CYRANO DE BERGERAC 1619-1655

Warfare on the Moon'

Well-born and educated

—he said to have studied — Cyrano de Bergerac had is

philosopher Gassendi

career as an officer in a his prodigious nose

at

one time with the

a brief

though

and dueling exploits were celebrated

in

famous play.) After sustaining grave wounds

in

Cyrano abandoned the military profession

and turned to

He wrote

colorful

Gascon regiment. (Two-and-a-half centuries

novels, dramatic works,

in 164 1

later

Rostand's

the Siege of Arras, literature.

and the posthumously published Comic

Moon (1657) and Comic History of the States of tales, from which Swift drew inspiration for Gulliver's Travels, Cyrano mocks the institutions and beliefs of his own society by weaving a fantasy about the lunar and solar worlds, though he History of the States of the

the

Sun (1662). In these satiric

treats

them

lightly

and portrays them

as

having not a few

foibles of their

own.

From

to the Moon and the Sun, trans. Richard Aldington York: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., E. P. Dutton and Co., 1923)» Madame Catherine Guillaume (nee Aldington). pp. IOO-I3- Copyright

Savinicn Cyrano de Bergerac, Voyages

(London,

New

©

43

Engraving from Government of the World in London, 1659.

the

Moon, first English translation,

Conversation with a

At

when they saw

last

Lunar Lady

that

I

kept bawling this and nothing

they were not more learned than Aristotle, and that

else,

save that

had been forbidden to

I

who denied his Principles, they concluded with one accord man but perhaps some sort of ostrich, seeing I carried my head that bird; and so the falconer was ordered to take me back to

argue with those that

was not

I

upright like the cage. their

a

passed

I

my

time amusingly enough, for

chatter.

Among

my

friendship for me.

Once when we were alone

of our religion and so transported

were able to

One day

my

you

by making me

I

all

some

conceived a certain

discovered to her the mysteries

in her

eyes that

if

ever

I

back to our world she would gladly follow me.

woke up

early with a start

good news

for

and saw her tapping against the bars

you!"

said she, "yesterday the council

war against the great King; and I hope, with the bustle of prepara-

and the departure of our Monarch and

to set

itself

discoursed principally of our bells and our relics; she was

cage. "I have

declared for tion

I

I

basket, and the prettiest of them

with joy that she vowed with tears

fly

possessing correctly

others the Queen's ladies-in-waiting always thrust

scraps of food into

of

my

language was a cause that the whole Court diverted

his subjects, to find

an opportunity

free."

"War!" I interrupted immediately, "do the Princes of this world quarrel among themselves like those of ours? Tell me, I beseech you, how they fight."

"The Umpires

elected

by the consent of both

parties," she replied, "fix

the time allowed for arming, the time of marching, the the day and place of the battle;

all

number of combatants,

with such impartiality that neither army

than the other. On each side the maimed soldiers are company and on the day of battle the Generals are careful to send them against the maimed soldiers on the other side. The giants are opposed by the colossi, the fencers by the nimble, the valiant by the courageous, the weak by the feeble, the unhealthy by the sick, the mbust by the strong; and if someone should strike any but his prescribed enemy he is found guilty of cowardice unless he can clear himself by showing it was a mistake. After the battle they count the wounded, the dead and the prisoners, for none is has a single

man more

enrolled in one

45

Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac

(46)

ever seen to run away. If the losses are equal on each side they draw lots as

who shall be proclaimed the victor. But although a King may have defeated enemy in open war he has achieved little; there are other less numerous armies of men of wit and learning, upon whose disputes depends wholly the real triumph or servitude of States. A man of learning is opposed to another, men of wit and judgment are set against their like; and the triumph gained by a State in this way is considered equal to three victories of brute force. When a nation is proclaimed victorious, they break up the assembly and the conquering people chooses for its King either their own or that of their to

his

enemies." I

as

could not forbear laughing at this scrupulous manner of making war and

an example of a

far

stronger policy

I

alleged the customs of our Europe,

where the Monarch takes care to omit no opportunity of conquest; and she answered me in this way: "Tell me," said she, "do your Princes justify their arms by anything save the right of force?"

"Yes indeed," replied

"Why

I,

"with the

justice of their cause."

then," she continued, "do not they choose arbitrators above

them? And if there them stay as they were

much

suspicion to reconcile

is

on the other

or let

let

piquet for the

Town

as

right on the one side as

them play

hundred up

a

or Province about which they are disputing.

while they are the cause that more than four millions of better

at

And yet, men than

themselves get broken heads, they are in their cabinets joking over the circumstances of the massacre of these poor boobies. But

I

am wrong

blame the courage of your brave subjects; they do well to die country;

an

'tis

to

for their

who who wears falling bands." "why all these circumstances in your manner of fighting?

affair

of importance, a matter of being the vassal of a King

wears a ruff or of a King

"But," Is it

I

replied,

not enough for armies to be equal in numbers?"

"Your judgment is all astray," she replied. "On your faith now, do you if you overcome your enemy in the field face to face, that you have beaten him in fair warfare if you wear mail and he does not? If he has only a think that

dagger and you a rapier? Finally,

arms? Yet with

all

if

the equality you

he

is

one-armed and you have both your

recommend

they never fight on equal terms; one will be

so

tall,

much

to your gladiators,

another short; one

skilful,

the other will never have handled a sword; one will be'strong, the other weak.

And even

if

these proportions are equalised,

nimble and equally strong, they

will still not

if

they are equally

tall,

equally

be on an equal footing, for one

of the two will perhaps be more courageous than the other.

And

because a

Warfare on

the

Moon

(47) and

brutal fellow will not consider the peril, will be bilious

blood, will have a heart (as if this

more

were not an arm

set

enemy does not

his

have more

will

with the qualities which make

possess, just like a sword!), he

rush violently upon his adversary, terrify him and deprive of

will

man who saw heart

man

for

having killed

his

we call enemy when he had

an advantage, and by praising his boldness you praise him for a sin

against Nature, since boldness tends to

"You must know

its

own

destruction.

that a few years ago a Remonstrance was sent

demanding

council of war,

regulation of combats.

words

poor

a

too large to collect the spirits necessary to get rid of that ice

is

at

life

phlegm and whose

the danger, whose vital heat was stifled in

poltroonery. So you praise a

him

courage

for

The

a

up

to the

more circumspect and more conscientious

philosopher

who

sent

up the notice spoke

in these

:

" 'You imagine, gentlemen, that you have equalised two combatants

you have chosen them both hardy, both but this

tall,

not enough; the conqueror must win by

still is

chance. If it were by

skill,

has not expected, or

more quickly than seemed

him on one betraying.

side,

And

skill,

by

force or

by

he has doubtless struck his adversary in a place he

home on

he paid him

such

when

both active, both courageous,

finesse,

likely; or, feigning to attack

the other. This

is

finesse, deceiving,

such deceit, such treason should not contribute

to the fair fame of a true gentleman. If he has

triumphed by

force, will

you

enemy beaten because he has been overwhelmed? No, doubtless; any more than you would say that a man had lost the victory if he should be overwhelmed by the fall of a mountain, since it was not in his power to gain it. Moreover he has not been overcome, because at that moment he was not consider his

disposed to be able to resist the violence of his adversary. his

enemy by

buted nothing; and the loser sees eighteen It

is

no more to be blamed than

thrown when he has

was admitted that he was

probability to

And

if

he has beaten

chance, you should crown Fortune, not him, for he has contri-

remedy

venience than to give

it

right,

and that

way

cast seventeen.'

it

but that

it

a dice-player

who

"

was impossible

in all

human

was better to yield to one small incon-

to a thousand of greater importance.

DENIS VAIRASSE D'ALLAIS 1630-ca. 1700)

(ca.

The Economy and Education of the Sevarambians*

Few facts

in the life of Vaitasse are

have fixed

was apparently

He seems It is

known

his birthplace as the

a Protestant,

or even surmised.

town of Alais not

who ended

to have had both military

and

certain that he passed a part of his

his

days as

Some biographers

from Nîmes, and he

far

a refugee in Holland.

legal training early in his career.

youth

in

England and made the

acquaintance of Pepys, of Shaftesbury, and of Locke, whose ideal constitution for the Carolina settlement

may have influenced the framework of Duke of Buckingham (probably France when that nobleman fell into

the Sevarambian state. In the service of the

1665-74), Vairasse returned to

disgrace. In his native land, Vairasse taught English

books on French grammar, and published the 1677-79), of which Part

The work saw

a

I

had already appeared

number of editions

and French, wrote

Histoire des Sévarambes (Paris,

in English

(London, 1675).

in French, as well as translations into

Flemish, German, and, as recently as 1956, into Russian. In the Sevar-

ambia of Vairasse's fancy, moderation, orderliness, and equality prevailed under an enlightened despot. The inhabitants, without anxiety or avarice to "destroy their souls," lived in

communal dwellings

called osmasies,

and

often reached the age of 100 or more. Vairasse invented a host of institutions for his dollhouse society,

and even devised

for it a

new onomatopoeic

language, as befitted a philologist. Captain Siden, narrator of the Sevarias, its lawgiver, are

•From Denis Vairasse

anagrams

for the author's

d'Allais, Histoire des Sévarambes

315-33; translated by the editors.

49

(Amsterdam:

tale,

and

name.

E.

Roger, 1702),

I,

3,

pp.

Engraving from the Sulzbach, 1689.

first

German

translation of the History of the Sevarambians,

Laws, Manners, and Customs of

I

believe

it is

now time

to explain

this great state subsists,

and what disposition

stores are accumulated,

We

how

the Sevarambians

is

how

public

its

made of them.

have already said that one of the major policies of the government was

to confiscate

private property and vest

all

it

in the sovereign.

This has been

steadily practiced since the rule of Sevarias, in order to support the people

and

allow everyone to live comfortably. All things necessary and useful are

gathered into public warehouses. There that contribute to decent pleasures. for

each osmasie in accordance with

house, which

is

similar stockpiling of commodities

From

these stores goods are withdrawn

its

needs. Every osmasie has

its

own

ware-

supplied from time to time from the general warehouse, in

is

order that each person

may

be allotted whatever he needs for subsistence and

for practicing his skill or trade. In

cultivating the

soil,

and

its

the rural osmasies, the principal occupation

harvest. First, each osmasie takes as as required to further agriculture

the public warehouse.

is

inhabitants are nourished on the fruits of the

much

corn, wine,

and feed

its

The same procedure

is

and other products

oil,

The

people.

surplus

is

sent to

followed with cattle in places

largely devoted to their breeding.

There are prefects of hunting, articles,

who

fishing,

and

all

kinds of manufactured

collect the materials necessary for this

work from the

areas

where they are produced, and have them transported to the points where they are utilized. For instance, there are places silk are

made. Those

in

where cotton,

linen,

hemp, and

charge of the work gather up the raw materials and

send them to the towns, where they are made into fabrics; thence they are distributed throughout the country to whatever osmasies are in need of them.

The same thing happens with daily

life.

As

there are stockpiles, and from buildings, as well as for repair

The same system occasions,

them,

wool, leather, and

all

other goods employed in

for building materials, the construction supervisor sees to it that

and

is

spectacles.

officers in

them he draws whatever

is

needed

for

new

and maintenance of existing ones.

in force

with respect to public

festivals,

solemn

For everything there are supervisors, and under

charge of a certain number of persons assigned to the work.

There are various

osmasies

where the children are 5'

raised,

each sex apart from

Denis Vairasse d' Allais

(52)

the other, and every such osmasie has

its

directors

and teachers to instruct the

youth. There are some where arts and trades are taught. Each osmasie has

own

and

stores, officers,

stores furnish If

one

whatever

reflects

number of

a

slaves to

do the lowliest

tasks.

its

These

needed

for

each one's support.

on the way of

life

of other nations, one sees that in fact

is

there are similar storehouses everywhere; that the towns take from the

country and vice- versa; that some work with their hands and others with

some

their heads; that

obey and others to command; that there

are born to

are schools to educate the

young and masters

to teach

them

trades ; that

among

the daily tasks, some are needed for subsistence, others provide the comforts

of

others serve purely pleasurable ends. In short, things are funda-

life, still

mentally the same everywhere, but the manner of distribution

Among

We

others are in dire want. luxury, while others

those of high rank privileges of office.

who

people

us, there are

are stuffed with goods

who

have persons

is

different.

and wealth, while

pass their lives in idleness and

to earn a wretched livelihood.

There

are

who are neither worthy nor capable of exercising And finally, we have deserving persons who, lacking

the

toil ceaselessly

the

authority and appurtenances of wealth, stagnate miserably in the mire and are forever

condemned

Among

to a servile state.

the Sevarambians, on the contrary, no one

is

poor or in want of

the things that are necessary and useful for existence. Every one participates in pleasures difficult

and public diversions, with no need to torment body and soul by

and excessive

toil in

eight hours daily procures family, for

all

his children,

all

order to enjoy them.

A

moderate activity of

these advantages for the Sevarambian, for his

however many he

has.

No

one

is

obliged to pay

taxes or duties, or to amass wealth to enrich his children, provide dowries for

buy

his daughters, or

from the cradle. And

estates. Free of if all

all

these cares, Sevarambians are rich

of them do not achieve high

office, at least

they

have the satisfaction of seeing that those who do are elevated by their merit

and the esteem of commoners.

No

their fellow-citizens. All are at the

one can reproach another

being high-born himself. in idleness, while

No

one

feels

for his

same time nobles and

lowly birth or boast of

the resentment of seeing others wallow

he works to support their pride and vanity. In short,

one thinks about the happiness of this people, one will conclude that perfect as

it

can be in this world, and that

all

it is

if

as

other nations are most unlucky in

comparison. Similarly, if one

compares the

lot

of kings, princes, and other sovereigns

with that of Sevarambia's Viceroy of the Sun, one

The

first

will find notable differences.

customarily encounter trouble getting subsidies to run their states,

The Economy and Education of the Sevarambians

and they are often constrained to use

The Viceroy of I

all

force,

(53

)

even cruelty, to achieve their ends.

of the Sun never resorts to any such means.

He

is

already master

the nation's goods, and no subject can either refuse to obey him or

claim any special exemption.

He

gives and takes

away

as he pleases.

He makes

peace and war as he deems proper. Everybody obeys him and no one would dare to thwart his will.

He

No

authority and everyone submits to

one challenges

his

is

not exposed to rebellions and popular uprisings. it.

He owes

nobody, and thus nobody would make bold to deprive him of

would be so rash

as to revolt against the

Sun and

his ministers?

it.

For

Who

it

to

who

would

command than those whom the Resplendent King has chosen for his lieutenants? And even if some madman wished to usurp the government, how could he do it, and where would he be so vain as to regard himself more worthy to

find people willing to

Add

support his

folly

and become slaves to make him king?

to this that religion strongly binds the

superiors. For they not only recognize the

him

as their god,

Thus they have

and believe he

the source of

among them through

system of education

of their laws.

Sevarambians to obey their

as their king,

but they worship

the goods they possess.

all

great respect for the laws and for the government, which they

think he established as their

is

Sun

It

is

comes naturally as they

and deliberate choice,

the ministry of Sevarias. Moreover,

good, they are early trained to strict observance to them,

and then

grow old enough

it is

also a matter of free

to reflect

and

find that their

laws are just and reasonable.

Education of the Sevarambians

The

who gave

wise legislator

his

people such excellent laws could hardly

neglect to apply himself to the problem of rearing the young; for he was well

aware that their education would determine whether those laws would be preserved intact or undermined, and that moral corruption generally begets gross deception in political affairs. vicious

worthy

and has had subject.

The

ignorance does not

and

false.

Men

a poor

have

It

is

difficult

indeed for a

upbringing ever to become

man who

is

a capable minister or a

him into vice, while his him distinguish properly between good and evil, true strong natural penchant for vice, and if good laws, good

violence of his passions betrays

let

a

examples, and good education do not exercise a corrective influence, the seeds

Denis Vairasse d* Allais

(54) of wickedness sprout and

grow strong, and usually choke the seeds of virtue Then do they abandon themselves to their disso-

that nature has implanted. lute appetites,

and allowing wild and reckless passions to master their reason,

they plunge into every sort of evil. Thus are bred violence and pillage, envy, hatred, pride and the will to dominate, rebellions, wars, massacres, conflagrations, sacrilege,

A good

and

the other afflictions with which mankind

all

is

beset.

education very often controls, and sometimes even smothers the

vicious seeds in men,

and nourishes whatever seeds of virtue may be

This the great Sevarias well understood, and therefore he made

a

in

them.

number

of regulations for the education of children. Recognizing at the outset that parents frequently spoil line,

them through fond indulgence or too

strict a discip-

he was unwilling to leave these tender plants in the hands of persons so

little fit

To

to cultivate them.

that end he established public schools, where

common

education was

provided under the guidance of specially selected and able persons who, unprejudiced by love or hate, would instruct

through precept, reprimand, and example,

all

the children impartially

order to inculcate in them an

in

aversion to vice and a love of virtue. And, that they might not be thwarted

by the parents,

in the discharge of their duties

children the paternal care of the

first

affection to these precious fruits of their love,

of paternal authority and bestow political fathers

upon the

it

after

they had given their

years and had early displayed their it

was

state

his

aim to divest them

and the magistrates, the

of the country.

In accordance with the law, on fixed days four times a year, fathers and

who have

mothers of children

them

reached the age of seven are required to take

to the temple of the sun. There, after they have shed the white clothing

they have worn since birth, they are washed, their heads are shaved, they are anointed with

oil,

they are decked in yellow robes, and they are then

consecrated to the deity. authority over them

The

fathers

only love and respect, and from that of the state.

They

and mothers completely renounce the

which nature has given them, reserving for themselves

moment

their offspring

become children

are sent without delay to the public schools,

where

for

four whole years they are trained to obey the laws, taught to read and write,

and developed physically through dancing and military

When

gained strength, they are learn to

drills.

they have thus passed four years at school and their bodies have

till

the

soil,

moved

working

at

it

to the country,

where

for three years

they

four hours a day, while they spend another

four hours practicing the skills they have previously acquired in school. Girls are raised in

much

the same

way

as boys,

but

in different places, for

The Economy and Education of the Sevarambiam

(55)

there are osmasies for each sex, and those in the country tend to be distant one

from another.

When

the

young people

are fourteen, their domiciles are

The yellow

are their costumes.

habit

changed and so

given up for a green one, and they are

is

thenceforth called Edirnai in the language of the country, signifying that they are in the third septenary of their lives.

Adirnaiy

and those

Those

in the second, Gadirnai.

of their garments: Alistai, that

is,

in the first septenary are called

Or they

and Forruai, or green clothes. In the case of the transformed to

grammar and given

the principles of trial, if

as in Adirnei, Alistei,

ei,

named from the

are

color

white clothes; Erimbai, or yellow clothes; the suffix

girls,

and so on. At

this

at is

merely

time they are taught

a choice of vocation. After a period of

they seem suited for the work, they are turned over to masters

are charged with their instruction; but if they

show no

who

particular aptitude,

they have the alternative of becoming laborers or masons, the two principal occupations in the land.

The

girls are trained for tasks

those of the boys.

activities that are not

and other

Having come of

age, they

way.

in the following

may

see each other in the presence of their

guardians during walks, dances, hunts, parades, and

On

toilsome than

very arduous.

brought about

is

less

spinning, sewing, clothmaking,

and boys of nineteen are allowed to think of love and

Girls of sixteen

marriage, which

appropriate to their sex,

They busy themselves with

all

public ceremonies.

may address the girls and freely say to them, "I love you," and the girls may hear their declarations unblushingly. Neither birth, wealth, position, nor any other gift of fortune makes any matter among such occasions the boys

them,

for

they are

all

equal in these respects and differ only as to sex and the

three years which separate them. Disparities in marriage are countenanced

only

when

a girl

is

unable to find a husband of her

own and must have

to a public official to rescue her from virginity.

Those

infirmity or accident exempts from the obligation to

Sporumbia, of

girls

for the

and boys, love plays

who combine

with

his

its role

and makes

shining qualities of ;

its

fall

to

them

for

will be shared

move some girls in an man of merit who becomes a

conquests. Each youth

intellectual

shrewd

girls

will readily succeed to public office,

dignities that

to

endowments. The mind and body with integrity and

good looks and

virtue are usually preferred to the rest

young men

natural

marry are despatched

Sevarambians do not look kindly upon them. At gatherings

tries to inspire love

ones

recourse

whom some

by

can foresee that these

and thus the honors and

their wives.

But prudent con-

siderations

altogether different direction: out of fear

that a

functionary

may

also exercise the privilege

Denis Vairasse d* Allais

(56) of

office,

which

is

more than one wife

to have

if

he so desires, they would

rather marry someone undistinguished than attach themselves to a

might divide

as his fortunes rise,

And

everybody adapts

so

his course to his inclination;

others prestige, and everyone follows his

man who,

which they wish to possess

a heart

own

some love

entire.

pleasure,

bent.

Since the Sevarambians are naturally intelligent, and are wellbred and

when

refined,

lovers

meet the young men do not

fail

to call to their aid

flowers and fruits, laughter, poetry, and pretty speeches to witness their

passion to their mistresses. All of this

amiss in

it.

On

the contrary, those

is

allowable, and no-one finds anything

who seem untouched by

love are objects

of contempt; they are regarded as naturally wicked, as citizens unworthy of the nation's interest. Yet, on

all

these occasions,

deportment, and nothing that

is

it is

rare for

done or

anyone to ignore the

said

rules of proper

which could offend modesty;

for

expressly forbidden, and even the most brazen would not presume to

is

violate

decorum, since they speak to the

only

girls

in public

and

in front of

their chaperones.

For eighteen months marriageable are at leisure to see one another, to

girls, called Enibei,

and boys, Spar at,

become acquainted, and

to

without making any commitments; but at the end of that period,

fall

it is

in love

custom-

ary to be engaged and exchange vows; thereafter rejected suitors withdraw

and a

girl receives

When

only her betrothed.

the time of the osparénibon, the

nuptial ceremony, arrives, they go to the temple and are

described in the

first

Once married the

lads,

now

wives; but to indicate that a is,

wed

in the

manner

part of this history.

girl

twenty-one, are clad in blue; likewise their has not yet reached her fourth dirnemis, that

has not passed twenty-one, she wears green sleeves on her blue habit until

she has completed her twenty-first year; then she veils her head and conceals

her hair, which has hitherto been uncovered.

On

the wedding night bride and groom are feted at a banquet, enlivened

by music and dancing, and attended by and

sex. It takes place in

live

and where two rooms on the same

one of the

a great

throng of people of every age

halls of the osmasie

floor

where the couple

have been prepared

for

will

them, one

giving on the street and the other on the courtyard. There they consummate the marriage.

They

are permitted to sleep together, however, only one night

out of three during the

two

until their

whenever they and to

first

three years of their union, then one night out of

twenty-eighth year; after that they are free to sleep together please.

The

woman is to love her husband Among wives of private citizens,

highest honor for a

raise several children for the fatherland.

The Economy and Education of the Sevarambians those are most esteemed

who have the

the wives of magistrates,

much

when

scorned, and

a

greatest

the husband

man

number of children but among ;

who

counts. Sterile

has kept one for five years, he

women are may marry

who has not found a husband, or keep a slave as concubine. women may erase their shame is to tend the sick, or,

some widow or

girl

The only way

sterile

if

it is

(57)

they are qualified, to occupy themselves with the education of the young.

Every mother must nurse her

child, unless she

is

too

weak

seriously endangering her health; in that case the child

among

from

those

who have

lost their children;

respected, since, deprived of their

and rear This receive. for

own

is

such

to

do so without

given another nurse

women

are greatly

offspring, they nurse that of another

a child for the fatherland. is

the normal upbringing and training the youth of Sevarambia

who have

But those children

extraordinary talent and

who

are suited

the liberal arts and sciences are not raised in the same way: they are

excused from physical work in order to engage in intellectual work. Thus schools have been designed expressly for their education,

number

and

it is

from their

that people are selected every seven years to travel on our continent

and to learn about anything unique that we may have. This has been the

custom since Sevaristas re-established commerce with us and decreed that such journeys should be made.

without leaving behind at

know whether

that

have not heard

tell

his

country to

is

The

travelers cannot depart the country

least three children to assure their return.

why

they always go

home

if

I

do not

they possibly can; but

I

of anyone who, since this custom was initiated, deserted

live elsewhere, or, if

he survived his voyages, did not try to

reach his native land again.

These cities

travels explain

how

it is

that several persons at Sevarind and the

round about know how to speak the various tongues of Asia and

Europe, which are usually taught the voyagers-elect before they embark. It is

the reason Sermodas, Carchida, and the rest were able to converse with

us straightway; they already

years

among

Asiatics

they hailed, for they

knew some

of our languages, having lived for

and Europeans without revealing from what country

commonly passed

for Persians or

Armenians.

GABRIEL DE FOIGNT (ca.

On

Life

1630-1692)

and Death among

the Australians*

Like Rabelais a century-and-a-half before him, Foigny was one of those restless,

imaginative clerics

who

bounds of conventional monastic

could not be contained within the

life.

doned the Franciscan Order and ran

tantism. After a riotous existence at

post as a minor church

official in

While

still

a

young man, he aban-

off to Switzerland to

embrace Protes-

Geneva and Lausanne, he secured

a

Morges, but was expelled and subse-

quently supported himself as a tutor. In Switzerland Foigny married and fathered four children.

withdrew to

a

Widowed

in 1683,

convent of his order

he soon returned to France and

in Savoy.

There he spent the remainder

of his days as a penitent. His La Terre australe connue: de ce pays inconnu jusqu'ici

c'est

à

dire, la description

(Geneva, 1676), later translated into English and

other languages, describes a thirty-five year sojourn in the "Southern

World" by the shipwrecked Jacques Sadeur. There he discovers a nation of rationalist androgynes, living in an ideal society where goods are held in

common and

the form of worship, without dogma, ritual, or ministers,

approaches natural religion.

•From Gabriel de Foigny,

A

New

Discovery of Terra Incognita Australia or the Southern World, by

James Sadeur, a French-man (London:

J.

Dunton, 1693), pp. 84-106.

59

Engraving by Clément-Pierre Marillier for the Aventura in Gamier' s Voyages imaginaires, Amsterdam, 1787-89.

de Jacques Sadeur,

I

of the Australians Touching This Life

the Opinion

Of

have only three things to remark upon the Sentiments of the Australians

The

concerning the present Life:

respect to the beginning; the

first is in

second, the continuation thereof; and the third, the end. Their manner of receiving Life, preserving and ending I

world; but as self

it.

have already declared, in what manner the Australians come into the it is

one of the principal points of this History, so

I

believe

my

obliged yet to say something more of it.

They have

so great an aversion for whatsoever regards the first beginning

of their Lives, that in a year or thereabouts after

my

arrival

amongst them,

two of the Brethren having heard me speak something of it, with-drew from me, with as many signs of horrour, as if I had committed some great Crime. One day when I had discovered my self to my Old Philosopher, after having censured

me

a little

upon

this Subject, he entred into a

brought many Proofs to oblige like Fruits

my

on

of

my

it,

;

I

reproaching

his reasons

grew within them made no impression

cou'd not forbear smiling, he left me without accomme that my incredulity proceeded from the corruption

manners.

happen'd another time, about

It

long Discourse, and

to believe, that Children

upon the Trees but when he saw all

mind, and that

plishing

me

six

months

my

after

arrival, that the

extraordinary Caresses of the Brethren, caused some unruly motions in me,

which some of them perceiving, were so very much scandaliz'd at they all,

left

as

I

me with

great indignation

:

Wherefore

have already said; and they had

I

it,

that

soon became odious to them

infallibly destroy'd

me, had

it

not

been for the particular assistance of this good Old man. Nevertheless, in about thirty cou'd never learn their

way

two years

that

of Generation ; yet be

I

it

have lived with them, as

will, their

it

I

Children

have neither the Meazles nor Small Pox3 nor other the like accidents, which the Europeans are subject unto.

As soon

as

an Australian has conceived, he quits

carryed to the Hab, where he

Bounty, and

is

is

his

Apartment, and

is

received with Testimony s of an extraordinary

nourished without being oblig'd to work.

They have

high place, upon which they go to bring forth their Child, which 61

is

a certain

received

( 62 )

Gabriel de Foigny

upon

certain Balsamick Leaves \ after

takes

it

and rubs

which the Mother (or person that bore

with these Leaves, and gives

it

it

it)

suck, without any appear-

ance of having suffer'd any pain.

They make no any other food

for

quantity, that

it

at eight

The Milk

use of Swadling Cloaths, or Cradles.

from the Mother, gives

two

it

so

years:

may almost

months; they walk

good nourishment, that

And

it

suffices

it

receives

it

without

voids, are in so small a

makes none. They generally speak years end, and at two they wean them. They

be

at a

the Excrements

it

said, it

begin to reason at three; and as soon as the Mother quits them, the

Company

first

them to read, and at the same time instructs them in the first Elements of a more advanced knowledge. They usually are three years under the Conduct of the first Master, and after pass Master of the

first

teaches

under the Discipline of the second,

who

teaches

them

thirty years of Age, at

which time they are perfect

When

Studies, they

may be

for Capacity,

they have thus accomplished the course of chose for Lieutenants, that

is,

they are

till

in all sorts of Sciences,

without observing any difference amongst them, either or Learning.

whom

to write, with

they continue four years; and so with the others in proportion,

Genius,

all

their

to supply the place of

those that wou'd leave this Life. I

have in the

fifth

certain sweetness

Chapter spoken of their humour, which

full

is

mixt with a

of Gravity, that forms the temperament of the most

reasonable men, and such as are the fittest for Society. robust, and vigorous, and their Health sickness. This admirable Constitution

is

They

are strong,

never interrupted by the least

comes without doubt from

their Birth

and excellent Nourishment, which they always take with moderation

;

for

our

Sicknesses are always the consequences of the corruption of that Blood whereof

we

are form'd,

and the excess of the

In fine, our Parents generally

ill

Food which we

communicate

to us

all

are nourished with.

the defects that they have

contracted by their irregular Lives; their Intemperance

fills

us with such

an abundance of superfluous Humours, which destroy us

how

strong soever

we may

be, if

we purge

not our selves often.

It is

the excessive Heats that

they kindle in their Blood by their Debauches, which cause in us such Risings in the Flesh,

and

all

those scorbutick Distempers which spread throughout

the whole Body. Their Choller gives us a disposition to the same Vice, their

Wantonness augments our Concupiscence; in a word, they make us we are, because they give us what they have.

The

Australians are

exempted from

all

just

what

these Passions; for their Parents

never being subject to them, cannot communicate 'em; and as they have

no principle of alteration, so they

live in a

kind of indifference which they

On never forsake, except

among

Life and Death

it

the Australians

(63 )

be to follow the motions that their reason impresses on

them.

We may very near make the same consequences of the Australians

Viands

for if the Europeans

;

touching the nourishment

have the misfortune only to have such

commonly happens,

for their subsistence as are unhealthful, it

they eat more than nature requires: and

that

these excesses that cause in

'tis

them such weak Stomachs, Feavers, and other the

like Infirmities

which are

wholly unknown to the Australians. Their admirable Temperance, and the goodness of their Fruits, upon which they frame of health, as

is

maintains them in such a

live,

never interrupted by any Sickness

so far from placing any glory in Eating, or

:

They

are likewise

making sumptuous Feasts

as

do, that they hide themselves, and only eat in secret; they sleep very

because they are persuaded, that Sleep

we

little,

too Animal an Action, from which

is

man ought if it was possible, wholly to abstain. They all agree, that this Life is only a motion full of trouble and agitation; they are persuaded, that what we call Death is their Happiness, and that the greatest good of Mankind is to arrive to this term, which puts an end to

his pains:

all

from whence they are indifferent

The more

wish for Death.

I

confirm'd in the thought that Ideas,

I

sinned against the

spoke to

me

of

it,

differ from Beasts,

destruction,

and passionately

My

of Reason.

Old man often times

mej^c

and these are very near the same reasons he gave

said he, in that their Understandings penetrate not into the bottom of

as the greatest evil,

all the pains they take to

prevent

he, upon what regards us, it consist in

it is

it,

and coulour.

and endeavour

greatest Good, not considering that since

Misery, altho

life,

cou'd be no man, since according to their

I

first Principles

thingsy they judge of them only by Appearance their

for

seem'd to apprehend Death, the more they were

'tis

necessary, that

the union

Tis

from

to preserve

an absolute

becomes vain and

}

useless.

we should

thence they fly

themselves as the

necessity that they perish;

Even

to argue,

continued

consider Life as an Estate

of

of a spiritual Soul with a material Body, whereof

the Inclinations are perfectly opposite the one to the other.

So that to desire to

live, is to desire to

be always enduring the violent

Shock of these oppositions; and to desire Death, Rest, which each of those parts enjoys,

And,

we have nothing

as

upon our

selves to be

Dissolution

is

certain

Dearer to

any thing

and

infallible,

the case being so with us, would to be to

The

care

it

when they

us,

else,

than our

but so

we more

is

but to aspire to that

are both in their Center.

selves,

added

properly languish than

not be better for us not to be at

no other purpose, than to know, that shortly we

we

he, nor can look

many Compounds, whose

take to preserve our selves,

is

shall

and

live; all,

than

be no more?

to no purpose, since after

all,

we

Gabriel de Foigny

(64)

must

them

as

a second torment, since we can look upon no other, than Transitory Enjoyments, whose acquisition has cost

and yet, whose loss it is no way in our power to prevent. we reflect upon, both within and without us, contributes to so much the more odious and insupportable to us.

pains,

In fine, all that

render our Life

answered to

I

consideration of our Rarest Talents, and most exquisite

Knowledge, gives us

in

Thousand

us a

The

die at last.

improvements

much; and that

all

needs be sorry for

which yet

That in my opinion, these Arguments proved too them their full force, it would follow, that I must knowing any thing that surpasses my Understanding, that,

to give

because

is false,

serve only to

yet

it is

weak

something of Solidity

is

two

in

of Judgment

when we know

especially

affiict us,

remedy them. There

the goodness

consists in being able to rest

and to put away those troublesome Thoughts that

content with our condition,

The one

particulars:

in

is,

not

to be able, with open Eyes, not to see

able to do the second,

what

is

it

To

possible

we should

be able to do the

continually before us; and to be

we own

can possibly

being deeply affected with the Sense of our

Destruction; and

greater to torment our selves with the fear of us

:

But

in order to avoid live

it is

thing of our selves, since Death

is

mortal in

us.

To

is

is

to be able to live without

a

will infallibly

To

be able to

knowing any

inseparable from our Nature; and that to

our several parts,

is

to see

we have nothing but what

since to fear, supposes

some doubt

in us,

happen or no, and that we certainly know we

fear will

'tis still

be capable of fearing Death, supposes us able to reconcile

two Contradictions,

we

to be absolutely inavoidable.

without the Sense of Death,

all

what we know

without

live,

the utmost degree of folly, to seek after preservatives,

what we know

consider our selves, in

love

first, is

to love to be something, without hating to be

is,

nothing. 'Tis a great weakness to imagine,

come upon

to

supposing we are able to

in

suspend our Judgment; and the other, in thinking our selves without detesting our Dissolution:

how by any means

thy answer, replyed he; but

whether what

shall infallibly die,

more absurd to go about to take any Preservatives, to prevent it, when we know that to be impossible. I replied, That we might justly fear,

and

it is still

not Death

it

self,

but

its

Approaches; and that Preservatives were

because they might at least stave

he again, but dost thou not sible,

and the putting

it

it

see, that since the necessity

off for a while, can be of

of dying

him, that these Reasons would be of much more weight

among them who know

Europeans

was nothing

else

not what

but

it is

is

indispen-

no other service to

us,

than

I

answered

among our

Europeans,

to keep us the longer under continual pain, grief, and anguish.

than

useful,

off from us for a while. Very good, replied

to suffer; whereas the Life of the

a continued Chain of Miseries

and Sufferings.

On

How,

Life and Death

says he, have

among

you any other

the Australians

(65)

Infirmities than those of being Mortal,

and knowing your selves to be daily advancing towards Death? Yes, I assured him, that our People commonly died many Deaths, before they came to

good and

die for

all,

and that Death came not upon our Europeans, but by the

made them at last away under them. This answer was to him a Mystery: And as I was endeavouring to make him comprehend our Gouts, our Headaches, and our Colicks; I found he understood me not, and therefore to make him apprehend my meaning, I was forced particularly to explain to him the Nature of some Violence of those Diseases that knockt them down, and

faint

we

of those Diseases

suffer;

which

as soon as he understood,

cried he, that any one should be in love with such a Life as that?

People did not only love

from whence he took

it,

but used

manner of means to prolong it; condemn us, either for insensibility,

all

a fresh occasion to

or extravagance, not being able, as he said, to conceive

how

a reasonable

that was assured of his Death, and that saw himself daily dying,

and that could not protract

sorts of Sufferings,

Our

as

selves obliged to

many

Victims of a

as his greatest happi-

make very in

small account of our Life, and esteem

which we enjoy

nothing but to lightly takes

:

we come to understand our selves, because we think our love our own selves, and look upon our selves, but as so super iour Cause, that is able every moment to destroy us, we

which we can enjoy but as a Passenger, whilst

The time

Man

several

opinions, in this matter, are vastly different, says he, from yours

For we, assoon

therefore

by

but in continual

his Life,

Languishment, could possibly forbear desiring Death, ness.

*/ possible,

Is

answered, that our

I

it, is

it is

fleeting

burthensome to

us,

but as a

it

because

raise in us a grief for the loss of that happiness,

from

us,

than at

gave

first it

it

Happiness,

and passing from

which

We

us. In fine,

us.

serves for

it

are

it

more

weary of

we durst not fix our Affection upon our selves with all that tenderwe might otherwise have, for fear of enduring too great violences of Reluctance, when we shall be forced to part from a being we have so much

living, because ness,

doated on.

To

always better to

that

be,

never to live at all:

in our Being;

I

answered him, That Reason teaches

than not to

To which

3

be,

and that twas

he replyed, that

better to live, tho

we were

y

us, that it

was

but for a day, than

to distinguish

two things

one was our general existence, that perishes not, and the other

our particular Existence, or Individuality that perishes. better than privation, and that 'tis in that sense,

'tis

The

first

is

indeed

true; that being is preferable

before not being; but that the second, viz. the being of our Individuality, or particular being

that

if

oftentimes worse than not being, especially

is

accompanied with

a

Knowledge that renders

us unhappy.

being in general were better than not being,

it

I

when

'tis

answered again,

must needs

follow,

Gabriel de Foigny

(66)

That being likewise Tell me,

I

me

Privation: But he

its

the very State in which

when thou

prithee, says he,

which thou

place of

was better than

in particular,

me, by proposing to

satisfied

I

had

lately been.

consideredst thy condition in the

toldst us, environned on all

sides

by Death; could thou

possibly esteem thy Life at that time a Happiness, and could thou value better than nothing?

then only to augment thy

Knowledge ness so

then to no purpose to maintain that

misery"? It is

that afflicts me,

much

it

not true, that the Knowledge thou hadst, served

Is it

is

not only no Happiness to me, but an unhappi-

the more sensible, as

know it the more perfectly: It is from we know what we are, and what we

I

that principle that flows our true Misery, that

must

be,

we know

that

we

are noble,

of an eternal Duration, and yet

and excellent beings: In

word, worthy

a

we see that for all our Nobleness and Excellence,

we depend of a Thousand other Creatures, that are inferiour to us, which is the we look upon our selves, as beings that were brought up only to be rendered so much the more unhappy, and that it is which makes us chuse

cause

rather not

Our

than to be at the same time so excellent, and so miserable.

to be at all,

Ancestors

were so strongly perswaded of this Truth; that they sought

Death with the greatest passion in the World: But because by that means our

Country begun to grow

desolate,

and dispeopled, reasons were found out

perswade those which remained, to spare themselves

was represented to them, that so very to be

left

useless; that

to endure Life, tho'

it

we

some time:

and therefore ought it us.

order to Re-implace those that had sought

after, in

Rest in a voluntary Death,

to

for it

and spacious a Country, ought not

are an Ornament of the Universe,

were but to please that Soveraign Master that gave

Upon which, some time for

fine

for

all

present no less than three Children

that remained alive, obliged themselves to

to the

Hebs

;

by which means,

all

the Country

being well Repeopled, an order was published, that no Person should have permission to go to his Long

Man

to the Heb, either his

Rest,

own

who should present another another, who was willing to be his

but such a one

Son, or

Lieutenant, and to supply his place; and

it

was ordered,

that none should have the priviledge, neither to till

he had lived at least ioo Years, or could shew some

incommoded him. Brethren, for

which

I

was very

a

And now

Wound

that extreamly

we were joyned by two never found my Old Man in so

sorry, because

I

Mysteries of

all

those things, of which

to proceed with our Narration, there never

at the Heb, at

same time,

a Permission,

Just as he had finished those words,

humour to discover to me the demanded of him some Explication. good

at the

demand such

which there

is

is

I

held any Assembly

not twenty or thirty Persons that

demand

Liberty to return to their rest, and they never refuse any, be they

who

the

they

On

Life and Death

among

that produce just Reasons for

will,

it:

the Australians

(67)

And when any one has obtained who must be at

Permission to go out of this Life, he presents his Lieutenant, least 36 years of age.

Name

of the old

Man

The Company receives him with Joy, and gives him the that has a Mind to die; which done, they represent to

him the brave actions of his Predecessors, and tell him they are confident, he will not degenerate from the vertue of him, whose place he is going to supply.

When

that Ceremony

for that effect,

them, with

a smiling

Heart begins to

his

is

over, the old

Man

goes merrily to the Table, furnished

with the Fruit of Rest, where he eats to the number of eight of

ordinary joy he

feels

as dancing, leaping,

and calm Countenance; when he has eaten Four of them,

dilate,

and

his Spleen to enlarge it self; so that the extra-

within him, makes him commit several extravagancies,

and

Brethren take no notice

talking all of, as

manner of

coming from

a

which the

idle foolish things,

Man

that has lost his reason:

then they present him two more, that quite distract his Brain; after which, his Lieutenant, and another Person conduct him to the place, he before-hand

chose for

a Sepulchre,

where they give him two more of the aforesaid

which plunge him into an Eternal

Sleep.

Then they

close

up

his

return back, beseeching the Soveraign Being, to advance those happy in

which they may have the Priviledge to enjoy the

like

Rest

Fruits,

Tomb, and Moments, with their

departed Brother. In this manner are the Australians born, and thus they live

and

die.

FRANÇOIS DE SALIGNAC DE LA MOTHE-FÉNELON (1651-1715)

Salentum: Frugal and Noble Simplicity*

At the time he was ordained, Fénelon was lineage but without fortune. director of a sisterhood for

education of

girls.

He

a scholarly

young man of noble

occupied himself with pedagogy as

young converts and author of a

treatise

on the

His influence mounted with his appointment as tutor

Duke of Burgundy, the dauphin's son, and in 1695 named Archbishop of Cambrai. Four years later, however, his

(1689) to the young

he was

defense of

Madame Guyon's

by the Holy See and

his

quietist doctrines led to his

banishment from court.

To

condemnation

inculcate moral

virtues in his royal pupil he had earlier written the Adventures of Telemachus,

weaving around Greek

kingdom where

figures of the heroic age the story of an austere

reason, justice, and

saw

foe of despotism

and luxury.

without

his

in

knowledge,

humanity prevailed. As

monarchy the

seigneur, Fénelon

it

When

ideal state,

a

grand-

but he was a staunch

the book was published in 1699,

was interpreted

as

an implied criticism of Louis

XIV's government, and despite the favor of a new pope Fénelon was never recalled from retirement.

From

François de Salignac de

Hawkesworth from J.

Swords, 1800),

I,

la

Mothe-Fénelon, The Adventures of Telemachus, trans. John by G. Gregory (New York: T. and

Les Aventures de Télémaque, revised

pp. 338-57.

69

*v;^YAVA>W«ffifflEa^VAVAY»/:-.

Engraving by J.

B. Tilliard after

Ch. Monnet, from Les Aventures de Télémaque,

Paris, 1785.

_

The Reforms of Mentor

When city.

army was gone, Idomeneus

the

led

Mentor

into every quarter of the

"Let us see," said Mentor, "how many people you have,

number the whole; and

city as the country; let us

many

of them are husbandmen. Let us inquire

let

as well in the

how much

corn, wine,

other necessaries, your lands will produce one year with another:

then

know whether your country

will subsist its inhabitants,

will yield a surplus for foreign trade.

have, and

how

us also examine oil,

we

and

shall

and whether

how many we may be able

Let us also see

vessels

it

you

how many sailors to man them, that to judge of He then visited the port, and went on board every vessel:

your strength."

he informed himself of the several ports to which they traded, what merchandize they carried out, and

what they brought back

in return

what was the

;

expence of the voyage; what were the loans of the merchants to each other,

and what trading

know whether

were established among them, that he might

societies

their articles

were equitable and

faithfully observed.

He

also

inquired what was the risk of the several voyages, and to what losses the trade was exposed, that such restrictions might be

the ruin of the merchants,

who

made

as

would prevent

sometimes, from too eager a desire of gain,

undertake what they are not in a condition to accomplish.

He

ordered that bankruptcy should be punished with great severity,

because

it is

generally the effect of rashness and indiscretion,

if

not of fraud:

he also formed regulations, by which bankruptcies might easily be prevented.

He

obliged the merchants to give an account of their effects, their profits,

their expences,

purpose.

He

and

their undertakings, to magistrates established for that

ordered that they should never be permitted to risk the property

of another, nor more than half their association,

own

;

what they could not undertake

that they should undertake

by

singly; and that the observance

of the conditions of such association should be enforced by severe penalties.

He

ordered, also, that trade should be perfectly open and free; and, instead of

loading

new

it

with imposts, that every merchant

who brought

the trade of a

nation to the port of Salentum should be entitled to a reward.

These regulations brought people

in

of Salentum was like the flux of the sea 7'

crowds from :

all

parts,

riches flowed in

and the trade

upon

it,

with an

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

(72)

like wave impelling wave: every thing was freely and carried out of the port: every thing that was brought was

impetuous abundance, brought

in

and every thing that was carried out

useful,

tage in

innumerable nations, with

were

once

at

seemed to

left

something of greater advan-

which was the center of

stead. Justice presided over the port,

its

and from the

ornament and defence, freedom,

its

call

inflexible severity;

lofty

towers that

and honour,

integrity,

together the merchants of the remotest regions of the earth

and these merchants, whether they came from the shores of the the sun rises from the parting

wave

east,

:

where

to begin the day; or from that boundless

ocean, where, wearied with his course, he extinguishes his

fires; all lived

together in Salentum, as in their native country, with security and peace.

Mentor then

and manufactories of the

visited the magazines, warehouses,

interior part of the city.

He

prohibited the sale of all foreign commodities that

might introduce luxury or effeminacy: he regulated the dress and the provisions of the inhabitants of every rank,

ments of "I

their houses.

know but one

modest

He

and the furniture, the

also prohibited

all

ornaments of

size,

and orna-

silver

and gold.

thing," said he to Idomeneus, "that can render your people

in their expences

— the example of their prince.

necessary that

It is

there should be a certain dignity in your appearance; but your authority will

be sufficiently marked by the guards, and the great will

purple colour:

and

officers

of your court, that

always attend you. As to your dress, be content with the

let

your

let

own

finest cloth of a

the dress of your principal officers be of cloth equally fine:

be distinguished only by the colour, and a slight embroidery

of gold round the edge: different colours will serve to distinguish different conditions, without either gold, or silver, or jewels

and

;

let

these conditions

be regulated by birth.

"Put the most ancient and are distinguished

illustrious nobility in the first rank: those

by personal merit, and the authority of

content to stand second to those

Men who

tary honour.

to those that are,

by

raising

praise

that which

are is

by descent

will readily yield

take care not to encourage a

false

in prosperity.

No

precedence

opinion of themselves,

fail

to gratify those with

distinction so little excites

reward public merit with honorary distinctions;

which may be made the foundation of a new

of those to

"The

envy

as

will

be

derived from ancestors by a long descent.

stimulate virtue, and excite an emulation to serve the state,

sufficient to

statue,

modest

be

have been long in possession of heredi-

them too suddenly and too high; and never

who

"To

if you

who

are not noble

who

will

office,

whom

a

it

crown or

a

nobility, for the children

they are decreed.

habit of persons of the

first

rank

may be

white, bordered with a

Salentum : Frugal and Noble Simplicity fringe of gold: they

and

may

by

also be distinguished

( 73 )

a gold ring

on their

finger,

medal of gold, impressed with your image, hanging from their neck.

a

Those of the second rank may be dressed in blue, with a silver fringe, and be distinguished by the ring without the medal. The third rank may be dressed in green, and wear the medal without either fringe or ring. The colour of the fourth class

may

be a

full

yellow; the

fifth a

pale red; the sixth a mixture of

red and white; and the seventh a mixture of white and yellow. Dresses of these different colours will sufficiently distinguish the freemen of your state

The

into seven classes.

habit of slaves should be dark grey: and thus each will

be distinguished according to his condition, without expence; and every art

which can only gratify pride

will

be banished from Salentum. All the

artificers,

which are now employed so much to the disadvantage of their country, will betake themselves to such arts as are useful, which are few, or to commerce or agriculture.

No

change must ever be suffered to take place, either

quality of the stuff or the serious

form of the garment.

and important employments; and

Men

it is

are,

unworthy of them

such employment would

less disgrace, to fall into

for

to invent

affected novelties in the clothes that cover them, or to suffer the

whom

in the

by nature, formed

women,

an extravagance so

contemptible and pernicious."

Thus Mentor, useless

like a skilful gardener,

who

lops from his fruit-trees the

wood, endeavoured to retrench the parade that insensibly corrupts

the manners, and to reduce every thing to a frugal and noble simplicity.

He

regulated even the provisions, not of the slaves only, but those of the highest rank.

"What

shame

a

is

it," said he,

"that

men

of exalted stations should

place their superiority in eating such food as effeminates the mind, and subverts

the constitution

!

They ought

to value themselves for the regulation of their

own

desires, for their

tjpn

which the exercise of private and public virtue

To

power of dispensing good

to others,

the sober and temperate, the simplest food

is

and

for the reputa-

will necessarily procure.

always pleasant: and the

simplest food only can produce the most vigorous health, and give, at once,

capacity and disposition for the purest and highest enjoyments.

should consist of the best food; but

it

art of cookery is the art of poisoning

importunate,

when

Idomeneus violating the

new

city to corrupt

them

still

had done wrong in suffering the

and effeminate

their manners,

by

sumptuary laws of Minos but Mentor further convinced him, ;

that the revival of those laws

give

mankind, by rendering appetite

the wants of nature are supplied."

easily conceived that he

inhabitants of this

Your meal

should always be plainly dressed: the

force

by

his

would produce

little effect, if

the king did not

example: he, therefore, immediately regulated

his

own

1

François de Salignac de la Motbe-Fénelon

(74) table,

where he admitted only

plain food, such as he had eaten with other

Grecian princes at the siege of Troy, with the finest bread, and a small quantity of the wine of the country, which was generous and well flavoured.

No man self;

dared to

murmur

at a regulation

and the profusion and

false delicacy

which the king imposed upon him-

of the table were given up without a

struggle.

Mentor suppressed which dissolve the airs,

also

two kinds of music; the

soul into languishment

that transport

it

and

soft

desire,

and effeminate

with causeless, tumultuous, and opprobrious

allowed only that sacred and solemn harmony which,

in the

To

Gods, kindles devotion, and celebrates heroic virtue.

strains

and the Bacchanalian joy.

He

temples of the

the temples also he

confined the superb ornaments of architecture, columns, pediments, and porticos

that

:

he gave models in a simple but elegant style of building, for houses

would contain

numerous

a

family, on a moderate extent of ground; so

designed that they should be at once pleasant and convenient; that they should have a healthful aspect, and apartments sufficiently separated from each other; that order and decency might be easily preserved, and that they

might be repaired middling

class

for all the free

at a small expence.

should have a

hall,

and

He

ordered that every house above the

a small peristyle, with separate

chambers

persons of the family; but he prohibited, under severe penalties,

the superfluous

number and magnificence of apartments,

that ostentation

and luxury had introduced. Houses erected upon these models, according to the size of the family, served to embellish one part of the city at a small

expence, and give

it

a regular

appearance; while the other part, which was

already finished according to the caprice and vanity of individuals, was,

notwithstanding

was

its

magnificence, less pleasing and convenient. This city

built in a very short time; because the neighbouring coast of Greece

furnished very skilful architects and a great ;

number of masons

from Epirus, and other countries, upon the promise that, their work, they should be established in the

where land should be granted them

to clear,

after

repaired thither

they had finished

neighbourhood of Salentum,

and where they would contribute

to people the country.

Painting and sculpture were arts which Mentor thought should by no

means be proscribed; but he permitted the practice of them lished a school under masters of an exquisite taste,

by

whom

to few.

He

estab-

the performances

of the pupils were examined. "There should be no mediocrity," said he, "in the arts which are not necessary to

life;

and, consequently, no youth should

be permitted to practise them, but such as have a genius to excel others were :

designed, by nature, for less noble occupations; and

may

be very usefully

Salentum: Frugal and Noble Simplicity

employed

in

(75 )

supplying the ordinary wants of the community. Sculptors and

painters should be

employed only to preserve the memory of great men and

great actions; and the representations of whatever has been atchieved

by

heroic virtue, for the service of the public, should be preserved only in public buildings, or on the

monuments of the dead." But whatever was the modera-

tion or frugality of Mentor, he indulged the taste of magnificence in the great

buildings that were intended for public sports, the races of horses and chariots,

combats with the cestus, wrestling, and

body more

He

agile

all

other exercises which render the

and vigorous.

number of

suppressed a great

wrought

traders that sold

stuffs

of

foreign manufacture; embroidery of an excessive price; vases of silver and gold,

embossed with various figures

perfumes: he ordered,

and substantial, so

who had been abounded

as not

in

bas-relief;

distilled

and

liquors

the furniture of every house should be plain

also, that

soon to wear out.

The

people of Salentum, therefore,

used to complain of being poor, began to perceive that they

in superfluous riches

but that this superfluity was of a deceitful

;

kind; that they were poor in proportion as they possessed

proportion as they relinquished

it,

only, they could be rich.

it

and

that, in

"To become

truly rich," said they, "is to despise such riches as exhaust the state, and to

number of our wants, by reducing them

lessen the

to the necessities of

virtue."

Mentor

also

took the

first

opportunity to

visit

the arsenals and magazines,

and examine whether the arms, and other necessaries of war, were condition.

avoid

it."

"To be always ready for He found many things

artificers in brass

built;

from the subterranean anvil,

fires

of

good

way

to

wanting, and immediately employed

and iron to supply the

and smoke and flame ascended

in a

war," said he, "is the surest

in

Mount

defects.

Furnaces were immediately

cloudy volumes, like those that issue Aetna.

The hammer rang upon

the

which groaned under the stroke: the neighbouring shores and mountains

re-echoed to the sound; and a spectator of these preparatives for war, a provident sagacity during a in that island

thunder

where Vulcan animates the Cyclops, by

for the

made by

profound peace, might have thought himself his

example, to forge

Father of the Gods.

Mentor then went with Idomeneus out of the

city,

and found

a great

extent of fertile country wholly uncultivated; besides considerable tracts that

were cultivated but

in part,

through the negligence or poverty of the husband-

men, or the want of spirit, or the want of hands. "This country," the king, "is ready to enrich sufficient

its

said he to

inhabitants, but the inhabitants are not

to cultivate the country; let us, then,

remove the superfluous

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

(76) from the

artificers

city,

of the people, and

let

whose professions serve only us

employ them

manners

and

hills.

misfortune that these men, having been employed in arts which require

It is a

a sedentary

life,

unused to labour: but we

are

proprietors of part of

by no means

are

it,

shall receive a certain

They may

afterwards be

and be thus incorporated with your people,

sufficiently

numerous.

If

they prove diligent, and obedi-

The

ent to the laws, they will be good subjects, and increase your power. artizans,

whom

you

shall transplant

their children to the labours of rural

employed

from the city to the life

;

fields, will

and the foreigners,

to assist in building your city, have

and become husbandmen. These men,

lands,

we

in the

call

undertake the most

will gladly

upon condition that they

proportion of the produce of the lands they clear.

made

this evil:

among them, and

who

neighbouring people to their assistance, laborious part of the work,

remedy

will try to

will divide these uncultivated lands in lots

who

to corrupt the

in fertilizing these plains

engaged to

whom

bring up

you have

clear part of

as soon as they

your

have finished

the public buildings, you should incorporate with your people: they will

think themselves happy to pass their lives under a government so gentle as that which you have their

example

now

established; and as they are robust and laborious,

animate the transplanted

will

artificers

with

whom

they will

be mixed; and, in a short time, your country will abound with a vigorous race,

wholly devoted to agriculture.

"When

this is done,

be in no pain about the multiplication of your

people: they will, in a short time, become innumerable,

if

you

and the most simple way of facilitating marriage

is

the most effectual.

riage; All

men

are naturally inclined to marry;

facilitate

and nothing prevents them from

indulging this inclination, but the prospect of difficulty and distress:

do not load them with earth

is

Husbandmen if their

taxes, their families will never

become

a

it

:

it

refuses its

are always rich, in proportion to the

prince does not

assistance,

bounty only to those who

make them poor;

you

if

burden: the

never ungrateful, but always affords sustenance to those

gently cultivate

mar-

who

dili-

refuse their labour.

number of their children, them some

for their children afford

even from their infancy: the youngest can drive the

flock to pasture,

those that are farther advanced can look after the cattle, and those of the third stage can assist the

work with

mother,

are abroad,

who

when they

their father in the field. In the

mean time the

girls

prepares a simple but wholesome repast for those that return

home

fatigued with the labour of the day. She

milks her cows and her sheep, and the pails overflow with longevity and health; she brings out her fruits that she has

little stores,

her cheeses and her chesnuts, with

preserved from decay; she piles up the social

fire,

and the

Salentum: Frugal and Noble Simplicity family gathers round

it;

every countenance brightens with the smile of

innocence and peace; and some rural ditty diverts them

them

to rest.

family

is

their plough,

till

the night calls

that attended the flock returns with his pipe; and,

got together, he sings them some

neighbouring

a slow

He

(77)

village.

new

Those that have been

at

when

the

song, that he has learnt at the

work

come

in the fields

with

in

and the weary oxen that hang down their heads, and move with

and heavy pace, notwithstanding the goad, which now urges them

end with the day. The poppies which,

vain. All the sufferings of labour

command

in

at the

of the Gods, are scattered over the earth by the hand of sleep,

charm away every

care: sweet

enchantment

lulls all

nature into peace; and

the weary rest without anticipating the troubles of to-morrow. Happy, indeed, are these unambitious,

mistrustless,

artless

people,

vouchsafe them a king that disturbs not their blameless

if

joy;'

the Gods

and of what

horrid inhumanity are they guilty, who, to gratify pride and ambition, wrest

from them the sweet product of the

field,

which they owe to the

liberality of

nature and the sweat of their brow! In the fruitful lap of nature there

is

inex-

haustible plenty for temperance and labour. If none were luxurious and idle,

none would be wretched and poor."

"But what this fertile

shall

I

do," said Idomeneus, "if the people that

Mentor, "just contrary to what

is

commonly

ate princes think only of taxing those their lands; because,

levied;

I

scatter over

country should neglect to cultivate it?" "You must do," said

upon

and they spare those

who

done. Rapacious and inconsider-

are

most industrious to improve

these, they suppose a tax will be

whom

idleness has

made

more

easily

indigent. Reverse this

mistaken and injurious conduct, which oppresses virtue, rewards vice, and encourages a supineness that

is

equally fatal to the king and to the state. Let

your taxes be heavy upon those

and add, to your

taxes, fines

who

neglect the cultivation of their lands

and other penalties

negligent and the idle as you would a soldier

if it is

who

;

necessary; punish the

should desert his post.

On

the contrary, distinguish those who, in proportion as their families multiply, cultivate their lands with the greater diligence,

by

special privileges

and

immunities: every family will then become numerous; and every one will be

animated to labour, not by the desire of gain only, but of honour. The state of husbandry being no longer wretched, will no longer be contemptible: the

plough, once more held in honour, will be guided by the victorious hands that have defended the country: and

it

will not

be

less glorious to cultivate

a paternal inheritance in the security of peace, than to

defence,

when

around you

:

it

is

draw the sword in its will bloom

endangered by war. The whole country

the golden ears of ripe corn will again crown the temples of

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

(78)

Ceres: Bacchus will tread the grapes in rich clusters under his feet; and wine,

more

delicious than nectar, will flow from the hills like a river: the valleys

resound to the song of the shepherds, who, dispersed along the banks of a

will

transparent stream, shall join their voices with the pipe; while their flocks shall frolic

round them, and

feast

upon the flowery pasture without

fear of the

wolf.

"O

Idomeneus!

will it not

make you supremely happy

to be the source of

such prosperity; to stretch your protection, like the shadow of a rock, over so

many

people,

who

repose under

it

in security

and peace? Will you not,

in

the consciousness of this, enjoy a noble elation of mind, a calm sense of superior glory; such as can never touch the desolate the earth, and

who

diffuses,

bosom of the not

less

who lives only to own dominions than

tyrant,

through

his

those which he conquers from others, carnage and tumult, horror and

anguish, consternation, famine and despair? Happy, indeed,

whom

his

own

is

the prince,

greatness of soul, and the distinguishing favour of the Gods,

shall

render thus the delight of his people, and the example of succeeding

ages!

The

world, instead of taking up arms to oppose his power, will be found

prostrate at his feet, and suing to be subject to his dominion."

"But," said Idomeneus, "when the people

shall

be thus blessed with

plenty and peace, will not their happiness corrupt their manners; will they

not turn against

me

the very strength

I

have given them?" "There

no

is

reason to fear that," said Mentor: "the sycophants of prodigal princes have

suggested

it

laws which

as a pretence for oppression

we have

;

but

it

may

easily be prevented.

laborious; and the people, notwithstanding their plenty, will

what

is

The

established with respect to agriculture will render

necessary, for

we have

life

abound only

in

prohibited the arts that furnish superfluities:

and the plenty even of necessaries

will

be restrained within due bounds, by

the facility of marriage and the multiplication of families. In proportion as a family becomes numerous, their portion of land being a

more

diligent cultivation will

still

the same in extent,

become necessary; and

this

will

require

Luxury and idleness only render people insolent and They will have bread, indeed, and they will have bread enough;

incessant labour. rebellious.

but they will have nothing more, except what they can gain from their

own

ground, by the sweat of their brow.

"That your people may continue necessary that you should is

to possess.

We

now

in this state of mediocrity,

it

will

be

limit the extent of 'ground that each family

have, you know, divided your people into seven classes,

according to their different conditions; and each family, in each be permitted to possess only such an extent of ground as

is

class,

must

absolutely neces-

Salentum: Frugal and Noble Simplicity sary to subsist

it.

(79)

This regulation being inviolably observed, the nobles can

never get possession of the lands of the poor: every one will have land, but

much only

so

make

as will

a diligent cultivation necessary.

much

of years, the people should be so for

them

home, they may be sent

at

in a

If,

long course

increased that land cannot be found

form colonies abroad, which

to

will

be

a new advantage to the mother country.

"I

am

of opinion that care should be taken, even to prevent wine from

common

being too

in

your kingdom.

planted, you should cause mischiefs that

afflict

them

to be

If

you

many

find that too

vines are

grubbed up. Some of the most dreadful

mankind proceed from wine:

quarrels, sedition, idleness, aversion to labour,

the cause of disease,

it is

and every species of domestic

disorder. Let wine, then, be considered as a kind of medicine, or as a scarce liquor, to be used only at the sacrifices of the festivity.

Do

place without the sanction of your

"The

Gods, or

in seasons of public

not, however, flatter yourself that this regulation can ever take

own

example.

laws of Minos, with respect to the education of children, must also

be inviolably preserved. Public schools must be established, to teach them the fear of the

Gods, the love of their country, a reverence

preference of honour, not only to pleasure, but to

life.

for the laws,

and

a

Magistrates must be

appointed to superintend the conduct, not of every family only, but every person: you must keep also your

own

eye upon them;

to be the shepherd of your people, and to

day.

By

this

unremitted vigilance you

will

you

for

watch over your prevent

many

are a king only flock night

disorders and

and

many

crimes: such as you cannot prevent, you must immediately punish with severity; for, in this case, severity to the individual it

stops those irregularities at their source, which

with misery and guilt: the taking away of one will be the preservation of

many; and

without general or frequent severity. security of the prince depends only

will It

life

make is

is

clemency to the public:

would deluge the country upon

a proper occasion,

a prince sufficiently feared,

a detestable

maxim, that the

upon the oppression of his people. Should

no care be taken to improve their knowledge or their morals? Instead of being taught to love him

by

terror, to despair,

whom

they are born to obey, should they be driven,

and reduced to the dreadful necessity, either of throwing

yoke of their tyrant, or perishing under its weight? Can this be the way to reign with tranquillity? can this be the path that leads to glory? "Remember that the sovereign who is most absolute, is always least

off the

powerful: he seizes upon

all,

and

his grasp

is

ruin.

He

is,

indeed, the sole

proprietor of whatever his state contains; but, for that reason, his state

contains nothing of value: the fields are uncultivated, and almost a desert;

(8o)

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon

the towns lose some of their few inhabitants every day; and trade every day declines.

The

subjects,

and who

who must

king, is

losing his character

cease to be a king

when he

great only in virtue of his people,

and

his

power, as the number of

is

ceases to have

himself insensibly

his people,

from

whom

alone both are derived, insensibly diminishes; and his dominions are at length

exhausted of money and of

men

the tyrant

is

flattered,

men is the greatest and the most power degrades every subject to a slave:

the loss of

:

irreparable he can sustain. Absolute

even to an appearance of adoration

;

and every one

trembles at the glance of his eye: but, at the least revolt, this enormous power perishes it

by

its

own

excess. It derived

wearied and provoked

all

that

it

no strength from the love of the people;

could reach; and rendered every individual

of the state impatient of its continuance. At the idol

is

first

stroke of opposition, the

overturned, broken to pieces, and trodden under foot: contempt,

hatred, fear, resentment, distrust, and every other passion of the soul, unite

against so hateful a despotism.

man

bold enough to

enough

tell

The king who,

him the

to excuse his faults, or to defend

him against

Idomeneus then hastened to distribute

them with

useless artificers,

in his vain prosperity,

truth, in his adversity finds no

and to carry

his

found no

man kind

enemies."

his uncultivated lands, to all

the counsels of

people

Mentor

into

execution; reserving for the builders such parts as had been allotted them,

which they were not to cultivate

till

they had finished the

city.

CHARLES IRÉNÉE CASTEL, ABBÉ DE SAINT-PIERRE (1658-1743)

A

Proposai for

Everlasting Peace*

Born near Cherbourg,

this scion of

an ancient noble family was educated by

the Jesuits and subsequently took holy orders. In Paris, he frequented aristocratic salons

In the

171

and

in 1695

became almoner of the Duchess of Orleans.

same year he was elected

8 for

the offence given by a

to the

work

in

Academy, but was expelled

in

which he advocated royal govern-

ance with the aid of a council rather than of a single minister. As

a critic

of political and social institutions he had a marked influence on Rousseau.

During for the

a long lifetime the

Abbé de

reform of society and the

peace plans,

first

Saint-Pierre circulated

state.

many

projects

His renown rests principally on his

drafted in 171 1 and submitted to his friends for criticism,

then published in a two- volume revision in 171 3 as Projet pour rendre

la

paix perpétuelle en Europe. Saint-Pierre was at that time secretary to the

French plenipotentiary at Utrecht, where the great powers had convened to draft the treaty that

From

Charles Irénée Castel,

would end the War of the Spanish Succession.

Abbé de

A

Project for Settling an Everlasting Peace in and approved of by gueen Elizabeth, and most of the then Princes of Europe, and now discussed at large, and made practicable (London, 1 7 14), preface.

Europe, First Proposed by Henry

Saint-Pierre,

IV of Trance,

81

r

->**-.

«

*M«*^***^'

ij

Abbé de

nnnlwiin

»i '«

Saint-Pierre, engraving.

The Author's Preface Giving a General Idea of

My

Design

is

to propose

Means

the Christian States. Let not any

the Project

an Everlasting Peace amongst all Body ask me, what Capacity I have acquired,

for settling

to handle a Subject of so very high a Nature. 'Tis a Question

Answer

could to Instruct

because Citizen a

Man

above these three and twenty Years

to; for tho' for

my

'tis ;

my

self

can

I

political

all I

Government;

I

have attain'd none of the Qualities necessary to make

serviceable to his Country. But, to judge of the Value of a in

need of any thing besides the

About four Years ago,

Commerce

make no

have done

Opinion, that Such chiefly deserve the Attention of a good

yet, perhaps,

the Reader stand

to

thoroughly in Matters of

I

after

Work

Work, does

itself?

having finish'd an Essay useful

for the interiour

of the Kingdom, being both an Eyewitness of the extreme Misery

which the People were reduc'd by the heavy Taxes, and

also inform'd,

by

divers particular Relations, of the excessive Contributions, the Forragings,

the Destructions, the Violences, the Cruelties, and the Murthers which the

unhappy Inhabitants of the Frontiers of Christian Europe,

and

their Subjects,

I

causes to the Princes of

took a Resolution to penetrate into the

of this Evil, and to find out by inseparable from

States daily suffer; in short,

War

being sensibly touch'd with the Evils which

my own

Reflections,

Sources

first

whether

was so

It

the Nature of Sovereignties and Sovereigns, as to be

absolutely without

Remedy;

to discover whether

it

I

applied

my

self to

was not possible to

examine

find out

to terminate their future Differences without War\

this Affair, in order

some practicable Means

and so to render the Peace

perpetual amongst them. I

bestow'd formerly, at different times, some Thoughts upon this Matter,

as the

most

useful that great Genius's could

employ themselves upon; but The Difficulties which

those Thoughts were always without any Success:

arose one from t'other, and even from the Nature of

discouraged

me

:

'Tis true,

thought of

I

Mornings were wholly spent this

Nature, yet

my Mind

Amusements; whereas the

Mind

a little too

Mankind

itself,

always

only in Places, where, tho'

in reading, or in

was

in the

it

my

meditating upon Subjects of

much taken

off,

either

by Duties or

Country, being assisted by the Strength which

receives from the calmness

and S3

leisure of Solitude,

I

thought

I

might,

Charles Irénée Caste!,

(84)

Abbé de

Saint-Pierre

by an obstinate and continued Meditation, exhaust

a Subject,

which

had not perhaps ever been examin'd with so much Attention,

'till

as in

then

self it

it

deserved to be. I

thought

Happiness

it

it

necessary to begin, by making some Reflections upon the

would

be, as well to the Sovereigns of Europe, as to private

to live in Peace, united

they are at present in

Men, by some permanent Society; and upon the Necessity to have continual Wars with each other, about the

Possession or Division of

some Advantages; and

finally

upon the Means

which they have hitherto used, either to avoid entering upon those Wars, or not to sink under them, when once they Have entered upon them. I

all those Means consisted in making mutual Promises, either Commerce, of Truce, of Peace, wherein Limits of Dominion,

found that

in Treaties of

and other reciprocal Pretentions are regulated; or else

in Treaties of Guarantie,

or of League offensive and defensive, to establish, to maintain, or to reestablish the Equilibrium of

Power between the

System

Principal Houses; a

which hitherto seems to be the highest Degree of Prudence, that the Sovereigns of Europe or their Ministers, ever carried their Policy j

I

to.

soon perceived, that so long as they contented themselves with such

Methods, they would never have any Treaties, nor sufficient without

War,

Means

for

sufficient security for

the Execution of

terminating equitably, and above

their future Differences ;

and that unless they could

all

find out

some better Ways, the Christian Princes must never expect any thing but an almost continual War, which can never be interrupted but by some Treaties of Peace, or rather by Truces, which are the necessary Productions of Equality of Forces, and of the Weariness and Exhaustion of the Combatants,

and which

in the

End must be the

total

Reflections that are the Subject of ^the all

two Heads, or two

into

Ruin of the Vanquished.

first

Discourse.

Propositions, which

I

I

'Tis these

have reduced them

propose to

my

self to

demonstrate. ist.

The present Constitution o/Europe can never produce any thing

continual

of

Wars, because

it

else

but almost

can never procure any sufficient Security for the Execution

Treaties.

2dly. The Equilibrium of Power between the House of France, and the House of

Austria, cannot procure any sufficient Security either against Foreign Wars, or against Civil Wars, and consequently cannot procure any sufficient Security either

for the Preservation of Territory, or for the Preservation of Commerce.

The

first

inveterate,

Step necessary to the obtaining a Cure for a Disease great, or

and

for

hitherto been used,

which alone nothing but is

ineffectual

Medicines have

to endeavour, on the one Side, to find out the different

A Proposal for Everlasting Peace

(85)

Causes of the Disease; and, on the other, the Disproportion of those Medicines with the Disease I

it self.

afterwards consider'd, whether Sovereigns might not find some

Security for the

sufficient

Execution of mutual Promises, by establishing a perpetual

Arbitration; and

I

find, that if the

eighteen Principal Sovereignties of Europe,

maintain the present Government, to avoid War, and to procure

in order to

the Advantages of an uninterrupted

would make

Commerce between Nation and

Treaty of Union, and a perpetual Congress, much

a

Nation,

after the

Model, either of the seven Sovereignties of Holland, the thirteen Sovereignties of the

Swisses,

from what

or the Sovereignties of Germany, and form an European Union, best in those Unions, and especially in the Germanic Union,

is

which consists of above two hundred Sovereignties: weakest would have

a sufficient Security, that the great

found,

I

say, that the

I

Power of the strongest

could not hurt them; that every one would exactly keep their reciprocal

Commerce would never be interrupted, and that withoutWar, by means of Umpires, which can never be obtain'd any other Way.

Promises; that

would be terminated

Differences

all

future

a Blessing

These are the eighteen Principal Christian Sovereignties, which should each of them have a Voice in the general Diet of Europe: 3.

England, 4.

Holland, 5.

Portugal, 6. Switzerland,

France, 2. Spain,

1.

and the Associates,

7.

The

Ecclesiastick

State, 10. Venice, 11. Savoy, 12. Lorrain, 13. Denmark, 14. Cour Iand

and Dantzick,

Florence,

&c. 25.

down

and the Associates,

it

and Associates,

Genoa,

The Emperor and Empire, is

mention'd but

for

g.

16. Poland, ly. Sweden, 18. Muscovy.

the Empire only as one Sovereignty, because

Holland too tho'

8.

it

I

set

but one Body:

is

one Sovereignty, because that Republick,

consists of seven Sovereign Republicks,

but one Body; the same of

is

Switzerland.

In examining the

that there

Government of the Sovereigns

would be more

of Germany,

I

formerly there was in forming the Germanick Body, in executing

which has been already executed

in little;

would be fewer Obstacles, and more and what greatly perswaded me that Information the

first

I

received from one of

Sketch of this Work:

which, in the main, was

did not find

Difficulty in forming the European Body

much

He

Facility, in

I

that

found that there

forming the European Body;

this Project

my

told

on the contrary,

now, than

in great

was no Chimera, was the I had shewn him

Friends, soon after

me

that Henry IF. had form'd a Project,

I found in the Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, his Prime Minister; and in Monsieur de Perejïxe's History of his Reign: Nay more, I found that this Project had been even agreed to by a great many Princes, in the Beginning of the last Century This gave me

the same; and so

:

Charles Irénée Castel,

(86)

Abbé de

Saint-Pierre

Occasion from thence to draw some Inferences, to prove that the Thing was far

from being impracticable: And

this

the Subject of the Second Discourse.

is

The same Motives and the same Means that formerly

1st.

permanent Society of all Power of the present

Sovereigns,

the Christian Sovereignties

of Germany,

the Sovereignties

and may

suffice to

form a

form a permanent Society of all

of Europe.

o/Europe gave

2dly. The Approbation which most of the Sovereigns for an European Society, which

may

sufficed to

are within the reach and

Henry the Great

be hoped such a Project will be approved

These Models of permanent

of by

to the Project

proposed to them, proves that

it

their Successors.

Societies, the

Approbation that was given,

an hundred Years ago, to the Project of Henry the Great, are sufficient to

produce two very great Prepossessions

know

in favour of the Possibility of this

the Weight of Prepossessions, and that they

upon the Generality of Minds, than true Arguments,

fetch'd from the very

Bottom of the Subject, and from necessary Consequences of the but

I

I

:

make more Impressions Principles

first

;

plainly foresee they will never be sufficient entirely to determine Spirits

of the

first

Order; that

Inequalities

They

will

between the European

be continually finding out Differences and Society,

quote as Models that Henry IV, might ;

possible,

which was

strate every

in reality impossible.

Thing

and

strictly,

am

which

after all

Thus

I

I

propose, and the Societies

I

be deceived in thinking That

my self obliged to demonmy utmost Endeavours,

find

resolved to use

to trace back those very Motives, which induced the Ancient Sovereigns of

Germany, and those of the shall try to find

last

Century, to desire an unalterable Peace; and

out Methods, better than theirs, to form a more important

Establishment.

As

for sufficient Motives,

I

believe that

sufficient

Security for

therein

much fewer

Number

if

any one could propose

a

Treaty

and unalterable, and so give every one a the Perpetuity of the Peace, the Princes would find

which might render the Union

solid

Inconveniencies, and those

of Advantages, and those

System of War; that

a great

would begin by Signing

it,

many

much more

much

less great, a

Sovereigns, especially the least powerful,

and afterwards would present

and that even the most powerful,

if

greater

great, than in the present

they examined

it

it

to others to Sign;

thoroughly, would soon

find they could never

embrace any Resolution, nor sign any Treaty, near

Advantageous

would

As

as this

for practicable and sufficient Means,

Treaty of Union, made to be to every one of the Peace, it.

I

so

be.

which consist

in

the Articles of a

a sufficient Security for the Perpetuity

have spared no Pains to invent them, and

I

believe

I

have done

A Proposal for Everlasting Peace Now, as on

the one side, those

who have read

the

first

(87) Sketches of the fourth

Discourse agree, that a Treaty which should be composed of such Articles,

would form that

sufficient Security,

so sought after

by

Sovereigns, and willing to Sign

they

those Princes would be so

all

much

the

the

more

as,

on the

Will of the

inclined to be

them, and to procure the Execution of them, the more evidently

have seen the Greatness of the Advantages they

shall

and

Politicians;

other side, the signing of those Articles depends solely upon

them:

We may

found

in

may

reap from

conclude, that on their side there will be no Impossibility

the Execution of the Project; and that the more they shall be

convinc'd of this Security, and these Advantages, the more easily they will be

brought to execute

it.

The whole

Project then

is

contain'd in this single

Argument. If the European Society, which

propos'd, can procure for all the Christian

is

Princes a sufficient Security for the Perpetuity of the Peace, both without their Dominions, there

is

none of them that will not find

the Treaty for the Establishment

Now

the

is

proposed,

and within

more advantageous

of that Society, than not to sign

European Society, which

Princes, a sufficient

it

to sign

it.

can procure, for

all the Christian

Security for the Perpetuity of the Peace both within and without

their Dominions.

Therefore there will be none of them but what will find to sign the

it

much more advantageous

Treaty for the Establishment of that Society, than not to sign

it.

The Major or the first Proposition, contains the Motives, and the Proof of it may be found in the third Discourse after the Preliminary Discourse, which I thought necessary, in order to dispose the Mind of the Reader to conceive the Force of the Demonstration. The Minor, or the second Proposition, contains the Means; the Proof of it may be found in the fourth Discourse. As for the last Proposition, or the Conclusion, that is the End that I propos'd to

my As

self in this

Work.

this Project

may

begin to be

known

in the

Courts of Europe, either

in

the middle, or towards the end of a War, or in the Conferences, or after the

Conclusion of a Peace, or even in the midst of a profound Peace, necessary to shew compendiously in the

those Occasions

it

would produce both

Peace, and a great desire to render

Having observ'd that

several

it

fifth

a great Facility in

perpetual,

it

was

Discourse, that upon any of

if it

concluding the

was concluded.

were of Opinion, that even though the

Sovereigns of Europe should one by one have sign'd the Treaty of Union, yet there would, in

all

appearance, remain some Difficulties, almost insur-

mountable, in the Formation of the Congress, and

and maintain such an Establishment:

I

in the

was oblig'd

Means

how

in order to

to begin

remove

this

Charles Irénée Castel,

(88)

Doubt, to propose,

useful, for the rendring the

Establishment more solid in

Difficulties,

which

Men may form

of the Establishment, are very Articles that

I

propose are

which the

thought there could be none propos'd more

I

each Member. All

for

Saint-Pierre

in the Sixth Discourse, several Articles, to

Sovereigns may agree: Not that

convenient

Abbé de

pretend to prove

I

it

self,

and more

that those feign'd

is,

to themselves, with respect to the Execution

far

from being insurmountable, since even the

sufficient

and that nothing

for that Execution,

hinders the Sovereigns from agreeing to them.

Such the Use

the Analysis, such the Order

is

the Fruit

have gather'd from

I

I

my

I

have follow'd

Meditations

in this

Work;

above four Years;

for

my

have made of the judicious Criticisms of

this is

this

Friends; and now,

is

if

ever any Body propos'd a Subject worthy to be attentively examin'd by the

most excellent Wits, and especially by the wisest Ministers and the best Princes,

may

it

Means how

be

said, that this

to procure to

greatest Felicity that a to

It is easie

all

is it;

since

it

treats of

no

less

than of the

the Sovereigns and Nations of Europe, the

new Establishment can

possibly ever procure them.

comprehend, that the more Methods

this Project shall carry

it may contribute now treating at Utrecht: For the Allies of the House of Austria desire Peace as much as we do; but they do not care for it, without sufficient Security for its Duration. And indeed, if we were to examin the Interest of those Allies in the present War, we should find, that it all turns upon two principal Heads: The First is a sufficient Security for the

in

it,

for rendring the Peace of Europe unalterable, the

to facilitate the Conclusion of that

which

more

is

Preservation of their Dominions against the great Power of the

which may,

France,

in time, find specious Pretences

tunities to

make Conquests upon them, and

a Religion

and Government

other

Head

is,

for

Revenue of England and

But what

a

though

to

it is

sufficient Securities

Holland.

can be found for the Weakest against the

weaken the Strongest; which

any of

him

The second

which

much

what

is

might give to the Weaker so

first is, if it

can be done,

either impossible, or ruinous;

is, sufficiently

a Force sufficiently superior,

his Force;

would be

is

that which the Allies follow in the present War, to arrive at their

Chimerical Equilibrium. to give

The

Commerce; whether that of those two Commerces consists above

Strongest? There are but two Systems for this; the sufficiently

Country

very great Aversion.

a sufficient Security for Liberty of

America, or that of the Mediterranean; in half the

to introduce into their

which they have

House of

and favourable Oppor-

a

I

to fortifie the

Weaker, and

without depriving the Stronger of

propose to do by a Treaty of Society, that

new Augmentation

of very strong Allies, and

the stronger, as they would be

much

who

more closely united;

A Proposal for Everlasting Peace

(89)

not to deprive the Stronger of any thing he possesses, but to take from him the

Power of ever disturbing the

Commerce

their

my

In

others, either in their Possessions at

home, or

in

abroad.

second Draught

took in

I

the

all

my

Kingdoms of the World; but

Friends observ'd to me, that even though in following Ages most of the

Sovereigns of Asia and Africa might desire to be receiv'd into the Union, yet this Prospect

would seem

the Readers, and

remote and so

so

cast an Air of Impossibility

full

make some

believe, that tho'

to the Christian part of Europe, the Execution of

therefore

I

it

Union of Europe would

all

it

were even restrain'd only

it

would be

suffice to preserve Europe

would be powerful enough

who

in spight of those It

would

it

still

impossible;

subscribed to their Opinion, and that the more willingly, consider-

ing, that the

and that

of Difficulties, that

upon the whole Project; which would disgust

might establish

should endeavour to disturb

in the Indies,

reigns of that Country, and,

always in Peace;

to maintain its Frontiers it.

and Commerce,

The General Council

would soon become the Arbiter of the Sove-

by

Authority, hinder them from taking up

its

Arms; the Credit of the Union would be much the greater amongst them, as they would be assur'd, that it only desired Securities for its Commerce; that that

aim

Commerce cannot but be very advantageous at

those

any Conquests; and that

who were Enemies Reader

If the

is

it

will

make

and ask himself what Effect the Proofs sufficient,

he

may go

proceed, either from his

them; that

it

does not

to Peace.

willing to form a sound

Opinion, necessary that he should

them

to

never look upon any as Enemies, but

still

on; but

if

Judgment of the Work,

a stop at the I

it is,

in

my

end of every Discourse,

bring have upon him. If he thinks

he does not think them

meeting with

Difficulties, or

from

read some Passages with Attention enough; and nothing

is

so,

That may

his not

having

more common,

even with the most thoughtful Readers, than sometimes to want Attention. In the

first

Case he need only make

a

Note of his Doubts, and observe, whether

they be not sufficiently clear'd up in the following part of the Work. In the second Case, the only

Remedy

well understand; otherwise he

make

a

Judgment

sufficient

to

make

more

is,

to read over again the Passages he did not

would

after a superficial

act like a Judge, that should report

Attention to the principal Evidences of the Cause. a Concatenation

easily

and

Reading, and without having given I

have endeavour'd

between the Thoughts, that the Mind might the

comprehend them.

Now

those

who

are not attentive

enough

to

perceive this Concatenation, can never be sensible of the Force of particular

Arguments, and much

less

of the Force of a Demonstration, which results

from the Assemblage of those Arguments.

Charles Irénée Cartel,

(90) I

it is

own

the Title gives a Prejudice to the

Saint-Pierre

Work; but

as

am

I

persuaded, that

not impossible to find out Means sufficient and practicable to settle an

Everlasting Peace I

Abbé de

among

Christians; and even believe, that the

have thought of are of that Nature;

I

imagin'd, that ifl

my

Means which

self first

seem'd

to be uncertain, as to the Solidity of those Means, and doubtful of the

them, the Readers, tho' never so well disposM

Possibility of executing

favour of the System, might really doubt of it too, and that their

go further than

fulness might, perhaps,

with things, in which the Design

is

Undertaker

who

is

who

Therefore

is I

not at

It is it is

not

with

himself seems uncertain of the

hope to make good

in the

all

Work

likely to persuade others to

chose rather to venture being thought

ridiculous in assuming an affirmative Stile,

by

to Action, as

himself seems to doubt of the Solidity of an important

join in the Enterprize.

I

Men

in

Doubt-

not likely to persuade the Passenger to imbark; the

which he proposed to undertake,

that

affected Doubtfulness.

to persuade

things of pure Speculation; the Pilot

Success of his Voyage,

my

real

and promising

Body of the Work, than

in the Title all

to run the risque,

Modesty and Uncertainty, of doing the least wrong to the making Men of Sense look upon this Project as whimsical and

a false Air of

Publick, by

impossible to be put in execution, to see

it

one Day executed.

when

I,

my self, form'd it, in full Expectation

MORELLY

Domain

Nature's

In French eighteenth-century thought, Morelly

was long

a

cipher whose

very existence was doubted and whose works were ascribed to Diderot

and other

Though

philosophes.

his identity is

shadowy,

his ideas

had

a

powerful impact on Utopian thinkers like Babeuf, Fourier, and, further afield,

Farm in Massachusetts. Morelly was the among them Essay on the Human Mind

the founders of Brook

author of a number of treatises,

Human Heart

(1743), Essay on the

Heart or Treatise on Basiliade (1753).

the Qualities

This

Brahman philosopher

last,

(1745), The Prince, the Delights of the

of a Great King (1751), and of a two-volume

pretending to be a manuscript of the celebrated

Pilpai,

described in purple phrases an egalitarian,

vegetarian, utilitarian, and sexually free society under a wise and benevolent autocrat.

Two

years later, Morelly published his most famous and

influential book, Nature's Code (1755).

There he expounded the doctrine

that moral evil was not inherent in

man but was

the consequence of

maleficent institutions. Renouncing the poetic fictions of his earlier work,

he drafted a

set of laws for

Private property

but the

later

is

an ideal and virtuous communist society.

banished in the Basiliade as well as in Nature's Code;

book substituted representative government

for enlightened

despotism, and a certain austerity for the bounties of a tropical paradise.

91

Engraving from Naufrage

des Isles Flottantes, Paris,

1753.

The Abundant Life*

In the

and

bosom of a

vast sea, mirror of that profound

bosom,

rules the universe, in the

of threatening

reefs,

there

lies

a rich

I

wisdom which embraces

say, of a vast beach, forever calm, free

and

fertile

continent. There, under a pure

and serene sky, nature spreads out her most precious treasures. There she has not, as in our sad parts, locked

from which insatiable greed to enjoy them.

There

tries to

lie fertile

them away

and broad

cultivation, bring forth from their

in the

bowels of the earth,

wrest them without ever having a chance

bosom

fields

all

which, with the help of light

that can render this

life

delightful.

The plains are embellished with the most magnificent carpets of abundance. They are cut by mountains whose aspect is no less agreeable and whose slopes are covered with trees ever green, laden with delicious fruits, ever reborn

and ever heralded by flowers.

On

the

summit of these mountains there

rise

with majesty the incorruptible cedar and the towering pine. Their lofty

many

heads seem to hold up the vault of the heavens, as though they were so

columns on which

rests a ceiling decorated

foot of this resplendent scenery there flow

with azurite and gems. At the

abundant

reservoirs, a multitude

of brooks and rivers. Their limpid waters with a gentle

murmur

lave the

sands of gold and pearls whose brilliance they enhance. These pu/e waters are laden with aromatic

and perfumed essences. Through an

infinity of secret

canals they bear the source of their fecundity toward the roots of the plants.

Their creations nourished by these pleasant perfumes diffuse them in a salubrious atmosphere uncorrupted

by those malignant

influences, baleful

vessels of infirmities, of painful maladies that are harbingers of death.

fortunate site was the habitation of a people whose innocent ways

worthy of their

rich possession. Pitiless Property,

inundate the rest of the world, was earth as a nursing mother to to those of her children

who

obligated to participate in

From de

Morelly, Naufrage

V Indien par Mr.

all,

feel

who

unknown

mother of all the crimes that

to them.

They regarded

the

presents her breast without distinction

the pangs of hunger. All consider themselves

making her

fertile,

des Isles Flottantes, ou Basiliade

m******

This

made them

(Messina,

i.e.

37-43; translated by the editors.

93

but no one would say

du Célèbre

Paris, 1753),

I,

Pilpai.

:

"Here

Poème Héroïque, Traduit 1, 17-20, 32-3,

pp. 4-7, 8-1

Morelly

(94) is

my

field,

my

ox,

my

house."

The

laborer looks on serenely as another

harvests what he had planted, and he will find elsewhere the abundant satisfaction of his needs.

God, they If

say, created

many men

only that they might help one another.

he had intended them to be isolated one from another, like trees and plants,

they too would draw their nourishing juices directly from the earth. Provi-

dence would not have

them deprived of anything. The son would not

left

have needed the help of the father and the father would not tender solicitude which nature prompts in him. Finally,

feel for his

son that

men would have

all

been born armed with everything needed for their preservation, and instinct

would have immediately showed them

The

its use.

intentions of the Deity are not at

all

equivocal.

His bounties in the same treasury. All hasten,

one draws there according to

his needs,

all

He

has enclosed

are eager to open

all

Each

it.

without worrying about whether

another takes more than he does. Travelers

who quench

their thirst at a

spring are not jealous of one who, more parched, swallows in great draughts

many and

Does one want to broaden the banks

glassfuls of the refreshing liquid.

of this precious spring? their

work

is

Such were the believed himself

Many arms

are joined to carry out the task painlessly

liberally rewarded. first

The same

.

.

gifts.

society.

in concert

No

one

by every-

.

fields.

Stimulated by friendly rivalry, he considered himself

happy who traced the greatest number of furrows. friends, that

come

happy

Spring returned, one saw these people joyously flock to increase the

of their

fertility

true of Nature's

this

exempt from labor which, undertaken

body, was thus rendered gay and easy.

When

is

and enduring maxims of

I

have contributed most to the

"How

common

pleased

utility!"

Was

I

am,

my

the time

to gather in the fruits of an abundant harvest? Countless hands piled

up the treasured crops into enormous mountains. followed by games, dances, country feasts.

copious variety of delicious

fruits.

The

were

All these labors

succulent meals consisted of a

Keen appetite greatly enhanced enjoyment

of them. Finally, the days devoted to these occupations were days of merry-

making and riotous

rejoicing, succeeded

by

a

and gaudy pleasures, have never

sweet repose which we,

after

our

tasted.

In exchange for the aid he gave the laborer, the ox received full recompense

and seemed to share with

his

master the

fruits

of his

toil.

Free after his services,

he did not have to fear that, with black ingratitude, a barbarous knife would spill

his

blood to thank the Deity for an abundant harvest. No,

it

never

occurred to these people that one could honor the Author of life by the cruel destruction of some living being. Their pure and innocent customs did not

Nature's Domain

them

allow

to entertain the notion that the

(95)

Supreme Being would ever be

angered against humans. The terrible noise of thunder, which everywhere else brings fear

of an

irate

and spreads terror

in guilty hearts,

was heard not

as the majestic resonance of a beneficent

Power, but

as the voice

Sovereign

who

sometimes manifested His grandeur.

These gentle and truly human people were custom of feeding on the with the incites

the timid

against

ewe

also ignorant of the savage

of animals. In their veins never flowed, along

elements of corruption and death, that furious passion that

fatal

man

flesh

man

furnishing

to the sweetness

himself.

The

wool not

its

heifer

paying tribute with

for useless

adornment but

and comfort of repose, did not

its

they and their

fear that

tender nurslings were fated to become the prey of a cruel voracity.

whose varied song charms away the

fatigue of

many

milk and

to contribute

The

labors, the birds

birds

whose

loves and industry herald the seasons, did not have to dread the attacks of

those terrible machines for which ingenious wickedness has invented wings.

became an

Iron was never sharpened for these murderous purposes.

It

ment

for life's

The

gale,

which

itself

with obliging us and did not have to tremble that

commodiousness, not

tries to please us

would be torn from

it.

The

for its destruction.

with the sweetness of

its

melody, could busy dear

its

little

ones

dog, that affectionate and faithful animal, was not

trained to afford his master the frightful spectacle of innocence crushed efforts

instru-

tender nightin-

by the

of an unjust fury. Even the fiercest animals seemed to imitate the

peaceful

humans and

to expect from their generosity

own instinct denied them. The precious essence embedded

what the weakness of

their

different

ways with milk and honey,

in the fruits,

wheat, prepared in a thousand

and the most succulent vegetables

formed the nourishment of these happy people. Their organs lubricated by gentle and soothing liquids preserved their vigor and their suppleness until

an extreme old age, without a trace of wrinkles.

We

depopulate the earth and

the sea to satisfy our taste depraved by intemperance. Greed drives us to seek at the far corners of the

We

in

deep draughts.

beneath

its

flowers the precipitate strides toward death,

enjoy a treacherous sensuality that hides

hastens. Furious against ourselves, entrails.

Thus the

among

whose course

are heedlessly tearing at our

comes to attack

us,

it

own

announced by

these wise mortals, the approaches of death are

like the gentle relaxation of sleep.

frighten them.

we

merciless Destroyer

agonizing pains. But

we

world pernicious and subtle poisons, which

swallow

And

so the passage into death does not

Morelly

(96)

O

Love, these peoples gave themselves over without fear or sense of crime to your delightful transports. Other nations pay homage to their ferocious

by

divinities

tive

These people honored the Genera-

spilling the blood of victims.

Power of the universe by augmenting the number of its worshipers. they concealed your sweet mysteries during years too tender

It is true,

initiation into

begin to make your

ardors

first

young

felt,

no one treated their desires

as criminal.

recognize in her daughter the

first

unknown. A

for

them. But as soon as they reached that springtime when you fires,

and

loving mother was pleased to

uneasiness of an onrush of feeling hitherto

father regarded with the

made on

that the charms of beauty

hearts stirred with your

A

same

satisfaction the first impressions

his son.

Both of them secretly watched these

them but

lovers, not to restrain

to

enjoy the sight of their innocent and naive caresses, their tender speeches,

and

finally the

touching spectacle of their mutual transports. Neither the

arrogance of a chimerical aristocracy nor the interests of avarice fixed distinctions of status. Neither hypocritical

modesty nor an elaborate decorum

dis-

figured the charms of beauty with a pile of ornate rags. Beauty gloried in

appearing stark naked, embellished only with the adornments of nature. struck by

They

its

nascent charms, two young hearts

did not blush to survey with eager eyes

prompted by

love, led

them

all

felt

When

taken with each other.

of the wonders that nature,

to notice for the first time.

"Whence comes,"

Why at the sight of this lovely girl should feel so powerfully moved? Why do my eyes, accustomed to seeing her without astonishment, suddenly notice so many attractions? Why are my eyes filled with a fire that spreads so sweet an emotion through my sudden change that

said a lover, "this

I

feel?

I

The

senses?"

perturbation. at

asked the same questions of the author of her

girl

she says to him with a tender smile, "do

your appearance wherever

myself with not, at

astonished

"Why,"

I

my

may

my

turn

steps

— when

I

feel

am

such joy

diverting

companions, when, excited by a reverie whose cause

go to muse

myself

I

I

in

in the crystal

this

of

grove or near that fountain? Why, as

its

waters,

am

I

know

I I

look

so pleased to find myself pretty

is between us? Whence comes this sweet seizure that I feel you amble past these bushes, you suddenly surprise me at the

because of what

when,

as

moment when I long

for

your return? By what secret charm do our two hearts

seem to move together?" At these delightful notes, the lover arms of his beloved. He covers her with ardent

kisses.

He

flics

into the

tenderly presses her

against his heart. Their lips blending, they breathe sighs softer than the most exquisite perfume.

"Stop!"

cries the

It

seems that their souls seek to exchange their abodes. "Do not let your

beloved with a weak and faltering voice,

Nature's Domain transports interrupt the joy that curiosity.

I

you redouble your

caresses

.

.

conversing with you. Satisfy

feel in

I

was about to ask you why

this difference that

Ah, desist or

.

(97)

I

Nature

shall expire.

I

.

.

.

my

But oh

pleasures

feel

!

I

have never known before. They are so violent they have an admixture of pain.

A

my

through

secret ardor spreads

veins. Cease kindling a fire that will

become a torment. But what are you doing,

cruel one?

.

me of my life? Do you wish dying. What bewitching delights Ah, I am loves you? Do you

me.

seek to rob

.

Your frenzy

.

to .

.

frightens

devour the one who

Renew your caresses,

.

dearly beloved. Oh, that these tender ties might be everlasting! But you love

me no

You have brought me

more.

moment. Oh! You

in a

me

these delights only to deprive

My

are aroused again.

joy

is

utter.

lover, but slacken the pace of your transports. Savor these precious

Ah

...

Ah

...

I

myself.

.

Go

.

on,

and

*

Never did

a

young beauty blush

to avoid the appearance of citizen to the fatherland,

cherished proof of her precious

gift.

let

moments.

our two souls merge." *

*

becoming

at

of them

Continue, dear

a

mother, or do criminal deeds

She considered herself fortunate to give

it.

and gloried

first love.

in

Her

a

recognizing the true author of that

lover was no less pleased with this

Either he became her husband, or, his passion subsided, he

looked on calmly as his mistress passed into another's arms.

The one to flesh

children of several mothers were equally loved

whom

he was in fact

wed

their father.

The own

and blood. She was devoted to the sons of those who had preceded her

the affections of a husband

now

foster children that she adopted.

among

it.

She took

worthy of the tender devotion and gratitude of the

care that she should be

for discord

in

entirely hers. She considered herself heiress

mother and the privileges attaching to

to the glorious title of

and

by

cherished them as though they were her

The

baneful reasons for hating a stepmother

brothers had no place in these happy families.

The infamous terms

incest, adultery,

and prostitution were unknown.

These nations had no idea of such crimes.

A

sister received her brother's

tender embraces without conceiving any horror of them. Sometimes they

strengthened the

ties

of blood with those of love. Age, respect, desires

appeased or abated, and not fear of punishment, prevented a widow from accepting the caresses of her son

—

new

them the

caresses of which she had been deprived by the death of her husband. Fathers were not smitten with the growing charms of their daughters. They preferred to see their dear offspring form

branches, and to recount to

to tie

them again onto

a

pleasures of their

first

trunk already grown feeble with age.

years, than

Morelly

(98)

Although there reigned among these peoples the equilibrium of perfect equality, nevertheless, a son recognizing his father as the source of his

existence and the protector of his tender years, feeling himself indebted for

the development of his intellect to the wise precepts of this benefactor,

requited this gentle solicitude with a respectful love. the worshiper of her charms, did not

A

wife, submissive to

she had discharged

feel

all

her obligations

even with the most ardent caresses, the most assiduous attention, to the author of her happiness. As for the husband, he was the most esteemed

who suggested

citizens

of

life,

and whose

a better

fertile

good deeds were the only respect,

way

among his fellow

of procuring for the nation the comforts

genius invented the swiftest expedients. In short, titles

of nobility. Gratitude, friendship, admiration,

and esteem were the kinds of homage paid that true grandeur.

Nevertheless, the

first

rank was yielded in those countries to an ancient

family which had preserved a paternal authority over

stemmed

this

numerous people. The branches of that

all

the rest.

From

it

trunk respected

prolific

the antiquity of their stock, not with the absurd prejudice that

among

other

peoples pays deference to an obscure and legendary past going back through the centuries, but because the whole nation was also indebted to that family for

many men of skill and genius, innovators of practices most useful to society. Thus it was not any fancied birthright, or pretended uninterrupted

succession, that entitled this family to preeminence.

Only

its

benevolence,

wisdom, prudence, love of the people, were the unshakable foundations of its

supreme power. These admirable gave

it luster.

And

qualities,

always jealously preserved, alone

the art of winning the hearts of the people was

all

of

its

statecraft.

The

heroes of this line transmitted from father to son the seductive secrets

of this beguiling art, and added to the discoveries of their ancestors what

they culled from their

own

experience.

They

did not look upon their peoples

as a heritage of a throng of slaves that had fallen to the lot of one master to

serve

humbly

his

arrogant caprices.

They

contrary, to be the legacy of their peoples.

immortal father of

believed

The

themselves, on

the

Prince called himself the

his country. Indeed, the ties of

blood have no greater

strength than the affection linking this monarch and his subjects. That happy predilection had roots in their hearts as deep as those of paternal and love.

The

Prince, then, not

by vain ostentation or the heedless

short-lived benevolence, but

by principle and almost innate

most accessible and most human of all mortals. His his favor

were not limited to

a

few hundred base

considered himself only half a monarch,

if

but one

filial

activity of a

habit,

was the

solicitude, his attention,

flatterers.

He would have

member

of the family he

Nature's Domain

headed had not

felt

the effect of his goodness.

(99)

To

inspire respect he had no

need to see parade before him the dazzling and tumultuous

pomp

of the other

kings of the earth, or to hide his weaknesses or vices in the solitude of those

cavernous tombs called palaces.

maxims of

sophistical

images of

a

He

did not have to inculcate, by fear or the

a tyrannical morality, the notion that princes are the

"They

To

Deity terrible and dreadful rather than beneficent.

them

orders executed with despatch, he had only to couch are useful to you, dear children of

my

have

in these

his

terms:

ancestors and myself. " There

was no need to employ violence where crime was unknown and where obedience was the outcome of desire quickened by

The

functions of the

taken, and at

monarchy were

what times,

for the public

good.

It

what measures should be was only a question of

among whom constancy and unanimity always

regulating activities of people prevailed.

zeal.

to indicate

These peoples knew the importance of this truth

All the parts of

:

body love one another; but when it is a matter of helping one another, if they could act without the directions of the head, they would do so neither usefully nor opportunely. The hand would fidget as it came to the foot to the same

perform that function; and the eye would close when

No

it

had to guide the hand.

balance, no accord, no order in the animal functions.

they

said,

Thus,

command body

among just as

of a

a

people without a

one sees the rigging of a vessel move,

knowing

common

so

it

would

be,

as if enchanted, at the

responding to the voice of the Prince, this

pilot, so,

so well organized, animated with the

unison for the

And

chief.

same

spirit,

worked

in

admirable

Was it time to reap an abundant harvest, Was it the moment to gather certain fruits,

good.

to

sow some field? to adopt some new means of mitigating the difficulties of these tasks, of regulating the number of those who had to be assigned to each occupation? The decisions cultivate or

of the Prince were religiously observed. His orders were respected and carried

by word of mouth with

to the outermost limits of the empire.

As he was the moving

of every work plan, every regulation, every improvement, so was

spirit

all

sports, rejoicings, pleasures.

He

it

also

decreed the time of their celebration

and their duration; he prescribed the means of making them pleasant, imaginative, and diverting through varied and impressive spectacles.

Did some one have kindness. nation,

The

praise

a useful opinion to propose?

and approval of the Prince,

were an inestimable prize

for

He was in

him who was thus honored. That sign

of favor was the more remarkable for being limited to him

and

it

inspired the onlookers to

for the public

good.

listened to with

the presence of the

who

make themselves worthy of

it

deserved

by

it,

their zeal

(ioo)

Morelly

These happy kings were not surrounded by tunate flatterers. efforts

The

anxieties,

a

crowd of

slaves, or

of a power that can only force people to obey and respect

troubles of a lofty station that seems bent on violating tions of humanity, the fear of a

impor-

the black chagrin, created by constant

sword wielded or

all

a poison

it,

the

the natural inclina-

poured by the hand

of a criminal never ruffled the calm of their brows. Their cherished persons

were not escorted by

a

numerous guard, who could not hinder death from

toppling their thrones.

A

Model Code of Laws*

SOURCE OF THE ERRORS OF MORALISTS ANCIENT AND MODERN; HOW THET COULD HAVE RECOGNIZED AND AVOIDED THEM I

have tried to reveal

this first link in the chain of error,

this first point of deviation

makers distant from the truth. Listen to the

you

as

lot

of them, they will posit for

an indisputable principle and the foundation of

following important proposition:

some of them

and to make evident

which has always kept our moralists and law-

Man

is

their systems the

all

born vicious and wicked.

Not

quite,

'

say, but the circumstances of

inevitably predispose

him

to perverseness.

none of them imagined that

it

life

Accepting

world, bis very make-up,

in this

anyone to propound and resolve

this crucial

most

this in its

could be otherwise; thus

problem

it

literal sense,

did not occur to

:

TO FIND A SITUATION IN WHICH IT WOULD BE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAN TO BE DEPRAVED, OR WICKED, OR AT LEAST WHERE THERE WOULD BE AS LITTLE EVIL AS POSSIBLE Failing to formulate or solve this problem, our instructors lost sight

of the one

first

would have disclosed an

all

initial error.

moderns found themselves •From

cause of

still

evil,

among

the ancients

the one obvious means which

Proceeding along the same path, our

further from a

first

Morelly, Code de la nature, ed. Gilbert Chinard (Paris: 150-62, 285-328; translated by the editors.

truth which would have

Raymond

Clavrcuil, 1050), PP-

Nature's Domain

made them perceive

( 101 )

apply to them. With the aid of this insight, dissected the

official

precepts ineffectual, their

avowed ends;

and lineage of the

clearly the real origin, nature,

common

and the ineffectiveness of the remedies which

its

in

say, they could easily

I

morality, and proved that

hypotheses were

its

maxims contradictory, and short,

demonstrated

vices,

morality claims to

in

have

false, its

means opposed to

its

the flaws in every

detail

portion of this monstrous corpus.

As with mathematical equations, such reasoning, by avoiding and eliminating the

is,

Following

sought

and the dubious, would

false

emerge, that

a

this

method,

I

decay where

it

human

which they,

condition, have

alas,

quantity

begun by imagining the cause of that

which they claimed was

of these chatterboxes,

who

its

repeated themselves endlessly, ever

their first lessons; the substance appeared to

that; their laws, their regulations, too wise

them too

fact

one of

pure, too noble for

and estimable

for

anyone to dare

throw the blame

lay this profound grievance at their door; they preferred to as

for the evil

cause.

thought of suspecting that the cause of man's corruption was in

on nature. And so man

who

regarded as an inevitable

never resided, and should have taken as a remedy

precisely that poison

None

make the unknown

found that in every age our wise men,

a cure for the corruption

attribute of the

finally

system of ethics truly susceptible of the clearest proofs.

they fashioned him, completely wanting in meta-

physical and moral ideas alike and simply equipped with the proper faculties to receive these ideas,

man

in the first

moments of

his existence, in truth

some impetuous

totally insensitive to every impulse rather than excited to

passion,

according to most of our philosophers, pretty well endowed with

is,

number of vices mixed with a few innate virtues along with ideas of the same Even before seeing the light of day, he carries in his breast the fatal seeds of corruption which will move him to seek his own good at the expense of a

ilk.

the whole species and the entire universe

Were out that,

I

if possible.

to overlook that specious absurdity,

far

I

would

and so permit the burgeoning of a few

wholesome

inclinations, they

—and to suffocate

cultivating.

in

I

say,

roots, according

from encouraging

have done precisely everything needed to

plant the seed of vice in the heart of

never there

whose

fragile virtues

to the learned doctors, are not completely rotten; far,

these

be right to point

still

from seeking means to uproot or repress these wicked proclivities

man and make

him the

it

sprout

bit of virtue that

— vice that was

they fancy they are

(i02)

Morelly

MODEL LEGISLATION IN ACCORD WITH NATURE'S DESIGN I

am

giving this outline oflaws by

since unfortunately

it is

way

of an appendix and as an excursus,

only too true that in our day

it

would be

practically

impossible to establish such a Republic.

On

the basis of this text, which needs no long commentaries, every

intelligent reader will be able to judge from

would

men.

deliver

first legislators

my

have

I

I

am

those

that

it

how much

my

object

is

distress these laws

would have been easy

to act so that the peoples of the earth

proofs are convincing

enough

shown

just

knew no I

have courage

the truth, without concerning myself over the outcries of

tell

who

if

achieved.

not so rash as to pretend to reform human-kind; but to

for the

other laws:

are afraid of

or in abandoning

it

because they are interested in deluding our species

it

to the errors

by which they themselves have been duped.

FUNDAMENTAL AND INVIOLABLE LAWS Which would

cut off at the root the vices and all the evils of society. I

Nobody

own anything

will

things which he

is

Every Citizen

in the society individually or as a landlord except the

currently using for his needs, his pleasures, or his daily work.

will

be a public person, supported, maintained, and employed

at

public expense. Ill

For

his part

every Citizen

will contribute to the public

weal in accordance with his

strength, his talents, and his age; these will determine his obligations, in conformity

with the

Distributive Laws.

DISTRIBUTIVE OR ECONOMIC LAWS I

In order that everything

may be

carried out in an orderly fashion, without con-

fusion or dispute, an entire Nation will be counted

and

Cities,

and

if its

population

is

and divided into Families, Tribes,

very large, into Provinces. II

Each Tribe

will consist

number of Tribes, and

of the same number of Families, each City of the same

so on. Ill

As the Nation grows

in population, the

increased, but only until the increment

persons as the others. SEE

is

Tribes and Cities will be proportionately form new Cities with as many

sufficient to

F of the Edile and XII of the

Conjugal Laws.

Nature's Domain

( 103 )

IV All civil divisions involving things or persons will ten

and

multiples; that

its

is

to say,

all

be made

in

terms of the number

enumerations, every distribution by groups,

every distributive measurement, and so on, will consist of decimal parts.

v

On

the basis of tens or hundreds, and so on, of Citizens, there will be in each occupa-

tion workers

whose number

is

in proportion to the difficulty

of their labor and what

they are obliged to supply to the people of each City, without wearing themselves out. VI

To first

regulate the distribution of the products of nature and art,

that there are

some

long time, and that

and universal use;

durable things, that

among

all

it

will

be noted

those which can be preserved or used a

the products of that sort there are: (1) Those of daily

Those of

(2)

is,

universal, but not continual use; (3)

Some

that are

continually necessary only to someone, and from time to time to everyone; (4) Others that are never of continual or general use, such as those catering simply to pleasure or

individual taste.

Now,

for distribution,

some

life

and

all

on

for carrying

these durable products will be collected in public warehouses

daily or at stated times to

all

Citizens, for the ordinary needs of

their various occupations, others to people

who make

use of

them. VII It will

be noted in the second place that there are products of nature or art which

are nondurable; these things will be brought to the marketplace

those

who

and distributed by

are in charge of cultivating or preparing them.

VIII

These products of every kind in accordance

use them. to the

with the number of Citizens

Among

same

be counted, and their quantities will be regulated

will

rules,

in

each City, or the number of those

who

the various products, those which can be preserved will, according

be publicly allotted, and their surplus held in reserve.

IX If there

should be a deficit of luxury items of universal or particular use, so that a

single Citizen

would be deprived,

all

distribution will be suspended, or else such

items will be supplied only in the tiniest amount, until the shortage will have been

remedied; but great care will be exercised that such accidents do not

befall things

which

are universally necessary.

x

The

surplus provisions of each City, of each Province, will be channeled into those

that are threatened

by

a dearth, or will

be reserved for future needs. XI

According to the

Inviolable

Citizens; thus, if anyone needs

Laws, nothing will be sold or bartered

some

among

Fellow-

herbs, vegetables, or fruits, he will go and take

what he requires for one day only at the marketplace, where things are brought by those who grow them. If someone needs bread, he will go and get a supply sufficient for a certain length of time from the man who makes it, and the latter will find in the public warehouse the flour he needs for the amount of bread he is obliged to prepare

Morelly

(104) one or several days. The person

for

who

fashions

and he

who

needs a piece of clothing will get

in turn will take the fabric

from the one

from him

it

who makes

and he raw material from the warehouse where it has been brought by those who gather it. And thus with everything else which will be distributed to each Head of a Family for his use and that of his children. it,

it,

will get the

XII

Nation succours a neighboring or foreign Nation with the products of its countryside, this commerce alone will be effected through exchange and through the If a

who will declare everything publicly; but scrupulous care be taken to see that such commerce does not introduce any private property into the Republic, even the slightest amount.

intermediary of Citizens will

AGRARIAN LAWS The

territory of each city will be as

compact and regular

as possible, not held as a

landed estate, but just adequate for the subsistence of its inhabitants and the employ-

ment of those responsible

for cultivating the soil. II

If a

City happens to be located on barren land, only the arts will be practiced there,

and neighboring

Cities will provide sustenance for its inhabitants. Nevertheless that

City, like the others, will have

its

Farm

Corps, either to

make

its

land yield as

much

as

possible, or to help in cultivating the lands of neighbor Cities.

in Every Citizen, without exception, from the age of twenty to twenty-five, obliged to work at farming, unless some infirmity excuses him from it.

will

be

IV In

each City this Agricultural Youth Corps will be composed of Laborers,

Gardeners, Shepherds, Woodcutters, Pioneers, Wagoners and Boatmen, Carpenters,

Masons, Blacksmiths, and other workmen

in Building Trades.

Young people who have

worked in one of the first six capacities will be able to quit after a stated period and resume whatever they had previously been trained for, or remain in agriculture as long as their strength permits, see Police Laws III and V.

EDILE As

in

each City the Tribes will hardly exceed,

as the Tribes will

will

have about the same extent,

Around

certain

in accordance

with

Distributive

halls.

number of Families,

will

be the public warehouses

all

the Cities

Lav IL

a great square of regular shape, buildings of uniform

be erected; these

meeting

if at all, a

never exceed a certain number by more than one,

and

will

LAWS

and attractive style and the public

for all provisions

Nature's Domain

The

(

I0 5)

quarters of the City will extend in regular fashion from this enclosure; they

be of equal dimensions and shape, and regularly divided by streets.

will

IV

Each Tribe dwelling;

all

occupy

will

a quarter,

and each Family

a spacious

and comfortable

these buildings will be alike.

v All the quarters of a City will be so arranged that they can be enlarged if necessary

without disturbing the regularity; such increases

will

not exceed definite limits.

VI

Some

away and forming

distance

the workshops in

than ten

;

for it

all

galleries

around the quarters of the City

the mechanical trades for

was provided

in Distributive

all

work corps whose number

Law

V that

in

is

will

be

greater

each City there would be

only a sufficient number of workers for every mechanical trade.

VII

Outside

ring of workshops will be constructed another

this

designed to house persons employed in agriculture and

The

its

row of buildings

dependent occupations.

buildings will also be used as workshops for these occupations, as barns, store-

rooms, mangers, toolsheds, always accommodated to the needs of the particular City. VIII

At some distance beyond all these circles, a spacious and commodious building will be put up on the most healthful site. In it any sick Citizen will find lodging and care.

IX

On

another side there will be a comfortable shelter for

all

infirm and decrepit

Citizens.

x

On

another side, in the least agreeable and most deserted spot, a building will be

constructed that

is

surrounded by high walls and

is

divided into several small rooms,

Here will be locked up those who deserve time, see the Penal Laws.

closed with iron railings.

from society

for a

to be isolated

XI

Nearby

will

be the walled cemetery, which will hold individual buildings of very

strong stonework, cavernous structures that are rather spacious and heavily barred, to shut in forever

and

finally

entomb

Citizens

who

deserve

civil

death, that

is,

to be

forever excluded from society, see the Penal Laws.

XII In each City

the

Work Corps

all

buildings in general will be constructed, maintained, or rebuilt by

assigned to Architecture.

XIII

The

cleanliness of the Cities

and of the public thoroughfares

will ordinarily

be

maintained by the Pioneer and Driver Corps; they will also be responsible for provisioning the warehouses and arranging their goods. When there is some extraordinary need,

(io6)

Morelly

who

are occupied strictly with tilling the

all

those

in

some work on the construction or

soil

help out the others by putting

repair of the public roads

and on the aqueducts.

POLICE LAWS i

occupations the oldest and at the same time most experienced will take their turn in accordance with seniority in directing five or ten of their comrades for five days; In

all

and these supervisors

will distribute their

own work

load fairly

among

the others.

II

In each occupational corps there will be a Master for ten or

twenty workers, whose

be to train them, to inspect their work, and to report on their diligence and conduct to the Corps Chief, who will hold office for a year; the Masters will be task

it

will

permanent, and

will take turns at

being Corps Chief.

in

No

one can be a Master

until a year has elapsed after he finishes his agricultural

service and returns to his first occupation, in other words, until the

end of his twenty-

sixth year.

IV In any occupation, a person

members of

who makes

an important discovery will share

it

with

and thenceforward he will be a Master even if he has not yet reached the proper age, and he will be designated Corps Chief for the following year; the rotation will be interrupted only in this case and will be resumed thereafter. all

the

his Corps,

v At the age of ten, every Citizen will begin to learn the occupation for which he feels some inclination and which he seems capable of performing, without being pushed into it; at fifteen or eighteen he will marry; from twenty to twenty-five he will be engaged in some branch of farming; at twenty-six he will be a Master, in his first trade if he resumes it, or, if he remains in agriculture, in some craft connected with it; see Agrarian Laws III and IF. But if he happens to embrace any other sort of occupation, then he can be a Master only at the age of thirty. At forty, every Citizen who has never been convicted of an offense will become a Worker-at-Will that is, without being exempt from work, he will be able to choose to whom he is subordinate, and ;

perform only the tasks which he sets

will

for himself;

he will be master of his hours of

repose.

VI

The

infirm and decrepit aged will be comfortably lodged, fed, and maintained in

the public shelter provided for that purpose in each City according to Edile All sick Citizens,

without exception,

will also

be

moved

to the

common

Law

IX.

residence that

has been reserved for them, and will be cared for with the same meticulousness and cleanliness as in the

bosom of

their Families,

and without distinction or preference.

be particularly concerned with proper management and service in these houses, and will see to it that they are not wanting in anything necessary or agreeable, whether for the restoration of health, the progress of convales-

The

Senate of each

Town

cence, or finally to while

will

away the tedium of infirmity.

Nature's Domain

(

I07)

VII

The what

is

Chiefs of all the Trades will

fix

the hours of rest and of work, and will prescribe

to be done.

VIII

Every will

fifth

day

will

be set aside as

a public

day of rest;

be divided into seventy-three equal parts; there will be

once in the year, to which a day should be added, see

for that a

purpose the year

double day of rest only

Distributive

Law

IF.

IX Public celebrations will always begin on a public restday and will last a total of six days.

x These celebrations starts, after the

will take place just before

ploughing begins, before the harvest

gathering and stacking of fruits of all sorts, and at

New

Year's; on this

last

occasion marriages will be solemnized, and City and Corps Chiefs will take

SEE

the

office.

Laws of Government.

SUMPTUARY LAWS Every Citizen

at the

age of thirty will dress as he pleases but without great ostenta-

tion; similarly he will be fed in the

bosom of

his

Family, neither intemperately nor

law imposes on Senators and Chiefs the duty of excess, and of setting an example of moderation themselves. lavishly; this

From

ten to thirty years of age,

young people of each trade

strictly repressing

will

any

be clad alike in the

same materials, in outfits that are clean, but ordinary and appropriate for their work. Each Corps will be distinguished by a color associated with its principal product, or by some other mark.

in work outfit, and party attire that is modest and becoming, all of it in accordance with what the Republic can afford, without anyone's getting ornaments which might win him favor or attention; all vanity will be curbed by the Chiefs and Heads of Families. Every Citizen

have

will

a

LAWS ON THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT Which would prevent

all tyrannical domination. I

Every Head of a Family

at the

age of fifty will be a Senator, and will have a voice

in the deliberations as well as a vote

laws,

whose guardian

is

on

all

regulations to carry out the intent of the

the Senate. II

Other Heads of Families or Work Corps Chiefs affecting their occupations are involved.

will

be consulted when matters

(io8)

Morelly

in Within each Tribe, every Family occupy that position throughout his

in its turn will provide a Tribal Chief,

who

will

life.

IV

The

Tribal Chiefs will take turns at the office of City Chief for one year.

v

Each City

among

he will be chosen office;

provide a Chief for the Province; his term will be one year; the Tribal Chiefs of the City, who will also take turns at the

in turn will

the Tribe from which he comes will

name

a substitute Chief.

VI All the Provinces will take turns at providing a

be by right the Provincial Chief actually incumbent

permanent Chief of State; he at the

will

time of the General's death,

or just about to take office; but in the latter case, since he becomes General, he will be

man who would normally have succeeded him according

replaced in his Province by the to the preceding law.

VII If the

Nation

not sufficiently populous to include more than one Province,

is

annual Chief will be General for

a year. If the

its

National Body should be only one City,

the annual Chief of that City would be Chief of the whole State for one year only.

no change

In either case, there will be set forth in

Law

in the order for conferring these dignities as

V.

VIII

As heretofore provided those office,

will

who serve

their

term

Law

in as

HI, Chiefs of Tribes are to be permanent; hence

annual Chief of the City or Province

once more occupy their former positions; those who,

have substituted

Heads of Families,

for

them during

will,

on leaving that

in accordance

their Generalship will

with

Law

V,

become once more simple

to await their succession as Tribal Chiefs.

IX

Every person who becomes

whether before or after the senatorial no longer be a Senator, and if he attains to any annual or neither during nor after his term will he be a member of any Senate, a Tribal Chief,

age, will no longer be or can

permanent

office,

but only of the Council.

x There

will

be a supreme National Senate renewed annually and composed of two

or several Deputies of the Senate of each City, and each Senator will take his turn at

becoming

a

Deputy. There

will also

be a supreme National Council subordinate to

great Senate and superior to the other Councils;

it

will

this

be similarly composed of the

Deputies of the City Councils, etc.

XI If

Senate will be supreme; its members will perform the duties of the National Senate. Heads of

the State consists of only one City,

be persons aged

fifty,

Families aged forty

and

will

make up

its

the local Senate.

Nature's Domain

(

I09)

XII Since

after

Law IX

on the form of Government stipulates that Tribal Chiefs shall be there-

excluded from the Senatorial Body, they will form the Council of each City, along

with Corps Chiefs and Master Artists

who

are not of senatorial age.

XIII

Every member of a Senate or a Council will take his turn at presiding for and announce decisions on the basis of a plurality of votes.

five days,

to poll opinions

LAWS ON GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION The

Supreme Senate will be to examine the decisions and regulaand to see whether they contain anything which can in the present or future contradict the laws of the State, whether economic and police measures wisely conform to the intent of the distributive and other laws; in consequence of this examination, the Supreme Senate will confirm or reject specific regulations in toto or only partially; what is thus enacted for one City will be observed in all the rest for the same purpose, and will have the force of law after the acquiescence of the functions of the

tions of the Senates of each City

local Senates. II

Each Senate

will seek the advice of its Council,

and

will

heed

its

representations,

with power to reject them only in the event that what the Council proposes to be directly or indirectly contrary to the intent of the laws

and that there

is

is

found

a better

alternative.

in City Chiefs, under the orders of the General, will execute the decisions of the local

Senate that have been approved by the Supreme Body.

IV In the local Senates

and the Supreme Senate

subject to that of the laws; that

is,

be vested

all

political authority,

by the laws; they will have the power to implegovernment the provisions of these laws, which are general terms, after deliberating and legislating on the means.

everything that

is

ment and apply

to the business of

expressed only in

will

they will order definitively and without discussion

formally prescribed

v

The the

functions of Chief of the Nation will be in general to act under the orders of

Supreme Senate and

In particular, he will

see that the laws

have general

work connected with it; he will work of all the Trade Corps. If the State covers an extensive

culture or

the

and decisions relating to them are observed. over all the State Corps engaged in agrihave oversight of all kinds of warehouses and

command

tour of

all its

Provinces, to see whether everything

everywhere there

is

as

much uniformity

as possible in

is

area,

he will make a

timely carried out, whether

customs and

practices.

VI Chiefs of Cities, under the authority of Provincial Chiefs, and these latter under

the orders of the General, will perform the same functions for their districts as the

General does

for the

whole

State.

(no)

Morelly VII

in their own sphere, will have the power, in special and unforeseen cases involving the organization and execution of some useful project, to put into effect means at their discretion. Their orders will

All Chiefs, in accordance

with their ranks and

always be absolute when there

is

a question of a greater good. In less

they will take the advice of their equals or of experienced people; they

and

justify their

conduct to their

own

Senate and to any Chiefs to

subordinate, and these in turn to the General and the General to the

urgent cases

will

account

whom

for

they are

Supreme

Senate.

VIII Chiefs of Tribes (and for that reason they are permanent) will have charge of

inspecting the organization and supply of the warehouses, and the distribution of provisions, which will be carried out

by Workers-at-Will, that

reached the age for choosing their

own employment;

is,

by those who have

they will be assisted when

necessary by persons detailed from the Farmers' Corps. As for products of daily

manufacture and use, they each Citizen by those

be distributed, as set forth

will

who grow,

in Distributive

Law W^

to

prepare, or fashion these commodities.

IX

The annual City and

Provincial Chiefs will

occupy themselves only with the

duties of office; after their terms have expired, they will be free to engage at will in

whatever occupation they of the Workers-at-Will

please.

when he

Every Artisan Corps Chief will

also enter the ranks

has finished his year of service.

x All Senators, Political Chiefs, Chiefs of

respected and obeyed for the are revered

by

common good

Workshops, and Master Artisans will be of the fatherland just as Heads of Families

their children.

XI

The formula

for

every public order

will be: willed by Reason, prescribed by

Law.

XII

government laws, like the Fundamental Laws, will be held sacred and inviolable; they cannot be changed or abrogated by anyone whomsoever, under penalties, etc. SEE the Penal Laws. All these

CONJUGAL LAWS Which would prevent

all debauchery.

Every Citizen, as soon as he has reached marriageable age, will be wed; nobody will be granted dispensation unless nature or his health interposes an obstacle. Celibacy will not

be allowed anyone under forty.

At the beginning of each year, marriages will be publicly celebrated. The young people of both sexes will be assembled; in the presence of the City Senate, each boy will choose the girl who pleases him, and, with her consent, will take her to wife.

Nature's Domain

(111)

in First marriages will be indissoluble for ten years, after

which divorce

will

be

permitted either with the consent of both parties or only of one.

IV

The reasons for divorce will be stated before the assembled Heads Tribe, who will try to present arguments for reconciliation.

of Families of the

v

Once divorce has been

declared, the separated persons

may be

reunited only after

months; but before that time, they may not see each other or speak to each other; the husband will remain with his Tribe or Family, and his wife will return to hers; they will be able to arrange their reconciliation only through the intermediary of six

common

friends.

VI

Divorced persons after the

may

not take

new marriage

partners until a year has elapsed;

second marriage, they will not be permitted to

wed

again.

VII Persons who have separated cannot marry others younger than themselves, nor younger than the spouse they have left. Only the widowed will have that liberty.

VIII Persons of one or the other sex

young persons who have

who have been

married will not be able to marry

not.

IX

Every Citizen

will

be able to marry into whatever Tribe, City, or Province he

wishes; but the wife and the children will belong to the husband's Tribe.

X Children of either sex will remain with the father in case of divorce, and his second wife will alone be considered their mother; none of her predecessors will be able to

take this

title

with respect to her husband's children. XI

Sons of the same father, though married and having children of their own, will be

Heads of Families only

after the

death of their

common

father.

XII

At the time that marriages of the Citizens of each City.

are publicly celebrated, there will be an annual census

The

Senate will keep an exact record of the

number of

The number of new Tribes will be

persons of different ages and occupations by Tribe and Family.

Families composing the Tribes will be as nearly equal as possible; formed and, if necessary, new Cities, when there is an excess number of Tribes sufficient for that purpose; or else Tribes and Cities which have dwindled through

some accident

will

be repopulated. XIII

When among will

the Nation has reached a point of development where the

the Citizenry

is

number of births

about equal to the number of deaths, the Tribes, Cities,

remain and be kept almost equal. SEE Economic Law

III.

etc.

(ii2)

Morelly

EDUCATION LAWS Which would prevent

Mothers themselves

the consequences

will

of blind paternal indulgence toward

nurse their children,

if their

children.

health permits, and will not

be excused without proof of illness. II

Women who

are separated from their husbands and

breasts will nevertheless be sure to nurse

who have

them during the year

children at their

after their divorce.

in Tribal Chiefs will exercise vigilance over the care given

mothers and

young

by

children

their

fathers.

IV

At the age of five,

all

the children of the Tribe will be gathered up, and the two

sexes will be separately lodged and fed in a boarding-school designed for that purpose;

and primary education

their food, clothing,

will

be everywhere the same, without

distinction, according to the regulations prescribed

by the Senate.

v

A certain number of fathers and mothers, will take care

relieved in their turn their pupils

under the surveillance of the Tribal Chief,

of these children as they would their

by the next group. They

will

own

for five days,

and

will

moderation and gentleness, to preventing by tact or mild punishment

quarreling, capriciousness, bad habits; they will treat

be

apply themselves to instilling in

them

all

all

with perfect impartiality.

VI

As

minds begin to develop, these children will be taught the laws of the fatherland. They will learn to respect them, to obey their parents, Chiefs, and other adults. They will be trained to behave good-naturedly toward their fellows, to seek their friendship, and never to lie. They will practice some simple task suitable to their age, and, from time to time, will participate in games to develop their bodies and prepare them for work. Nothing will be prescribed for them without explaining to them its reason. This primary instruction will be continued by the Masters to whose care their

they will be confided upon emerging from early childhood.

VII

Those children who before the age of ten are sufficiently robust to learn the first elements of the occupation for which they are deemed fit will be sent to the public workshops for a few hours every day to begin their apprenticeship. VIII

At the age often, into the workshops,

all

the children will leave this

where they

will

whom

Masters and Chiefs of each occupation, everything will be done in

two

common

common

then be lodged,

in

paternal residence to go

fed, clad,

and trained by the

they will obey as their

own

Parents;

each Corps and in each workshop, where the

sexes will be separately trained, each in the

work

that

is

appropriate for

it.

IX

The Masters and

Mistresses, as well as the Occupational Chiefs, will

practice with moral instruction.

As the

combine work

children's reason begins to develop, one of

Nature's Domain

them

bound

is

to understand that there

( 113 )

a Deity, and,

is

having heard talk about

they will begin to ask questions about this Supreme Being. to

them

that

He

is

the

first

and beneficent cause of

all

They

will

it,

then be explained

that they marvel at or find

agreeable and good. Great care will be taken not to give ineffable being, nor to

It will

them vague

ideas of this

pretend to explain nature to them in terms devoid of meaning.

be told quite bluntly that the Creator of the Universe cannot be known

Him only as a Being infinitely good and wise, not comparable with anything mortal. The young people will be made to understand that the feelings of sociability in man are the only oracles through which the Deity's purposes are known; and that in observing them one succeeds in underotherwise than through His works, which proclaim

standing what

God

is.

The youth

will be told that the laws are

sentiments and to apply their dictates in an orderly

way

to the

made

to

develop these

good of society.

x All precepts, Inviolable

maxims, moral

reflections will

Laws, and always related to

be derived from the Fundamental and

harmony and

social

sympathy. The theme of the

preaching will be individual happiness indissolubly linked to the

common

good, and the

incentives cited to encourage the youth will be the esteem and friendship of their kin,

Fellow-Citizens, and Chiefs.

XI Chiefs and Senators will be on their guard to see that the laws and regulations for

the education of children are everywhere precisely and uniformly observed, and especially that childish faults that could develop into the proprietary spirit are prudently

They

will also

absurd

fictions.

corrected and forestalled. filled

with

fables, tales, or

prevent tender young minds from being

XII

At

when

fifteen or sixteen,

public academies to return to

young people are married, they will leave the the paternal roof, whence they will sally forth each day at the

certain times to ply their trades in the workshops, until

move

practicing farming; at that time they will

they reach the age for

into the houses specially built for that

calling.

LAWS ON STUDIES Which would prevent

The number require will

aberration! of the

who

of persons

more wisdom, perception,

human mind and

all

metaphysical dreams.

apply themselves to the arts and sciences, which skill,

diligence,

and

talent than physical strength,

be fixed for each type of study as well as for each City. Training will begin early

for those Citizens

who have

practice excusing

them from engaging

reached the proper age.

No

the arts and sciences, can according to Police

Law

V.

the greatest inclination, without this type of study or

embark on

Then

some branch of farming when they have number of masters and pupils prescribed for

in

one, except a

this course of

study before the age of thirty,

those whose experience has given

them

greater

understanding and has strengthened the inclination for some profession more exalted than what they practiced before may thus occupy themselves.

(ii4)

Morelly ii

There will be absolutely no other moral philosophy than that concerned with the plan and system of the laws; the observations and precepts of that science will only lay stress on the utility and wisdom of these laws, on the tender bonds of blood and friendship, the pleasures of service and gratitude which unite the Citizenry, the love and usefulness of work, the general and specific rules for the good order and for perfect harmony. This science will be studied by all the Citizens.

in what has previously been said about the Deity. add that he is endowed with reason designed to

All metaphysics will be reduced to

As

to the question of

make him

man, one

will

a social being; that the nature of his faculties, as well as the natural principles

by which they operate, are unknown to us; that only the processes of reason can be followed and observed by the careful attention of that same faculty; that we do not know what in man is the foundation and support of that faculty, even as we do not know what happens to this Principle at death; one will say that perhaps this intelligent Principle continues to exist after a state

life is

over, but that

useless to try to understand

it is

of being about which the Author of Nature gives us no inkling through any

phenomenon whatever. Such

will

be the limits prescribed for speculation of this

character.

IV

The wisdom and comes

perceptiveness of the

to the theoretical

and experimental

human mind

sciences,

will

be entirely

whose object

is

free

when

it

to explore Nature's

secrets or perfect the arts that are useful to society.

v There will be a kind of public digest of all the sciences, and no metaphysics or morals beyond the bounds fixed by the laws will ever go into it; only discoveries in physical science, mathematics, or mechanics that are confirmed by experiment and reasoning will be added to it. VI

The moral and

physical beauties of nature, scientific subjects, the comforts and

pleasures of society, as well as the Citizens

who have made

distinguished contributions

to the perfection of all these things, will be celebrated in oratory, poetry, and painting.

VII

Every individual Senate

will

have drawn up

in writing those

deeds of the Chiefs

and Citizens that are worthy of commemoration; but care will be taken to keep these histories free from all exaggeration, flattery, and, even more strictly, fable. The Supreme Senate will supervise the composition of an official history of the whole Nation. VIII be incised on a separate column or pyramid erected in the public square of every City, and the proper, direct, and literal meaning of their texts will always be followed; not the slightest change or alteration will ever be

Each chapter of these laws

permitted.

made

If

something ambiguous or obscure crops up

either to explain

meaning of that law Laws.

will

in

in a law, effort

should be

by reference to some other law, or to fix once and for all the terms most consonant with the Fundamental and Inviolable

it

Nature's Domain

( 115 )

PENAL LAWS As few

as there are falsehoods, as mild as they are effective. I

Every Citizen, no matter what his rank or office, even the General-in-Chief of the Nation, who might be which is scarcely credible so unnatural as to take someone's

—

—

life

or

wound him

mortally,

who might

try through a plot or otherwise to abrogate

the inviolable laws in order to introduce hateful private property, after trial and judgment by the Supreme Senate, will be imprisoned for life. Like a dangerous madman and enemy of humanity, he will be shut away in a cavern constructed, as set forth in Edile

Law

XI, in the public cemetery. His

name

will

be forever erased from the census

of Citizens, his children and his whole Family will abandon his name, and they will be

where no one

individually assimilated into other Tribes, Cities, or Provinces,

will

be

allowed to snub them or to reproach them with the wrong committed by their kin

under penalty of being banished from society

for

two

years.

II

Those who would dare in respect or

kinfolk; those

imprisoned

to intercede for the guilty; those

who

are sorely wanting

obedience to their Chiefs or Senators, to Fathers of Families or their

who have abused by

in places reserved for

days, months, or years.

The

insult or injury

any of

their fellows

—

will

be

punishing these kinds of offenses, for one or several

National Senate will once and for

all

set the terms, in

accordance with the seriousness of the crimes; never will there be a reduction in the sentence to be served for an offense.

Adulterers will be imprisoned for a year; after that a husband or a wife

may

take the

guilty one back, if he has not been repudiated immediately after the infidelity; and the

offender can never

marry

his partner in adultery.

IV

Any divorce

person of either sex is

in process will

who

has

be punished

as

commerce with anyone during the year

his

an adulterer.

v

Anyone who

has deserved to be excluded from society for one or several years can

never be a Senator or Tribal Chief.

VI All persons entrusted

with the education and care of children,

who

are grossly

negligent and, instead of correcting and instructing their charges, allow them to

some vice or contract some bad habit that is anti-social, will be deprived of the honor of that occupation for a period or forever, in accordance with the judgment of

acquire

guilt.

VII All those cut off

deprived of

all

from society and imprisoned

amusement

for life or

only

for a period, will

or occupation; they will be fed alike on

the plainest sort, and similarly clad; they will be served by

be

good food, but of

young people who have

confessed to minor offenses of laziness, recalcitrance, or lying; they will perform this

(n6)

Morelly

function for several days, and,

if they

number of the young apprentices

are unavailable, this

in each occupation,

duty

who

will

devolve on a certain

will alternate daily.

VIII

Other punished

less serious offenses, like certain acts

at the discretion

of negligence or carelessness, will be

of the Chiefs or Masters in each occupation, either by

requiring the service just mentioned in the preceding law, or through the deprivation

of

all

work and

all

amusement

hours or days, in order to punish idleness

for several

with idleness.

IX

As

not the punishment but the offense which

it is

has been served,

who

all

Citizens will be forbidden to

is

dishonorable, after a sentence

make the

slightest reproach to

one

has expiated his crime according to the law, or to any of his relatives, or to inform

anybody who was not aware of it, or

to

show the

slightest

contempt

for

such persons

in their presence or absence,

under pain of undergoing the same punishment. Only

Chiefs will be permitted to

warn them, with the voice of authority, about

their

obligations, without ever mentioning their past mistakes or chastisement.

x

Once

a penalty has

been imposed by law and defined

can never be remitted, reduced, or

for

each type of offense,

commuted by any pardon whatsoever, nor

for

it

any

consideration, except in case of sickness.

XI

The

Senate of each City will alone have the power to impose penalties of isolation

from society, upon the deposition of Chiefs of Tribes, Families, or Professional Corps

and these

last will

impose

;

civil penalties.

XII

Every

accusation of a crime which would earn permanent isolation from

false

society will be subject to the same. punishment; in every other case, the false accuser will

be subject to a penalty double that which the accused would have incurred. XIII

Accusations by persons

who

are not

endowed with

civil

or natural authority will

not be heard or received by the Senate.

XIV Persons

who

hold office will be obliged themselves to exercise vigilance over their

subordinates, to reprimand or punish to report

them

them

in cases

over which they have jurisdiction,

to a higher authority for graver offenses, without

any leniency, under

penalty of being relieved of office for a period or forever according to the importance

of their oversight.

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)

The

People of the Ideal

Commonwealth and

the

Expression of their

General Will*

Rousseau was born

in Calvinist

Geneva, the son of

After a stormy youth

descent.

a

watchmaker of French

marked by strange amorous episodes,

wanderings about Europe, and a miscellany of occupations from lackey to music teacher and secretary to an ambassador, he settled

in Paris

and

joined the ranks of the Encyclopedists. Rousseau gained fame with his Discourse on the Arts

and Sciences (1750) and Discourse on

the Origin

of Inequality

There he maintained that man had deteriorated morally

(1755).

as civili-

zation advanced, and, without advocating a return to the state of nature, he called for a reshaping of society in

Rousseau's brilliance

won him

harmony with

nature's laws.

day, his exigent and paranoid character later alienated

A

isolated. later

by

a

them and

left

him

Grimm was followed a few years David Hume, who had given him refuge in England

dispute with Diderot and

rupture with

when he was attacked Social

Though

the friendship of the greatest intellects of his

for the

(1762), or Social

deism of the Emile (1762). The Contrat

Compact, as

the earliest translations called

where Rousseau defined the relationships

in

it,

an ideal government based on

popular sovereignty, also brought him into conflict with the authorities.

When

the

work was condemned and burned

in theocratic

Geneva, he

angrily renounced his citizenship. Rousseau spent the last years of his life

in France, a solitary

who had broken with

the philosophical and

literary coteries. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Treatise on the Social Compact; (London: T. Becket, 1764), pp. 60-83, 170-93.

From

117

or The Principles of Politic

Law

Rousseau, 1766, engraving by David Martin after the painting by Allan in the National Gallery, Edinburgh.

Ramsay

Of the

People

As the architect, before he begins to

where he

is

raise

to lay the foundation, that he

an

édifice,

may

examines into the ground

be able to judge whether

will

it

bear the weight of the superstructure; so the prudent legislator does not

begin by making a digest of salutary laws, but examines people for

was

whom

whether the

knowing they were

rich

It

laws to the Arcadians and Cyrenians,

for this reason Plato refused to give

tion of equality

first

such laws are designed, are capable of supporting them.

and luxurious, and could not admit of the introduc-

among them.

It

was

for this reason that Crete,

though

it

boasted good laws, was inhabited by such bad men; Minos had only endea-

voured to govern a people already depraved by

made

nations that have

Various have been the

vice.

a distinguished figure in the world,

been capable of being governed by good laws

;

and yet have not

and even those who were

capable of being so governed, continued so but a short time. Nations, as well as individuals, are docile only in their infancy as

they grow old.

taken root

among them,

to reform them.

though

When

A

they become incorrigible

it is

dangerous and

a

fruitless enterprize to

attempt

people cannot even bear to have their wounds probed,

in order to be cured;

who shudder

:

customs are once established and prejudices have

but resemble those weak and cowardly patients

at the sight of their physician.

Not, but that sometimes, as

there are distempers which affect the brain of individuals and deprive

of the capacity of remembering

what

is

past, there

revolutions as produce the same effect on a people,

happen

when

them

in states

such

the horror of the

past supplies the place of oblivion, and the state, inflamed and exhausted civil

wars, rises again,

if I

may

so express myself, out of

its

own

ashes,

by

and

reassumes the vigour of youth in forsaking the arms of death. This was the

and of Rome after the Tarquins modern times with Holland and Switzerland

case with Sparta in the time of Lycurgus,

and such hath been the case

in

after the expulsion of their tyrants.

;

But these events are rare; and are such

exceptions as have their cause in the particular constitution of the state excepted.

They cannot even

though they may be made yet,

when

free

take place twice

when they

among

the same people: for

are only barbarous

and uncivilized;

the resources of society are exhausted, they cannot be renewed.

119

(i20)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In that case, faction

may

destroy, but revolutions cannot re-establish their

freedom; they require for ever after a master, and not a deliverer. Every people,

should remember this maxim, that tho' nations

therefore,

acquire liberty, yet

if

once this inestimable acquisition

is

free

may

absolutely

lost, it is

irrecoverable.

There

in nations, as well as individuals, a

is

term of maturity,

at

which

they should be permitted to arrive before they are subjected to laws. This term, however,

may be

is

known; and yet

not always easy to be

of dangerous consequence. Again, one people

discipline in their infancy; while another till

many

after

The

centuries.

may

if it

be anticipated

may

it

be formed to

not be ripened for subjection

Russians, for instance, will never be truly

polished because they were disciplined too soon. Peter had only an imitative

turn; he had nothing of that true genius, whose creative power forms things

out of nothing.

Some of his measures,

indeed, were proper enough, but most

of them were ill-timed or ill-placed.

He saw

that his subjects were mere

barbarians, but he did not see that they were not ripe for being

made

polite.

He wanted to civilize them, when he should only have checked their brutality. He wanted to make them, at once, Germans and Englishmen, whereas he ought to have

begun by making them

subjects from ever

first

Russians; and thus he prevented his

becoming what otherwise they might have been, by

persuading them they were such as they were not.

It is

thus a French tutor

forms his pupil to make a figure in his child-hood, and to make none for ever afterwards.

Europe to will in

The Empire

of Russia, while

subjection, will be subjected

its

time become both

inevitable;

all

its

it

ambitious of reducing

is

itself. Its

all

neighbours, the Tartars,

masters and ours. This event seems to

me

the monarchs in Europe seeming to act, in concert, to accelerate

such a revolution. In the

same manner

as nature

human body, beyond which body

hath limited the dimensions ofa well-formed

she produces only giants or dwarfs, so in the

politic there are limits, within or

beyond which

confined or extended; to the end that

governed, nor too

body

politic a

little

to maintain its

maximum of

often recedes

by extending

the more lax

it

force its

grows; and

which

dominion.

it

may

a state

ought not to be

not be too big to be well

own independency. There it

is

in

every

cannot exceed, and from which

The more

the social knot

in general, a little state

is

is

it

extended,

always proportionably

stronger than a great one.

A thousand

reasons might be given in support of this maxim. In the

place, the administration of

government becomes always more

the distance from the seat of

it

increases,

even

as a

first

difficult as

body has the greatest

The People of the Ideal Commonwealth

weight

at the

proportion as lar

end of the longest it is

lever. It

becomes

( I2

more burthensome

also

divided into parts; for every town hath

government to pay; that of each

district again

is

own

first its

in

particu-

paid by the same people;

next that of the province, then that of particular governments with their viceroys,

of

all

whom

are to be paid as they rise in dignity,

expence of the unhappy people; whom, itself crushes

and always

at the

of all, the supreme administration

last

with the whole weight of its oppression.

It is

impossible so

many

needless charges should not tend continually to impoverish the people; who, so far from being better

governed by these different ranks of superiors, are

much worse so, than if they had but one order of governors in the state. And yet with this multiplicity of rulers, they are far from being furnished with proper resources

when they have

but, on

for extraordinary occasions;

occasion to recur to them, the state

is

the contrary,

always on the brink

of ruin.

Nor in

is

this all; the

government not only becomes

less

vigorous and active

putting the laws in execution, removing private oppression, correcting

abuses or preventing the seditious enterprises of rebellion in distant provinces

but the people have

opportunity to see;

and

whom

less affection for their chiefs,

for their

country, which to them

for their fellow-subjects, of

is

;

they never have an

like the

whole world;

which the greater part are utter strangers.

many various people of different who cannot be supposed to live equally happy under the same form of government. And yet different laws must occasion much trouble and confusion among people, who, living under the same admini-

The same

laws cannot be convenient for so

manners, and climates, and

stration,

and carrying on

habitations, inter

a

perpetual intercourse, frequently change their

marry with each other, and, being educated under

customs, hardly ever

know when

their property

is

different

secure. Great talents

lie

buried, virtue lives obscured, and vice prevails with impunity, amidst that

multitude of strangers, which flock together round the chief seat of administration.

The

principals,

overwhelmed with

into nothing themselves; the

a multiplicity of business,

government of the

can look

state being left to their

deputies and clerks. In a word, the measures to be taken, in order to maintain the general authority, on which so

many

distant officers are ever ready to

encroach or impose, engross the public attention; there

is none of it left employed about the happiness of the people, and indeed hardly any for

defence in case of need thus :

it is,

that a

grows debilitated and sinks under

On

its

body too unwieldy

own

to be their

for its constitution

weight.

the other hand, a state ought to be fixed on some basis, to secure

solidity, to

be able to

resist

those shocks which

it

will not

fail

its

to encounter,

(

1

22 )

Jean- Jacques Rousseau

and to make those

efforts

dence. Nations have ally against

all

a

which

it

will find necessary to maintain its indepen-

kind of centrifugal force by which they act continu-

each other, and tend, like the vortices of Descartes, to aggrandize

themselves at the expence of their neighbours. Thus the weak run of being presently swallowed up by the strong; nor

them, but by keeping themselves

in equilibrio

in

danger

there any security for

is

with the

rest,

and making the

compression on every side equal.

Hence we

see

it

is

prudent

in

restrain, the limits of a state; nor

some

cases to extend,

one of the

is it

distinguish between one and the other, and to

and

in others to

least arts in civil polity to fix

on that advantageous

proportion which tends most to the preservation of the state.

observed

It

may

be

extending dominion, relating to

in general, that the reasons for

objects external and relative, ought to be subordinate to those for contracting it,

is

on

whose objects the a

first

and absolute. A sound and vigorous constitution

are internal

thing to be considered, and a

much

is to be made drawn from an

greater reliance

good government, than on the resources which are

to be

extensive territory.

Not but

that there have been instances of states so constituted, that the

necessity of their tution. It

necessity,

is

making conquests hath been

possible also they

might

essential to their very consti-

felicitate

themselves on that happy

which pointed out, nevertheless, with the summit of their grandeur,

moment of their fall. The magnitude of a body politic may

the inevitable

be taken two ways; viz. by the extent

of territory, and the number of the people; a certain proportional relation

between them constituting the which form the

state,

people

real greatness of a state. It is the

and the territory which

people; this relation, therefore, exists

when

affords subsistence to the

the territory

is

sufficient for the

subsistence of the inhabitants, and the inhabitants are as numerous as the territory can maintain. In this proportion consists the

of any given defence of

number of people;

it is

for if the territory

burthensome, the cultivation

maximum of the

insufficient,

superfluous; hence the proximate causes of defensive war.

hand, the territory be too small, the state obliged for part of

its

subsistence to

its

is

force

be too extensive, the

and the produce If,

on the other

under the necessity of being

neighbours; hence the proximate

causes of offensive war. Every people who, by their situation, have no other alternative than

depend on a short

commerce

or war,

must be

necessarily feeble: they

must

their neighbours, on adventitious circumstances, and can only have

and uncertain existence. They must conquer others, and thereby

change their

situation, or be

conquered themselves, and thence be reduced

The People of the Ideal Commonwealth to nothing.

impossible such a state can preserve

It is

insignificancy or

its

It is

independency but by

greatness.

its

not easy to calculate the determinate relation between the extent of

and number of inhabitants,

territory

account of the difference in the

its

( 123 )

nature of

sufficient for

each other; not only on

in the qualities of the soil, in its

degrees of fertility,

productions, and in the influence of climate, but also on

its

account of the remarkable difference in the temperament and constitution of the inhabitants; some consuming but

on a barren

a great deal

among tion,

soil.

Regard must

country, and others

little in a fertile

also be

had to the degree of fecundity

the females, to the circumstances favourable or destructive to popula-

and

to the

number of people which the

legislator

may hope

to

draw from

other countries by the advantages attending his scheme of government that he ought not to found his

may

he foresees

on that which on which

exist hereafter; not

exists;

thousand occasions,

may

appear actually necessary for present use. Thus a people

spread themselves over a large spot in a mountainous country, whose

natural produce, of wood or pasture, requires less labour of cultivation;

in

women

are

more

fruitful

than in the

flat

on the contrary, may inhabit

in the affair of vegetation.

a less space

sustenance, instead of the produce of the earth

community by sending out

lastly,

because

it is

colonies of

necessary for

them

A

by

people,

on the sea-shore, or even among

rocks and almost barren sands; because the fishery supplies

their

where

countries;

a large inclined superficies gives but a small horizontal base,

which

which only the land must be estimated

and

so

local accidents acquire, or permit, a state to possess a larger share

experience teaches us that

and

;

but on what

on the present state of population, but

will naturally succeed. In fine, there are a

of territory than

may

judgment on what actually

in

its

;

them with

they can easily disburthen

supernumerary inhabitants;

such a case to live near to each

other, in order to repel the invasions of pyrates.

We may

add to these conditional precautions, respecting the formation

of a people, one that can be supplied by no other, but without which rest are useless: this in

which

battalion;

a state is it is

is,

all

forming, resembles that in which soldiers are forming a

moment in which they are least capable of resistance, and defeated. They would even make a greater resistance when

the

the most easily

put into absolute disorder afterwards, than during the interval of their fermentation,

the

common

a crisis,

the

that they should enjoy peace and plenty. For the time

when each

is

taken up more about his

own

first

particular rank than

danger. Should a war, a famine, or a rebellion, break out at such

the state would be infallibly subverted.

Not but

there have been

many governments established in times of disorder

Jean- Jacques Rousseau

( 1 24 )

and confusion:

in

such cases, however, those very governments subverted the

Usurpers have always given

state.

rise to, or

took the advantage

those

of,

times of general confusion, in order to procure such destructive laws, which the people never could have been prevailed on to pass at a more dispassionate

The

season.

choice of the proper time for the institution of laws,

is

one of the

most certain tokens by which we may distinguish the design of a from that of a tyrant.

be asked then, what people are in a situation to receive a system of

If it

laws?

legislator

answer, those who, though connected by some primitive union either

I

of interest or compact, are not yet truly subjected to regular laws; those

whose customs and prejudices fear of

who

are not deeply rooted; those

are under no

being swallowed up by a sudden invasion, and who, without entering

into the quarrels of their neighbours, are able to encounter separately with each, or to engage the assistance of one to repel the other; a people

whose

may be known to each other, and among whom it is not necessary to charge a man with a greater burthen than it is possible for him to bear; a people who can subsist without others, and without whom all others might individuals

1

subsist,

a

people neither rich nor poor, but possessed of a competence within

themselves

;

a people, in short,

who

possess at once the consistency of an

ancient nation, and the docility of a newly-created one.

The

knowing what ought to be be eradicated and what renders it so seldom

great difficulty

in legislation, consists less in

established than

what ought

successful,

to

;

is

impossibility of finding the simplicity of nature in the wants of society.

true that

all

these circumstances are very rarely united and ;

that so few states have

much

to boast

of, in

one country in Europe capable of receiving laws:

The

it is

their constitution. this

is

the It is

for this reason

There

is still

the island of Corsica.

valour and constancy, with which those brave people recovered, and

have defended their

them how

liberty,

to preserve

it. I

might deservedly excite some wise man

cannot help surmising, that this

little

to teach

island will,

one day or other, be the astonishment of Europe.

I.

If

two neighbouring people were

so situated that one could not subsist without the

would be very hard, and of the latter very dangerous. Every wise nation, in such a case, would extricate itself as soon as possible from such a state of dependence. The republic of Thlascala, situated in the heart of the Mexican empire, chose

other, the circumstances of the

first

rather to be without salt than purchase it, or even receive it gratis of the Mexicans. The prudent Thlascalans saw through the snare of such liberality. Thus they preserved their liberty; this petty state, included within that great empire, being, in the end, the cause of its ruin.

The People of the Ideal Commonwealth

( I2 5)

THAT THE GENERAL WILL CANNOT BE ANNIHILATED So long as a number of individuals remain perfectly united and consider themselves as

one body, they can have but one

which

will;

relates to their

common

preservation and welfare. All the resources of the state, are then simple and vigorous,

maxims

its political

clear

and obvious;

and opposite interests; but that of the public and requires only the

gift

it

comprehends no

of common-sense to understand

and equality are enemies to

intricate

demonstrably evident to

is

political refinements.

it.

When men

all,

Peace, concord, are honest,

and

simple, their very simplicity prevents their deception; they are not to be

imposed on by sophistry, but are too

known,

that,

among

artless

is

it

affairs

of state,

possible to forbear despising the

who employ

refinements of other nations,

it is

number of peasants

meet together under the shade of an oak, and regulate the with the most prudential economy,

When

even to be duped.

the happiest people in the world, a

so

much

artifice

and mystery to

render themselves splendidly miserable?

A

state thus simply

tion as

it

universally apparent. to speak only

intrigue

is

governed hath need of but few laws, while

in propor-

becomes necessary to promulgate new ones, that necessity

The

first

person

who

is

proposes them, takes on himself

what every one hath already thought; and neither eloquence nor

requisite to

make

that pass into a law, which every one had already

resolved to do, as soon as he should be assured others would do the same.

That which deceives our reasoners on

this subject,

is,

that, seeing

none but

such states as were badly constituted at their beginning, they are struck with the impossibility of maintaining such a policy in them.

They smile

to think of

the absurdities, into which a designing knave or insinuating orator might lead the people of Paris

and

a Beaufort,

and London. They are not apprized that

would have been treated

as incendiaries at

a

Cromwell,

Berne and Geneva,

and have underwent the discipline due to their demerit. But when the bonds of society begin to

when

relax,

to influence the state, the objects of public

unanimity no longer presides is

no longer the

salutary counsel

Again, form,

and the

state to

grow weak;

the private interests of individuals begin to appear, and that of parties

when

when

will is

of

all;

good meet with opposition;

in the assemblies of the people; the general will

contradictions and debates arise, and the most

not adopted without dispute.

the state

the social

tie

is

bordering on ruin, and exists only in empty

no longer connects the hearts of the people, when the

basest motives of interest impudently assume the sacred

good; then

is

name

of the public

the general will altogether silent; individuals, actuated by

(i26)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

private motives, cherish no

more the sentiments of citizens, than

had never existed, while the mock legislature

if

the state

under the name of laws,

pass,

those iniquitous decrees which have no other end than private interest.

Doth

follow from hence, however, that the general will

it

is

annihilated or

corrupted? No. This remains ever constant, invariable, and pure; though is

subjected to that of party. There

while he detaches his

own

separate himself from

it

nothing

is

not an individual

as

is

evil

seems

he doth not lose

in selling his vote,

The

fault

he

is

guilty

and making an answer to what his vote, that

it is to

ready to concur in measures

own

the good of the public, and that even for his

by

common

comparison to the good which he proposes to secure exclusively

in

it.

it

not see,

interest from that of the public, that he cannot

entirely: but his share in the

to himself. Setting this motive aside, he

eludes

who doth

for

sake as any one. Nay, even

all

sense of the general will; he only

of, lies in

changing the state of the question,

not asked him; so that, instead of admitting

is

the interest

of the

state,

he says,

it is to

individual or such a party, that this or that law should pass.

the interest

Thus

of such an

the order which

should prevail in the public assemblies of the state, should not be calculated so

much

to preserve the general will inviolate, as to cause

make it answer. might here make a variety of reflections on

it

to be always

interrogated, and to I

every act of the sovereignty; as also

a right

which the

the simple right of voting in

citizens cannot be deprived of:

on the rights of thinking, proposing and debating on public matters;

privileges

which government

is

ever solicitous enough to confine to

members. This subject, however, treatise of itself;

and

On

Votes

It is

evident, from

manner

in

it is

is

impossible for

what hath been

which public

me

is

said in the preceding chapter, that the

affairs are carried

in public assemblies, that

approach to unanimity will

on,

is

may

afford a sure indication

The more

to say, fhe nearer the

in giving their votes, the

among them: but long

own

to say every thing in the present.

of the actual state of manners, and the health of the body politic.

concord there

its

of importance enough to deserve a whole

more prevalent

is

members

the general

debates, dissentions and commotions, evince the

ascendency of particular interests and the decline of the

state.

The People of the Ideal Commonwealth

This appears

less

when two Rome, where the

evident, indeed,

enter into the constitution; as at

( I2 7)

more orders of men,

or

quarrels of the Patricians

in the Comitia,

and Plebeians occasioned frequent disturbances

flourishing times of the republic. This exception however,

than

two

real

:

by

as in that case there exists,

and that which

states in one;

theless be true of each apart. It

is

is

even

is

in the

most

more apparent

a defect inherent in the

body

politic,

may

never-

not true of both together,

even during the most

also true in fact that,

turbulent times of the republic, the decrees of the Plebeians,

when the Senate

did not intermeddle, were passed with great tranquillity agreeable to the plurality of voices.

The

could have but one

citizens

Unanimity returns again is

where the

having but one

common

interest, the people

will.

citizens,

extremity of the

at the opposite

circle;

reduced to slavery, have neither liberty nor

and

this

will. In

such a situation, fear and flattery pervert their votes into acclamations; they

no longer deliberate among themselves but either adore or curse their tyrants. ;

Such were the debased principles of the Senate under the

Under these circumstances

Roman

emperors.

the sentiments of the public were frequently

also,

expressed, with the most ridiculous precaution

;

Tacitus observing that, under

Otho, the Senators, while they loaded Vitellius with execrations, they affected

same time

at the his

to

make

a

confused and clamorous noise, in order to prevent

knowing, should he become their master, what any individual had

From

these considerations

manner of counting

votes,

may

and comparing

regulated, according as the general will

and the

which

more or

state

in its

own

compact. For

less

civil association is

man being born

free,

is

If there

born

different

more or

its decline.

a slave,

is

his

to affirm he

be any persons, however,

own is

formed, a consent to

its

To

consent.

but one law,

is

this

is

the social

restraint,

affirm that the son

not born a man.

who oppose it

this contract itself, their

only hinders their being

aliens in the

institution

is

party: to submit to residence in any country 2.

There

and master of himself, no one can lay him under

comprehended therein; and they remain is

should be

the most voluntary act in the world: every

opposition does not invalidate that contract;

a state

suffrages,

easy to be discovered,

less

unanimous consent: and

on any pretence whatever, without of a slave

is

advanced towards

nature, requires

said.

be deduced the maxims, on which the

This must always be understood, however, of

midst of citizens.

inferred

is

to submit to

a free state,

When

by the residence of the its

sovereignty.

2

from which people have the

liberty to depart with their effects at pleasure. For in others the consideration of their family,

want of an asylum, necessity or violence, may detain an inhabitant in a country contrary to his will; in which case, his simple residence neither implies his consent to the contract, nor his violation of it.

their property, the

( 1 28 )

Jean- Jacques Rousseau

we

If

except this primitive contract, the determination of the majority

always obligatory on the

But

itself.

may be

it

conform to the

consents to

may have which he

how

asked,

who

free,

and yet be obliged to

can the members of an opposition be

are compelled to submit to laws

answer that

I

man be

can a

is

consequence of the contract

a necessary

is

How

will of others.

called free-men,

consented to?

rest: this

this question

which they have not

The

not properly stated.

is

citizen

laws passed by a majority, though some of them in particular

all

passed contrary to his inclination; nay be consents to those by

punishable for the breach of any one.

is

members of a

and

state, is the general will;

When

either citizens or freemen. 3

a

law

it is

The

proposed

is

constant will of all the

this alone that in the

makes them

assembly of the

people, they are not precisely demanded, whether they severally approve or reject the proposition; will,

which

is

but whether

theirs as a collective

it

be conformable or not to the general

body; each person, therefore,

in

giving his

vote declares his opinion on this head, and on counting the votes, the declaration of the general will,

contrary to

and that

my

I

my

inferred from the majority.

is

opinion,

concluded the general

will to

be what

particular advice had been followed,

will,

which

as a citizen

not have been

it

really

it

was mistaken, not. So that, if

would have been contrary to I

my

should

free.

what course you

In having

will, there is

shewn how the

all

the characteristics of the general

practicable

an end of liberty.

and parties

will of particulars

the general, in public deliberations,

I

have already

means of preventing such abuses; of

further hereafter.

With regard

indicate this general will,

be determined.

The

I

this,

to the proportional

have also

laid

down

to each of

circumstances of the body

in question

is

one

is,

that the

may

is

all

speak

shall

it

that

may

to break the unani-

a variety of proportions

;

be applied, according to the

to regulate these propor-

more grave and important the

deliberations, the

on the chains of the galley slaves, and on is beautiful and just; as it is in fact states that infringe the liberty of the citizen. A country, whose actually chained to the oar, would be a country of the most perfect

At Genoa we see the word

all

I

politic.

Libertas inscribed

the doors of the prisoners: the application of which device

only the criminals of malefactors should be

however,

number of votes

enough

There are two general maxims, which may serve tions: the

substituted for

the principles on which

difference of a single voice

which the number

is

sufficiently pointed out the

mity; but between unanimity and an equality there

liberty.

was

law thus passes

contained in the plurality of votes: and when this ceases to be the

case, take

3.

I

the same as the general, and in that case

is

This argument supposes, indeed, that will, are

When a

proves nothing more than that

it

The People of the Ideal Commonwealth

( I2 9)

nearer ought the determination to approach to unanimity: the other the more expedition the

affair requires,

is,

that

the less should unanimity be insisted

where the matter should be immediately determined, the

on. In deliberations

majority of a single vote should be sufficient.

The

first

of these maxims seems

most applicable to permanent laws, and the second to matters of business. But be this as tions

may,

it

from their judicious combination, that the best propor-

it is

must be deduced, concerning that

supposed to consist the general

whose votes should be

plurality in

will.

Of Elections With regard observed

is

to the election of a prince or of magistrates, which, as

choice and by

and we see

I

before

two methods of proceeding; viz. by They have each been made use of in different republics;

a complicated act; there are

in

lot.

our

own

times, a very intricate mixture of both in the election

of the doge of Venice. The preference by

says Montesquieu,

lot,

admit, but not for the reasons given. The

is

of the nature of a democracy. This

choice by lot,

says he,

is

I

a method which

offends no- body; by permitting each citizen to entertain the reasonable hope

of being

preferred to the service of his country.

This, however, chiefs

is

not the true reason.

is

the reason

why

administration

so

is

In every real

method

this

much

is

office

expensive and burthensome, so that

whose

lot it falls.

we

reflect that the election of

The

For

it

its

acts are fewer.

of magistrate

is

not advantageous but

were unjust to impose

it

on one person

law, therefore, imposes that charge on him, to

in this case, all

doth not depend on human

shall see

of the nature of a democracy, in which the

the better, as

democracy the

rather than another.

If

government and not of the sovereignty, we

a function of

will,

standing an equal chance, the choice

nor can any particular application change the

universality of the law. In an aristocracy the prince

ment providing

makes choice of the prince; and, the govern-

for itself, here it is that votes are

properly applicable.

The

apparent exception, in the election of the doge of Venice, confirms this distinction, instead of destroying

it:

such

a

mixt form as

is

used by the

'Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(130) Venetians

adapted to

is

government of Venice have no share

a

mixt government. For

a true aristocracy. If the

government, the nobility stand

in the

the people in respect to the administration.

who

order of nobles,

numerous

as

suppose the

in their place,

and become

What a number is there ofthe inferior

stand no chance of ever getting into the magistracy,

and reap no other advantage from and the privilege of

a mistake to

it is

lower order of people, indeed,

their rank than the

empty

title

of Excellency,

sitting in the great Council. This great council being as

our general council at Geneva,

setting aside the extreme disparity of the

Geneva represent exactly the

members have no

its illustrious

greater privileges therefore than our ordinary citizens.

two

It

is

certain, that

republics, the burghers of

Patricians of Venice; our natives

and sojourners

represent the citizens and people, and our peasants the inhabitants of the terra firma

in

what

more

belonging to that

light

you

will,

state. In a

word, consider their Venetian republic

abstracted from

aristocratical than that of

its

grandeur,

its

Geneva. All the difference

government, is

that

no

is

we have no

occasion for this kind of election.

The

choice by

democracy, when

manners and indifferent.

When

attended with very

men being

abilities, as to

But

I

little

inconvenience in a

is

real

nearly on an equality, as well with regard to

sentiments and fortune, the matter of choice

have already observed a true democracy

the election

ought to provide affairs;

lot, is

all

is

of a mixt form, viz. by vote and by

for those officers

which require proper

is

only imaginary. lot,

the

first

talents, as in military

the other being best adapted to those which require only

common

^ense, honesty and integrity; such as the offices of judicature; because in a

well-formed state, those qualities are possessed by

No

election either

by vote or

lot,

ment; the monarch himself being the only the choice of his substitute Pierre, therefore,

is

all

the citizens in

common.

hath place under a monarchical governrightful prince

vested in him alone.

and

When

legal magistrate,

the

Abbé de

proposed to increase the number of the king's councils

France, and to elect their

members by

ballot,

St.

in

he was not aware that he

proposed to change the form of the French government.

LOUIS SÉBASTIEN MERCIER (1740-1814)

In the Year 2500*

In the last decades of the ancien régime, Mercier

not far above the

Grub

Street level.

He

was

a typical Parisian litterateur

taught rhetoric and later history,

and during the period of the Revolution served the Council of Five Hundred.

Though

a

in the

member

Convention and

in

of Napoleon's Institute,

he remained a republican throughout the Empire. As a dramatist he

demanded

liberation from the forms

and subject matter of

and urged that the theater concern ordinary men. entitled

The work

classical art,

with modern society and

here excerpted, originally published in 1771 and

V An 2440, laments the intellectual debasement that tyranny has

fostered in France,

and the

itself

arts

and envisions

and sciences

a future society

From Louis Sébastien Mercier, Memoirs of the M.D. (Dublin: W. Wilson,

where

justice

is

enthroned

flourish.

1772),

I,

pp.

Tear

Two Thousand Five Hundred,

i-iii; II,

131

pp. 34~49i

I>

trans.

PP- 81-95.

W. Hooper,

J ai iept cenl ans, Engraving from L'An 2440,

Paris, 1786.

Epistle Dedicatory to the Tear

2500

August and venerable Year! thou who

art to bring felicity

thou, alas! that

I

have only in

a

dream beheld, when thou

upon the earth!

shalt rise

from out

bosom of eternity, thy sun shall enlighten them who will tread upon my ashes, and upon those of thirty generations, successively cut off, and plunged the

in the

profound abyss of death.

The

now sit upon the throne shall Then shalt thou udge the departed subjection to his power. The names

kings that

be no more their posterity

shall

be no more.

monarch, and the writer

who

lived in

;

j

of the friends, the defenders of humanity, shall live and be honoured, their glory shall be pure and radiant; but that vile herd of kings, in

every sense, the tormentors of mankind,

still

who have

been,

more deeply plunged

in

oblivion than in the regions of death, can only escape from infamy by the

favour of inanity.

The thought

survives the man, and forms his most glorious possession;

the thought rises from his tomb, assumes an immutable body, becomes

immortal. While the thunders of despotism writer,

fall

and vanish, the pen of the

bounding over the interval of time, absolves or punishes the masters

of the universe. I

my I

have exercised that authority which nature gave me;

solitary reason the laws, the customs,

have lived obscure and unknown.

due to oppression from

my

animated, exalted

my

ideas; they

tions of servitude. Forgive

me. Stupidity grave.

but in

I

see

now

little

purpose,

I

in

which is

have detested, pursued with

all

tyranny. But, alas! August

when contemplating

may appear

in

thee, have

thy eyes the mere concep-

me; the genius of my age surrounds and oppresses

reigns; the tranquility of my country resembles that of the

nought around me but coloured

whom

have cited before

that virtuous hatred which

felt

power, opposed

and Venerable Year, perhaps to I

have

being of humanity;

a

infamy, to the utmost of

I

I

and abuses of the country

carcases,

who move and

talk,

the active principle of life has never produced the least emotion.

Even now, the voice of philosophy, wearied and dejected,

cries in the

midst

of mankind as in the center of a boundless desert.

Oh! could I

I

but divide the term of my existence, with what pleasure would

instantly descend to the grave! with

what joy should I part from the gloomy, 133

hmis

( 1 34)

wretched aspects of

my

Sébastien Mercier

co-temporaries, to

days that thou shalt bring forth; that

awake

midst of those

in the

when man

blissful period,

regained his courage, his liberty, his independence, and his virtue!

could

How happy,

but behold thee otherwise than in a dream Haste! thou age so desired,

I

!

my

thou object of

fear, alas

!

I

fear,

Come, and pour down happiness upon the

earnest wishes!

what do

earth! But I

fair

have

shall

say? Delivered from the illusions of a pleasing dream,

I

that thy sun

more

is

like to cast a

gloomy

light

on

a formless

mass of ashes, and of ruins.

The Academy of Science

We

advanced toward the academy.

different its situation

a part of the palace of a king.

A

pope now

It still

from that where

How

it

my

!

It

no longer made

wonderful are the revolutions of ages

!

the place of the Caesars! ignorance and superstition

sits in

Would

inhabit Athens! the fine arts have flown to Russia!

believed in

how

preserved that name; but

was formerly held

marked with

time, that a mountain

affording nurture to a few asses

by

its thistles,

it

have been

ridicule for merely

should become the just image

of the ancient Parnassus, the seat of genius, the habitation of renowned writers?

They would have

abolished the

name of Montmartre, but from

a

complaisance to received prejudices.

This august spot, cloathed on

all

sides

by venerable woods,

to solitude; an express law forbids the approach of

all

is

consecrated

The

discordant noise.

earth has produced fresh beds of stone to form the foundations of this noble

asylum.

On

nourished

this

mount, blessed with the most genial rays of the sun, are

fair trees,

and sometimes

whose towering summits sometimes embrace each

at distance keep, to afford the exploring

other,

a prospect of the

eye

face of heaven.

As

I

mounted with

my

guide,

tages, distinct from each other.

half concealed

by the woods, and

—"You so engaging.

hour approaches." In side,

shall fact,

I

I

observed, here and there, elegant hermi-

asked

who

inhabited those flowery spots,

half exposed to view,

soon know," was replied I

saw

a great

;

whose aspect appeared

"let us

number of persons

now

hasten

;

the

arrive from every

not in coaches, but on foot. Their conversation seemed to be highly

pleasing and animated.

We entered an

edifice sufficiently large,

but decorated

2500

In the Tear

with great simplicity.

I

(

observed no Swiss, armed with

a

J

35)

heavy halberd,

at

the door of the tranquil sanctuary of the Muses; there was nothing to forbid

entrance amidst a crowd of worthy men.

The

hall

was remarkably sonorous so that the most ;

might be heard not

less

knew

at the greatest distance.

The

feeble

academic voice

order that there reigned was

remarkable; several rows of benches surrounded the hall;

that the ear should be at

of a painter. seats

1

I

its

considered every object at

was not ridiculously

they

for

ease in an academy, as the eye in the saloon

fixed; but

my

leisure.

The number

of academics

what seemed most singular was,

that,

on

the back of every chair, a scroll was displayed, on which were distinctly

wrote the

titles

who

of that academician

chose

it

for his seat;

every one

might place himself in an armed chair without any other previous ceremony than that of displaying the

scroll that

contained the

title

of his works.

It is

easy to conceive, that no one offered to display a charte blanche, as was done in

my

still less would they dare work of mean merit, or a points out some new discovery in

day, by bishops, marshals, and preceptors;*

to expose to the severe public eye the title of a servile imitation;

must be

it

work

a

the arts, or, at least, that excels

all

that

others on the same subject. 3

My guide pulled me by the sleeve— "You seem astonished; let me increase

your wonder. Those charming habitations which you observed on ascending the mountain, form the retreats of those that

commands them

to write.

solitude that genius displays

unknown

regions.

When

descends into himself,

its

struck by an

unknown power

are Carthusians;

4

it is

in

powers, forsakes the beaten path, and discovers

does enthusiasm spring forth?

when he

investigates his

mine, of whose value the possessor inspirers are retreat

who are

Our academicians

and friendship!

5

is

own

When

soul,

the author

that profound

not unfrequently ignorant.

What more

is

What who

necessary to those

1. I have ever been highly curious to see a man of genius, and have thought that I discovered in his port, his actions, the air of his head, his countenance, and aspect, something that distinguished him from the common race of men. The science of physiognomy still remains to be properly investigated. 2. We have seen on the Boulevards an automaton that articulated sounds, and the people flock to admire it. How many automata, with human faces, do we see at court, at the bar, in the academies, who owe their speech to the breath of invisible agents; when they cease, the machines remain dumb. 3. There are no longer any means left to distinguish ourselves, they say. Wretches! that hunt after smoke, the path of virtue still lies before you; there you will find but few competitors; but that is not the sort of glory that you seek. I understand you; you would become the subject of popular discourse. I sigh for you, and for the human race. 4. Let him who would acquire a strength of mind, assiduously exert its powers; the greatest sluggard is ever the greatest slave. 5. Man has much longer time to live with the mind than with the senses; he would therefore act wisely to depend for his pleasures on the former rather than on the latter.

Louis Sébastien Mercier

(136)

search for nature and truth?

Where do we hear

their sublime voice? In the

tumult of cities, amidst that crowd of low pursuits, that, unknown to ourselves,

No;

besiege the heart? it

there that

is

amidst the rural scenes that the soul rejuvenates;

it is

contemplates the majesty of the universe, that majesty

it

eloquent and all-gracious the thought strikes, the expression glows the image ;

and

;

splendor become widely extended, like the horizon that surrounds

its

"In your days, the

men

coquettes, and obtain an equivocal smile; they sacrificed

manly

us.

of letters frequented the circles to amuse the all

that was bold and

to the superstitious empire of fashion; they divested the soul of its real

nature, to please the age. Instead of looking forward to an august series of ages,

they rendered themselves slaves to a momentary

pursued ingenious falshoods; they Be

taste.

In a word, they

that inward voice which cries,

stifled

severe as the time that flies; be inexorable as posterity.

"These academics, moreover, here enjoy that happy mediocrity, 6 which, amongst

us, constitutes sovereign wealth.

either with a desire to discover the least

We do

not offer to interrupt them,

movements of their minds,

vanity of being admitted to their company.

We

or from a

revere their time, as

we do

the hallowed bread of the indigent; but attentive to their desires, at the least signal they find

them

gratified."

—

If that

be the case, you must have sufficient

employment. Are there not those who assume the rank or real weakness?

—"No;

this region

least spot is easily discovered.

man

bear the look of a

For those

whom

benign temper,

a

effectually dissuade

ungrateful

a

them from

word, the law enjoins.

sudden general

my ear, when I

which he held

O

Imposture dare not here intrude;

it

can never

presumption may bring hither, 7 there are persons of

who

was interrupted by script

to cover their idleness

so strongly illuminated, that the

of genius, whose piercing eye nought can deceive.

redound to their honour. In

flew to

is

.

a project that .

."

a

cannot

— Our conversation

silence in the assembly.

My

whole soul

beheld one of the academicians prepare to read a manu-

in his hand,

and with

memory, how could

I

a grace

by no means

reproach thee?

Why

insignificant.

didst thou desert

me? Would that I could repeat the persuasive discourse pronounced by that The force, the method, the flowing periods have escaped me; but the impression on my mind can never be effaced. No; never was I so enraptured. The visage of each auditor reflected those sentiments with which I

academic!

6. The great man is modest; the man of mediocrity displays his indifferent advantages; so the majestic river glides silently along, while the rivulet runs chattering over the rugged

pebbles. 7. is

There

is

no object that may not be viewed from a hundred different stations; but there it can be justly beheld; and if that is not chosen, genius and labour

only one from whence

become

useless.

In the Tear

was agitated;

it

2500

( I 37)

was one of the most delicious enjoyments

my

What

depths! what images! what truths! what a noble flame!

tone!

The

felt.

how sublime

a

8 orator declaimed against envy, described the sources of that

fatal passion, its horrible effects,

the infamy

crowned many great men;

its

all

has cast on the laurels that have

it

vile, unjust,

detestable qualities were so

we deplored the fate our own hearts should be

strongly painted, that while victims,

heart ever

we trembled

The mirror was

lest

of

its

unhappy

blind,

by

infected

poison.

its

so properly presented before each particular character, their

meanness exposed

in

such various and ridiculous lights, the

displayed in a manner so new, so refined, so striking, that

it

human

heart

was impossible

know them; and when knowing, not to form the design of abjuring that The fear of bearing some resemblance to that frightful monster, envy, produced a happy effect. I saw, O instructive sight! O moment

not to

miserable weakness.

unheard of

in the annals of literature!

I

saw the members of that assembly

regard each other with a tender and sympathizing look;

I

saw them mutually

open their arms, embrace, and cry with joy; their bosoms resting and panting against each other;

I

saw

(will it be believed?) the authors dispersed

about the room imitate the affectionate transports of the academicians, and convinced of the talents of their brethren, swear an unalterable, eternal

and benevolence flow from every eye.

friendship;

I

saw the

They were

a

company of brothers, who substituted

in the

tears of affection

that honourable applause

room of our stupid clapping of hands. 9

After the

full

enjoyment of those delicious moments

expressed the various sensations that he had

felt,

;

after each

one had

and those strokes by which

he was most strongly affected; and after frequently repeating the vows of

member of this august society arose with a smiling murmur ran through the hall, for he was esteemed a

endless friendship, another

an applauding

air;

Socratic railer.

10

"Gentlemen, but,

I

He raised his voice, and said, Many reasons have induced me

think, curious extract of

to offer

what our academy was

you

to

day

a short,

in its infancy, that

is,

8. How I pity the envious and jealous mind, that glances over the valuable parts of a work, and knows not how to enjoy them. By analogy it dwells on those parts only that are imperfect. The man of letters who by an habitual exercise of reason and taste, improves the one and the other, and incessantly creates to himself new joys, is of all men the most happy if he can

—

divest himself of jealousy or of an over sensibility. 9. When, at the theatre or the academy, an affecting or sublime passage strikes the assembly, instead of that sigh from the bottom of the heart, and the silent emotions, I hear those clappings redoubled till they shake the roof, I say to myself, these people have no feeling; they are men of wood that strike two boards together. 10. As a malignant raillery is the fruit of an iniquitous disposition, so an ingenious pleasantry is the fruit of wisdom. A sprightly temper and graceful manner were the most triumphant arms of Socrates.

Louis Sébastien Mercier

(138)

about the eighteenth century. The cardinal

who was our

our predecessors have so extravagantly extolled, and to in

founder, and

whom

whom

they attributed,

our establishment, the most profound designs, would never have formed

this institution, (let us confess it) if

which he cardinal,

I

he had not himself made wretched verses

and which he was desirous that we should

idolized,

say, at the time he invited the authors to form

celebrate.

That

one body, discovered

temper, when he made them subject to rules ever unknown to Our founder had so imperfect an idea of what such a society ought to that he limited the number of members to forty; so that Corneille and

his despotic

genius. be,

Montesquieu might have waited

at the

cardinal imagined, moreover, that genius if titles

and dignities did not rouse

door to the end of their days. This

would naturally remain

from

it

inanity.

its

When

in obscurity,

he formed this

strange judgment, surely, he could think of such rhimers only as Colletet

and

in

whom

his colleagues,

he supported out of mere vanity.

became an established custom, that they who had money the room of merit, and titles instead of genius, seated themselves by those

"From thence

it

whose names had been celebrated by fame throughout himself the

men who drew

own

Europe.

all

example, and he was but too well imitated.

first

When

He was

those great

and whose regards were

fixed

on that of posterity, had covered with glory the place where they held

their

the attention of their

age,

assemblies, the gilt and titled idiots besieged the door; nay, almost to declare, that they reflected

and, in

fact, believed,

presumed

honour on the society by their paltry ribbons,

or pretended to believe, that,

by seating themselves

by men of genius, they actually resembled them.

"Then were

seen marshals, as well victorious as beaten, mitred heads that

had never made

who pretended

mandate,

a

men of the long robe, preceptors, and financiers, men of genius; and though they were nothing

to the title of

more than the decorations of the

Some

capital performers. lustre; the rest

had only

a

theatre, really believed themselves to be

eight or ten

borrowed

death of an academician in order to for the

most

"What

part,

still

among

light; yet fill

the forty shone by their it

was necessary to wait

his place,

own

for the

and which, nevertheless,

remained empty.

could be more ludicrous than to see that academy, whose renown

was spread over

room? There,

all

the capital, hold

in several

armed

its

assemblies in a small, close,

chairs, that

were formerly

red,

mean

were seen,

from time to time, a number of indolent wretches, carelessly seated, weighing of syllables, or carefully culling the words out of some piece of prose or poetry, in order, at

last, to

applaud the most unmeaning among them. But,

on the other hand, pray remark

it,

gentlemen, they never erred in calculating

—

In the Tear

number

the

2300

(*39)

Can room of a branch

of counters that each gained by the absence of his brethren.

you believe that they gave the conqueror of oak, and that on

it

a gold

medal

in the

there was engraved this ridiculous inscription:

Immortalité? Alas! that immortality passed the next

crucible; and that was the

most

real

A

day into the goldsmith's

advantage the victorious champion

obtained.

"Could you imagine, that those

little

victories

sometimes turned the

conquerors brains, so great was their ridiculous vanity?" and that the judges exercised scarce any other function than that of distributing those useless prizes,

about which no one even ever made inquiry?

"The

open to none but authors; and they were

place of their assembly was

admitted by tickets only. In the morning was performed a

a musical

trembling priest pronounced the panegyric of Lewis IX.

why)

well

him

extolling

sovereign."

Then

(I

more than an hour, though he was

for

mass; then

know

not very

certainly a bad

the orator declaimed on the croisades, which highly

inflamed the archbishop's

bile,

who

interdicted the priestly orator, for his

temerity in displaying good sense. In the evening was another eulogy; but as that

was on

a profane subject the

himself with the doctrine "It

is

it

archbishop happily did not concern

contained.

proper to remark, that the place where they displayed their wit was

guarded by

fusileers

and gigantic Swiss, who understood no French. Nothing

was more comic than the contrast between the meagre figure of the man of letters,

and the enormous blustering stature of the Swiss. This was

a public assembly.

The

public,

it is

true,

were there; but

it

was

called

at the door; a

poor acknowledgement for their complaisance. In the mean time, the sole liberty that remained to the nation verse, to

condemn one

was to pronounce absolutely on prose or

author, applaud another, and sometimes laugh at

them

all.

"The academic a royal censor,

1

3

rage,

however, possessed every brain every one would be ;

and then an academician. They calculated the

lives of all the

Except the university prizes, which give rise to a foolish pride in childish heads, I more pernicious than the medals of our literary academies. The conqueror really thinks himself a person of consequence, and is ruined for the remainder of his days; he disdains every one who has not been crowned with so rare and illustrious a laurel. See in the Mercure de France, for the month of September, 1769, page 184, an instance of the most ridiculous egotism. A very diminutive author informs the publick, that when he was at college, he performed his theme better than his colleagues; he glories in it, and imagines that he maintains the same rank in the republic of letters. Risum teneatis, amici? 12. The first penal edict against particular sentiments or opinions was denounced by Lewis IX. vulgarly called St. Lewis. 13. Royal censor! I never hear that word without laughter. We Frenchmen know not how ridiculous we are, nor what right we give posterity to regard us with pity. 11.

know

of nothing

Louis Sébastien Mercier

(140)

members of the academy, remarked the degree of vigour

that their stomachs

discovered at table; death seemed to the candidates to be slow in his approach the cry was,

muttered

They

as

Ah! when

softly,

table, standing

When

are immortal!

my

with

shall

a

new member was

make thy eulogy

I

at the

;

chosen, some one

bottom of the long

hat on, and declare thee to be a great man, as well

Lewis XIV. and the chancellor Seguier, while you sleep profoundly under

your tomb-stone decorated with a curious epitaph.

"The men

of

money

completely banished the

at last so far prevailed in a golden age, that they

men

of letters; so that in the following generation,

messieurs the farmers-general, were in possession of the forty armed chairs,

where they snored

more dextrous

proverb arose, There

"The men

much

as

is

and were

at their ease as their predecessors;

in dividing the counters.

From thence

it

still

was that the old

no entering the academy without an equipage.

of letters, unable to regain their usurped dominion, and drove

to despair, conspired in form.

They had

epigrams, songs, and vaudevilles; quiver of satire; but, alas! adversaries were

become

all

14

recourse to their usual weapons,

they exhausted

their attacks

were

the arrows from the

all

fruitless; the hearts of their

so callous as to be no longer penetrable, even by the

the bon mots of messieurs the authors would

piercing strokes of ridicule;

all

have been thrown away but

for the aid

the academicians on a certain day,

of a violent indigestion, that surprised

when assembled

at a splendid feast.

Those

three divinities, Apollo, Pluto, and the god of the digestive faculty, quarrelled

with each other; Indigestion attacking them under the double

and academics, destroyed them almost

financiers

all;

men

the

entered their ancient dominion, and the academy was saved

There was an universal burst of laughter asked me, in a low voice, part; but

hundred

when we

years,

it is

if

down on

look

.

in the assembly.

the account was just. Yes,

I

title

of

of letters again ." .

Some

of them

replied, for the

most

summit of seven turn to what then

past times from the

doubtless easy to give a ridiculous

academy agreed, even in my time, that each was of more worth than the institution itself. that confession. The misfortune is, that when men

existed. For the rest, the

member who composed Nothing can be added meet to

Montesquieu

in assemblies, their heads contract, as

said,

who ought

know. I

passed into an apartment that contained the portraits of the academicians,

as well ancient as

academics

at

to

it

now

modern;

I

took particular notice of those that succeeded the

living; but, to avoid offence,

14. Poor arms! which even are once seeks after and dreads.

now

I

shall not

name them.

prohibited, and which the insolent pride of the great

In the Tear Hélas! la vérité

On V

aime, et

(

141 )

souvent est cruelle ,

si

les

2500

humains sont malheureux par

elle.

Volt. Alas! the truth

Her

cruel,

and

we

though

love,

a foe to

human

oft

we

find

kind.

cannot, however, refrain from relating a fact that will certainly give

I

great pleasure to every generous mind, that loves justice and detests tyranny;

which all

that the portrait of the abbé St. Pierre was reinstated in

is,

the honours due to such exemplary virtue.

They had

of which the academy had rendered itself culpable, while

yoke of a servitude

to a

it

its

rank with

effaced the turpitude it

bowed the neck

ought never to have known. They had placed

inestimable and virtuous writer between Fénelon and Montesquieu. the praises due to this noble equity. Christina, nor of

been

for

As

I

,

nor

I

saw no portrait of Richelieu, nor of

nor

,

this

gave

I

which, though but paintings, had

,

ever discarded.

descended the mountain,

groves where dwelt the

men

I

cast

my

eyes

many

times on those lovely

of brilliant genius, who, in silence, and in the

contemplation of nature, laboured to form the hearts of their countrymen to virtue, to the love of the true I

and beautiful; when

softly

I

said:

Would

that

could render myself worthy of this academy!

Execution of a Criminal

The

repeated mournful sounds of a dreadful clarion suddenly struck

and seemed to murmur to the

air

my

the names of misery and death; the

ear,

drums

of the city guards went slowly round, beating the alarm; and these ominous

sounds, repeated by the mind, citizens

and

come

lifting his

piercing grief.

filled it

with a profound horror.

forth with doleful aspects; each

one addressed

eyes to heaven, wept, and showed I

asked one of them,

why

all

his

I

saw the

neighbour,

the tokens of the most

tolled the funeral bells,

and what

accident had happened?

"One

that

is

most

terrible," he replied,

with a groan. "Justice

this

day

is

condemn a citizen to lose his life, of which he has rendered himself unworthy, by embruing his murdering hands in his brother's blood. More

forced to

(

1

42 )

Louis Sébastien Mercier

than thirty years have passed since the sun beheld a crime like the day

is

finished, he

must

expire.

O, what tears have

I

shed

this.

Before

for the fury that

drove him to such a blind vengeance! Have you heard the particulars of the crime that was committed the night before last? that

we have

lost

sighed bitterly.

O

grief!

one worthy citizen; but must another

—"Hear,

is

not enough

it

suffer

death?"

— He

hear the story of that direful event, which has

spread over us an universal lamentation.

"One of our fellow-citizens, though otherwise

for passion,

married to a young

of a fiery disposition, from his birth remarkable

man

a

woman whom

of merit, was on the point of being

he loved to distraction. Her temper was as

gentle as that of her lover was impetuous; she flattered herself, however,

with being able to soften

his

escaped him, notwithstanding for the direful

his violent

person

;

manners; but the many all

his care to conceal

sallies

of wrath that

them, made her tremble

consequences that might proceed from a union with a

temper. Every woman, by our law,

is

man

of

absolute mistress of her

she therefore determined, from a fear of being miserable, to marry

who was

another,

these nuptials set

of a character more conformable to her own. fire

The

torch of

to the rage of an implacable heart, which in the tenderest

known moderation. He gave many private challenges to his who despised them; for he knew there was more bravery in

years had never

happy

rival,

disdaining an insult, and in stifling a resentment, than in yielding to the

impulse of passion, in a manner that both our laws and reason proscribe. The

enraged man, listening to nothing but jealousy, rencountered the other, the

day before yesterday,

in a private path

without the

city,

and on

his refusing

again to combat with him, he seized a branch of a tree, and laid him dead at his feet. After this horrid act, the

inhuman wretch dared

but his crime was already engraved on

we

his front;

we no

to

come amongst

us

;

sooner saw him, than

discovered that he was criminal, though then ignorant of the nature of his

offence.

But soon we saw several

citizens, their cheeks

wet with

tears,

who

bore, with solemn steps, to the foot of the throne of justice, the bloody corpse

that cried for vengeance.

"At the age of fourteen, they read to us the laws of our country. Every is obliged to write them with his own hand, and to make oath that he will observe them. These laws command us to inform the police of all those

one

1

scarce to be believed, that the most important of our Jaws, as well civil as criminal, to the greatest part of the nation. It would be extremely easy to imprint them with a character of majesty; but they are only published to thunder on the guilty, and not to 1.

are

It is

unknown

The sacred code of the laws is wrote in a dry and barbarous language, and sleeps among the dust of the rolls. Would it not be proper to clothe it with the charms of eloquence, and by that means render it respectable to the multitude?

excite the citizen to virtue.

2500

In the Tear

( 143 )

infractions that offend against the order of society; but they intend those

matters only that cause a real detriment.

We

renew

this sacred oath

every ten

years; and without being busy informers, religiously watch over the preser-

vation of our venerable laws.

"Yesterday they published the monitory, which

Whoever should delay infamy. By this means villain, for a

to declare it is

is

an act entirely

that homicide

soon discovered.

is

but

terrify us,

It is

with applause. You

months

in a

broken by going to

a

2

purged; they

the people to be witness

calls all

the day of its triumph; and,

will not see a

dungeon,

a previous

is

in the histories of past ages.

"Obey, with me, the voice of justice, that of its awful decrees. it

None but

long time familiarized with guilt, can cooly deny the crime he

has just committed; and of this sort of monsters our nation

no longer

civil.

what he knew would be branded with

who

wretch

his eyes dazzled

by the

fatal as it is,

receive

light of the sun, his bones

and secret punishment more horrible than that he

advance with hideous and dying looks, towards

suffer,

we

has been plunged for six

is

a scaffold

erected in an obscure nook. In your time, the criminal, judged in the secrecy of a prison, was sometimes broke on the wheel in the silence of the night, at the door of

some sleeping

citizen;

who waking with

terror at the cries of the

excruciated wretch, was uncertain whether he was suffering under the iron

We

have none of those

a regard to

humanity even with

bar of an executioner, or the sword of an assassin. tortures that are shocking to nature;

them who have offended against with merely putting a you,

all

man

it.

we have

In your age, they

horrible as they were,

and multiplied

from being dragged along in a manner that

why

even fettered. Alas! delivers himself

up to death? Justice has

the midst of some soldiers, tude.

We

have no

should he fly?

fear

fly

What

in cold blood.

is

The

upon

guilty, far

disgraceful to justice,

is

not

when he freely condemn him to death,

should he be loaded with chains, full

power

but not to charge him with marks of slavery.

endeavouring to

seemed not to be content

to death, so little effect the tragic scenes had

You

to

will see

who surround him merely

him walk

freely in

to keep off the multi-

that he will a second time disgrace himself

by

from the terrible voice that accuses him. Whither country, what people would receive

among them an

Wretched is the state that refines on its penal laws. Is not the punishment of death but must man add to its horror? Can le be called a magistrate who interrogates with torturing machines, and gradually crushes a wretch by a slow progression of the most horrid pangs? who, ingenious in his tortures, stops death, when, gentle and charitable, it advances to deliver the victim? Here nature revolts. But if you would be more fully convinced of the inutility of the torture, see the admirable Treatise on Crimes and Punishments. I defy any man to produce one solid reason in favour of that barbarous law. 2.

sufficient;

Louis Sébastien Mercier

(144) assassin? 3

and how could he ever

efface that horrid

mark which the hand of

the Divinity imprints on the front of a murderer; the tempest of remorse

is

there painted in glaring characters; and the eye accustomed to the aspect

of virtue will easily distinguish the physiognomy of guilt. can he ever be free

who

feels

the

immense weight that

How,

presses

in short,

upon

his

heart!"

We arrived at a spacious

place that surrounded the palace of justice. Along

the front of the hall of audience there ran a large flight of steps.

kind of amphitheatre that the senate assembled on public of the people;

important inspired

it

affairs

was under

The

The

the prelate,

place.

;

the numerous

it chose to transact the most body of citizens there assembled

death of a citizen was a calamity to the all

that solemnity,

all

state.

The

to

judges

that importance

it

order of advocates were on one side, constantly ready to plead

for the innocent,

God

this

the sight

their inspection that

of the nation

not to give their sentence

deserved.

the

was on

them with sentiments worthy of the august concerns committed

their care. failed

It

affairs, in

but

silent in the cause of the guilty.

On

accompanied by the pastors, bare-headed,

the other side,

silently

invoked

of Mercy, and edified the people, spread in crowds over

all

the

4

The breast,

criminal appeared; he was dressed in a bloody shirt; he beat his

and shewed

all

the marks of a sincere repentance. His visage, however,

expressed nothing of that dreadful embarrassment so unbecoming a man,

who

3. They say that Europe is civilized; and yet a man who has committed a murder, or made fraudulent bankruptcy, can retire to London, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, etc., and there peaceably enjoy the fruits of his iniquity. Among so many puerile treaties, can they not

a

stipulate, that the

murderer

shall

no where

find an

asylum?

Is

not every state and every

man

interested in his punishment? But monarchs will as soon agree on the destruction of the Jesuits. 4. Our form of justice does not command awe, but excites disgust. It is an odious and shocking sight to see a man take off his laced hat, lay down his sword on the scaffold, mount the ladder in a suit of silk or lace, and dance indecently on the body of the wretch that is hanging. Why not give the executioner that formidable aspect he ought to shew? To what purpose is this cold barbarity? The laws thereby lose their dignity, and the punishment its terror. The judge is still more sprucely powdered than the hangman. Shall I here declare the sensations that I have felt? I have trembled, not for the criminal's offence, but for the horrid unconcern of all those that surrounded him. There has been none but that generous man who reconciled the unfortunate sinner to the Supreme Being, who assisted him in drinking the cup of death, that appeared to me to have any remains of humanity. Do we only wish to destroy mankind? Are we ignorant of the art of terrifying the imagination without violence to humanity? Learn at length, thoughtless and cruel men, learn to be judges, learn how to prevent crimes; conciliate what is owing to the law with what is owing to man. I have not the power to speak here of those artful tortures that some criminals have suffered, who seem to have been reserved, so to say, for a privileged punishment. O disgrace to my country! the eyes of that sex which seems made for pity remained the longest fixed on that scene of horrors. Let us draw the curtain. What can I say to those who understand me not?

2500

In the Tear

(

145 )

ought to know how to die when necessity calls, and especially when he merits death. They made him pass by a sort of cage, where, they told me, the

body of the murdered man was exposed.

On

his near

approach, he was seized

with such violent remorse, that they suffered him to

He approached

retire.

the judges, and put one knee to the ground, to kiss the sacred volume of the

was then opened to him, and they read, with

law. It

it;

he then

mounting a strong

fell

on

and majestic

were standing, then

would undertake

When

was prepared

raise

do not hate you; we grieve

Obey

Our

him up; he then

said,

"nothing now remains

and obtain your pardon of God and of men.

to die with firmness,

detestation by us.

for

you, and your

memory

have accomplished her

to choose. If

you

fatal decrees.

you may; but

will live,

loaded with our indignation.

You

salutary

Death

will all

it

is less

dreadful

It is still in

must be

your

in disgrace,

and

behold the sun constantly upbraiding

will

you with having deprived your fellow-being of with which

its

tears bear witness that affection will take place in our hearts,

justice shall

you they

will not be held in

the law with chearfulness, and revere

than ignominy. Submit to the one, to avoid the other.

to

who

his defence.

you but

power

of the senate,

the head of the senate had done reading, he deigned to stretch out

hand to the criminal, and

when

The head

him, read his condemnation with

down, by which they declared that no one of them

his

rigour.

his guilt.

for

voice. All the counsellors, as well as the advocates, sat

for

We

and confessed

his knees,

a platform that

a loud voice, the sentence

book before him, that he might read

relative to homicides; they placed the

his genial

and

brilliant rays

;

be hateful, as they will only discover those disdainful looks

men

regard an assassin.

You

will bear

about with you every

where the load of your remorse, and the eternal shame of having refused to submit to that

just

law which has condemned you.

condemn yourself." The criminal bowed

Do

justice to society,

and

5

deserving of death. 6

5.

his head;

by which he declared that he judged himself

He immediately

prepared to submit with constancy, and

They who are invested with a power that gives them authority over mankind ought to how they treat them merely according to their own demerits; they should

take great heed

regard every criminal as a wretch more or less insane; they should therefore treat them as beings who, by some unknown cause, have been led out of the right path. Even when the

judge pronounces condemnation with majesty, he should secretly lament that he cannot screen the criminal from punishment. To terrify vice by the most awful apparatus of justice, and privately to reclaim the guilty, should be the two grand points of criminal jurisprudence. 6.

me

Propitious conscience, thou equitable and ready judge, be never absent from me! Tell I cannot do the least injury to another without receiving the counter-

constantly, that

stroke; that

I

must

necessarily

wound

myself,

when

I

wound

another.

Louis Sébastien Mercier

(146)

with that resignation which,

humanity. 7

He was no

rounded him; the

in

our

prelate, taking off the

vestment, which was the token of

him the

kiss of peace.

appeared

last

is

so highly

becoming of

bloody

shirt,

his reconciliation

clothed him in a white

with mankind, and gave

His friends and relations crowded to embrace him

by receiving

satisfied

moments,

longer regarded as guilty; the body of pastors sur-

their caresses,

;

he

and by being vested with that

garment, which was a proof of the pardon he received from

his

country.

Those testimonies of friendship took from him the horrors of approaching

The

death.

make

prelate,

advancing toward the people, seized that moment to

and pathetic discourse on the danger of passion;

a nervous

eloquent, so just and affecting, that every heart was terror.

filled

Each one resolved to watch carefully over

his

those seeds of resentment, which increase in a manner

it

was so

with admiration and

temper, and to

unknown

stifle

to ourselves,

and soon produce the most unbridled passions.

During

this interval, a

to the monarch, that he

deputy from the senate bore the sentence of death

might sign

it

with

his

own hand;

for

no one could

be put to death without his consent, as in him resided the power of the sword.

That good

father

moment, he

that

an exemplary

life

of the criminal; 8 but, in

justice.

The deputy tolls,

would gladly have spared the

sacrificed the earnest desire of his heart to the necessity of

returned.

Then

again the bells of the city began their funeral

the drums repeated their mournful march, and those deploring sounds

meeting

in the air

with the groans of the numerous people, one would have

thought that the city was on the brink of an universal destruction. The friends

and

relations of the unfortunate

man going

to

meet

his

death gave him the

last

embrace; the prelate invoked, with a loud voice, the forgiveness of the Supreme Being, and the vaulted roof of heaven resounded with the supplications of the

whole people, who

cried,

with one mighty voice,

"0

Almighty God,

receive his

God of Mercy, forgive him, even as we forgive him/" They conducted him, with slow steps, to the cage I have mentioned,

soul!

surrounded by

his

friends.

Six fusileers,

their faces

still

covered with crape,

signal, by holding up the book and the soul disappeared. 9 They took up the dead body.

advanced; the head of the senate gave the of the law; they

fired,

7. Agesilaus seeing a malefactor endure punishment with unconcern, "O wicked man," he said, "to make so bad a use of fortitude." 8. I am sorry that our kings have renounced that ancient and wise custom. When they sign so many papers, why should they neglect one of the most august privileges of their crown? 9. I have frequently heard it debated, whether the person of an executioner be infamous. have a I have always been concerned when they have given it in his favour, and could never respect for those who ranked him with the class of other citizens. I may be wrong; but such is

my

opinion.

2300

In the Tear

( x 47)

His crime being fully expiated by his punishment, he was again received into the class of citizens; his name, that had been effaced, was inscribed again in the public register, with the names of those

people had not the cruelty to pursue the

and to

reflect

on

a

who had died the same day. This memory of a man even to his tomb;

whole innocent family the crime of an individual;

10

they

did not find pleasure in dishonouring, without cause, useful citizens, and

make men

miserable, for the satisfaction of

was carried to be burned without the

city,

making them humble. His body

with

his fellow-citizens,

who, the

preceding day, had paid the inevitable debt to nature; his relations had no other grief to encounter than that which arose from the loss of a friend.

The same conferred

evening, a place of trust and honour becoming vacant, the king it

on the brother of the criminal; and every one applauded a choice

that was dictated

by equity and beneficence.

With a heart full of tenderness and commiseration, I said, O, how is humanity respected among you! The death of a citizen is the cause of universal mourning to his country. "It is because our laws," they replied, "are wise and humane; they are calculated more for reformation than for chastisement; the way to intimidate vice is not to render punishment common, but formid-

—

able;

it is

solitude,

we send

our study to prevent crimes;

the refractory to places of

where they are attended by those who endeavour to bring them to

repentance,

who

operate by degrees on their hardened hearts, and gradually

whose attractions the most depraved

display the refined charms of virtue, to

of mortals are not insensible. Does the physician at the fever

may

abandon

his patient?

Why,

therefore, should

we

first

attack of a violent

desert the guilty,

who

yet be recovered? There are few hearts so corrupted, as not to be restored

by perseverance; and tranquility

a little blood, properly

poured

forth,

cements our

and our happiness.

"Your penal laws were

all

made

in favour of the rich; all

fell

on the head of

the poor; gold was become the god of nations; edicts and gibbets surrounded all

possessions

;

and tyranny, with sword

and blood of the unfortunate;

it

made

in hand, bartered the days, the

thereby taught the people to make none in crimes; offence as the

most infamous

sweat

no distinction in chastisements, and

villainy.

What was

punished the

least

the consequence?

The

it

multiplying of laws multiplied crimes, and the offenders became as inhuman as their judges.

society,

Legislation,

drew the bands

when

it

so tight as to

attempted to unite the members of

throw

it

into convulsions; and, instead

of maintaining, destroyed the connections; mournful humanity sent forth the 10.

Base and despicable prejudice, that confounds

reason, and only calculated for a

weak

or wicked people.

all

notions of justice,

is

contrary to

(

Louis Sébastien Mercier

148 )

cry of grief, and saw too

late, that

the tortures of the executioner never inspire

When we

examine the validity of that right which human societies have assumed of we are terrified at the imperceptible point which separates equity from injustice. It is to little purpose here that we accumulate arguments; all our lights serve but to lead us astray; we must return to the law of nature only, which has far more regard than our institutions, for the life of a man; that teaches us, that the law of retaliation is, of all others, the most conformable to right reason. Among rising governments, which have yet the signature of nature, there is scarce any crime punished with death. In the case of murder there is no doubt; 1

1.

punishing with death,

for

nature

tells us,

that

we should arm

ourselves against assassins.

.

.

.

DENIS DIDEROT (1713-1784)

Love

in Tahiti*

Diderot was the son of a prosperous cutler of Langres. After attending Jesuit schools in his native city

turned

his

and

in Paris, to his father's

dismay he

back on the more "respectable" professions and became

bookseller's hack, writing,

among

Diderot's talented and prolific pen gained artistic circles

a

other pieces, sermons for missionaries.

him entree

to the literary

and

of the capital. His reputation as a philosophe was largely

earned as principal editor and author of the Encyclopedia, a titanic

effort

him in straitened circumstances. He was rescued from his financial plight by Catherine the Great, who purchased his library and allowed him to keep it in Paris, appointing him that

consumed

his

mature years but

her librarian at an annual stipend.

manuscript during his lifetime. used the imagined

felicity

left

Many

The

of the South Seas as a

and corrupt mores of his own society, ville's

of Diderot's works remained in

dialogue reprinted here, in which he

is

foil for

the unnatural

part of the Supplement

to

Bougain-

Voyage. Written in 1772 as the expansion of a sympathetic book

review of Bougainville's account, the work was posthumously published (1796) by an abbé with the intention of exposing

its

author as the founder

of sansculottism.

From

Denis Diderot, Rameau'i Nephew and Other Worh, translated by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1956), pp. 202-23. Copyright 1956 by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday and

©

Company,

Inc.

149

o

Bust of Diderot by Jean-Antoine Houdon, plaster, 1771.

(Paris,

Louvre.)

—

Orou and

B.

the Chaplain

— When the members of Bougainville's expedition were shared out among

the native families, the ship's chaplain

fell

The

to the lot of Orou.

and the chaplain were men of about the same age, that

is,

Tahitian

about thirty-five

years old. At that time, Orou's family consisted of his wife and three daughters,

who were washed

called Asto, Palli

When

frugal meal.

with all

hands and

his face,

Eve

as

"You

are

he was about to go to bed, Orou,

—and said to him

young and healthy and you have

my

wife and here are

but

if

you would

The mother

my

like to

who

girl,

who had

stepped outside girls

:

man

sleeps alone, sleeps badly; at night a

youngest

their guest,

and put before him a wholesome though

reappeared and presented to him his wife and three

his family,

naked

and Thia. The women undressed feet,

just

needs a

had

a

good supper. He who

woman

at his side.

Here

is

daughters. Choose whichever one pleases you most,

do me

a favor,

you

your preference to

will give

my

has not yet had any children."

said:

"Poor

girl!

I

don't hold

it

against her.

It's

no

fault of

hers."

The and

chaplain replied that his religion, his holy orders, his moral standards

his sense of

decency

Orou answered: but

I

all

prevented him from accepting Orou's invitation.

"I don't

know what

this

thing

can only have a low opinion of it because

it

is

that

forbids

you

call 'religion,'

you to partake of an

innocent pleasure to which Nature, the sovereign mistress of us

everybody.

It

all,

invites

seems to prevent you from bringing one of your fellow creatures

into the world, from doing a favor asked of their children,

you by

from repaying the kindness of

nation by giving

it

an additional citizen \\ don't

'holy orders,' but your chief duty

not asking you to take

is

to be a

a father, a

a host,

know what

man and

to

mother and

and from enriching it is

show

that you

gratitude.

I

a

call

am

my moral standards back with you to your own country,

but Orou, your host and your friend, begs you merely to lend yourself to the morality of Tahiti.

This

is

Is

our moral code a better or a worse one than your own?

an easy question to answer. Does the country you were born

more people than

it

can support?

better nor worse than ours.

If it does,

Or can

it

151

feed

in

have

then your morals are neither

more people than

it

now

has?

Denis Diderot

(152)

Then our morals I

am

in the

As

are better than yours.

my

you to object to

leads

wrong.

I

proposal, that

ask your pardon.

might harm your health; But

at the distress

you have caused to appear on the

hope that you

admit that

freely

you should by

tired,

sleep at once.

I

of propriety that I

cannot ask you to do anything that

I

you are too

if

for the sense

understand, and

I

all

means go to

will not persist in disappointing us.

faces of these four

Look

women

they are afraid you have noticed some defect in them that arouses your

But even

distaste.

if

that were so, would

not be possible for you to do a

it

good deed and have the pleasure of honoring one of my daughters

in the sight

of her sisters and friends? Come, be generous!'*

The Chaplain. — "You them equally

four of

all

orders!"

Orou.

understand— it's not

don't

But there

beautiful.

— "They are mine and

I

offer

them

my

is

They

that.

My

religion!

to you; they are

they give themselves to you. However clear a conscience

are

holy

of age and

all

may be demanded

of you by this thing, 'religion,' or by those 'holy orders' of yours, you need

have no scruples about accepting these women. paternal authority, and you

of individuals to their

At that

own

may

be sure that

am making no

I

persons."

moment Providence had never exposed him

He was young, lifted his

the three

he was excited, he was

hands and

girls,

my

abuse of

recognize and respect the rights

this point in his account, the truthful chaplain has to

from the four lovely suppliants, then

He

I

torment.

in

let his

admit that up to

to such strong temptation.

He

turned his eyes away

gaze wander back to them again.

countenance to Heaven. Thia, the youngest of

his

threw her arms around

knees and said to him

his

"Stranger,

:

my father and mother. Do not disappoint me! Honor me in this hut and among my own family! Raise me to the dignity enjoyed by my sisters, for they make fun of me. Asto, my eldest sister, already has three do not disappoint

children;

Palli,

the second oldest of us, has two; and Thia has none! Stranger,

good stranger, do not

reject

me! Make me

a

mother! Give

can some day lead by the hand as he walks at Tahiti

—

whom

I

father's

than

I

favor,

a little

at

my

breast nine

who

will

be part of

one to nurse

can be proud, and

hut into that of another. Perhaps

I

will

never forget you;

I

will bless

me

side, to

a child

months from now,

shall

you

whom

be seen by

my dowry when

have been with our Tahitian young men. I

my

I

a child

go from

I

all

of

my

be more fortunate with you

If you will all

my

only grant

life; I will

me

this

write your

name on my arm and on that of my child; we will always pronounce it with joy; and when you leave this shore, my prayers will go with you across the seas all the way to your own country."

Love

The poor

in Tahiti

053)

chaplain records that she pressed his hands, that she fastened

her eyes on his with the most expressive and touching gaze, that she wept, that her father, mother and sisters went out, leaving him alone with her, and that despite his repetition of "But there

my

is

religion

and

my

holy orders," he

awoke the next morning to find the young girl lying at his side. She overwhelmed him with more caresses, and when her father, mother and sisters came in, she called upon them to add their gratitude to hers. Asto and Palli, who had left the room briefly, soon returned bearing native food, drink and fruits. They embraced their sister and wished her good fortune. They all ate breakfast together; then, when Orou was left alone with the chaplain, he said to him:

my

"I see that

daughter

you be good enough to

you have spoken

Orou.

—

I

me

moment what

your hut and

all

thank you. But would

to say, the chaplain replied:

the furnishings in it?"

did.

The Chaplain. — Well, we is

I

the meaning of this word, 'religion,' which

and so mournfully?"

so frequently

After considering for a

"Who made

pleased with you, and

is

tell

believe that this world and everything in

work of a maker. Orou. Then he must have hands and

it

the

—

feet,

and

a head.

The Chaplain.— No. Orou.

— Where

is

his

dwelling place?

The Chaplain. —Everywhere. Orou.

—In

this place too?

The Chaplain. —In

this place too.

— But we have never seen him. The Chaplain. — He cannot be seen. Orou. — He sounds to me a father that doesn't care very Orou.

like

He must

his children.

much

for

be an old man, because he must be at least as old as the

things he made.

The Chaplain. — No,

he never grows old.

He spoke

and gave them laws; he prescribed to them the way

in

to our ancestors

which he wishes to be

honored; he ordained that certain actions are good and others he forbade

them

to

do

as being evil.

—

Orou. I see. And one of these that of a man who goes to bed with did he

make two

woman

or

which he has forbidden girl.

But

in that case,

is

why

sexes?

The Chaplain. —In when

evil actions

a

order that they might come together

certain conditions are satisfied

and only

after certain initial

—but

only

ceremonies

Denis Diderot

(154)

have been performed. By virtue of these ceremonies one man belongs to one woman and only to her; one woman belongs to one man and only to him.

— For their whole

Orou.

The Chaplain.— For

—

Orou. So that some man who was

woman

if it

lives?

whole

their

lives.

should happen that a

not her husband, or some

that was not his wife

.

.

.

let it

Orou. if

—

(for that

is

I'll tell

The Chaplain. — Go

—

to reason.

I

a

on, and since he doesn't like that sort

lets

the

should be sorry to give offense by anything

I

you don't mind,

Orou.

bed with

them do as they will, and they sin against name by which we call the great workman) the law of the country; they commit a crime.

God

and against

to

occur.

The Chaplain. — No. He the law of

should go to bed with

man should go

but that could never happen because the

workman would know what was going of thing, he wouldn't

woman

you what

I

might

ahead.

find these strange precepts contrary to nature,

I

say, but

think.

I

and contrary

think they are admirably calculated to increase the number of

workman

crimes and to give endless annoyance to the old

everything without hands, head or

tools,

who

is

— who

made

everywhere but can be seen

who exists today and tomorrow but grows not a day older, who commands and is not obeyed, who can prevent what he dislikes but to do so. His commands are contrary to nature because they assume that

nowhere, gives fails

a thinking /

being, one that has feelings and a sense of freedom, can be the

property of another being ship be founded?

Do you

like himself./On

what could such

things that have no feelings, thoughts, desires or wills leaves, keeps or sells,

a right of owner-

not see th/t in your country you have confused

— things one takes or —with things

without them suffering or complaining

that can neither be bought nor sold, which have freedom, volition, and desires of their for a

moment

own, which have the

never be treated true character

me

ability to give or to

withhold themselves

or forever, which suffer and complain? These latter things can

is

like a trader's stock

of goods unless one forgets what their

and does violence to nature. Furthermore, your laws seem to

to be contrary to the general order of things. For in truth

so senseless as a precept that forbids us to heed the are inherent in our being, or

which

is

commands

is

there anything

changing impulses that

that require a degree of constancy

not possible, that violate the liberty of both male and female by chain-

ing them perpetually to one another?

Is

there anything more unreasonable

than this perfect fidelity that would restrict so capricious, to a single partner

us, for the

enjoyment of pleasures

— than an oath of immutability taken by two

Love

made of

individuals

moment, cliff

that

in a

and blood under

flesh

a sky that

is

not the same for a

is

cavern that threatens to collapse upon them, at the foot of a is

my word

being worn away? Take

withering, on a bench of

for

you have reduced

it,

beings to a worse condition that that of the animals.

what your great workman forefathers,

may

055)

crumbling into dust, under a tree that

is

stone that

human

in Tahiti

and

I

but

I

am

don't

I

know

very happy that he never spoke to our

hope that he never speaks to our children,

them the same

tell

is,

and they may be

foolishness,

for if

he does, he

enough

foolish

to

we were having supper, you told us all about your "magistrates" and "priests." I do not know who these characters are whom you call Magistrates and Priests and who have the authority to govern your conduct but tell me, are they really masters of good and evil? Can they believe

it.

Yesterday, as

—

transform justice into injustice and contrariwise?

name of "good" to harmful action harmless or useful deeds? One can hardly think and ugly

—only

workman, your magistrates or your

great

One day you would be in all

told,

moment

You would

to the next.

on behalf of one of your three masters: "Kill",

good conscience you would be obliged to

Another day they

kill.

"Do

not eat of this

and you would not dare to eat of it; "I forbid you to eat

this vegetable

or this meat," and you single

pleased your

it

priests to define as such.

might say: "Steal," and you would be bound to fruit,"

"evil" to

between good and

false,

such differences as

then have to change your ideas and behavior from one

and

name of

so because in that case there

would no longer be any difference between true and bad, between beautiful

within their power to

Is it

or the

attach the

would be

steal.

Or:

careful never to touch

them. There

is

not a

good thing they could not forbid you to enjoy, and no wickedness

they could not order you to commit. masters, disagreeing enjoin and forbid

happen? Then,

among

you

to

And where would you

themselves, took

do the same thing,

in order to please

your

priest,

as

be

if

I

am

must occasionally

sure

you would have

to get yourself

into hot water with the magistrate; to satisfy the magistrate,

have to

risk the displeasure of the great

your three

into their heads to permit,

it

workman; and

to

you would

make

yourself

workman, you would have to fly in the face of your own nature. And do you know what will finally happen? You will come to despise all three, and you will be neither man, nor citizen nor pious believer; you will agreeable to the great

be nothing at

all;

you

will

be at odds with

yourself, malicious, disturbed

witless masters,

you

my

religion?

and miserable,

as

the authorities, at odds with

you were yesterday evening when

wife and daughters and

What about my

all

by your own conscience, persecuted by your I

offered

you could only wail: "What about

holy orders?"

Would you

like to

know what

is

my

good^

1

Denis Diderot

(156) and what

is

bad

and places? Pay close attention to the nature of

in all times

things and actions, to your relations with your fellow creatures, to the effect

of your behavior on your

mad

if

own

you believe that there

well-being and on the general welfare.

anything

is

can add or subtract from the laws of nature. Her eternal will be chosen rather than well-being.

You may

evil,

You

are

high or low, that

in the universe,

is

that good shall

and the general welfare rather than the individual's

decree the opposite, but you will not be obeyed. By

guilt, you can make more wretches and rascals, make more depraved consciences and more corrupted characters. People will no longer know what they ought or ought not to do. They will feel guilty when they are doing nothing wrong and proud of themselves in the midst of

punishment and

threats,

crime; they will have lost the North Star that should guide their course.

Give

me

an honest answer

legislators,

woman

—

in spite of the express

do the young men

in

commands

of your three

your country never go to bed with

a

young

without having received permission?

The Chaplain. — I

would be lying

if I

said they never do.

—And the women, once they have sworn an oath

Orou.

to belong to only

one husband, do they never give themselves to another man?

The Chaplain. — Nothing

—And are your

Orou.

happens more often.

legislators severe in

such disobedient people, or are they not? animals

who

who make war

risk

against nature;

if

If

handing out punishment

they are not severe, they are

bringing their authority into contempt by issuing

The Chaplain. — The are punished

OROU.

guilty ones,

if

fools

futile prohibitions.

they escape the rigor of the laws,

by public opinion.

—That's

like

saying that justice

is

done by means of the whole

nation's lack of common sense, and that public folly

The Chaplain. — A Orou.

girl

— Lost her honor!

who And

is

the substitute for law.

has lost her honor cannot find a husband. for

what cause?

The Chaplain. — An unfaithful woman is more or less despised. Orou. — Despised! Why should that be? The Chaplain. — And the young man is called a cowardly seducer. Orou. — Coward? Seducer? Why that? The Chaplain. — The father and mother and their dishonored child desolate.

An

to

they are, then they are wild

erring husband

is

called a libertine; a

are

husband who has been

betrayed shares the shame of his wife.

Orou.

— What monstrous foolishness you're talking!

be holding something back, because when people take rearrange

all

ideas of justice

and propriety to

suit their

it

And

still

you must

upon themselves

own whims,

to

to apply or

—

Love

in Tahiti

057)

remove the names of things in a completely arbitrary manner, to associate the ideas of good and evil with certain actions or to dissociate them for no reason save caprice

— then of course people

other, suspect each other, tyrannize,

blame each other, accuse each

will

become

and envious, deceive

jealous

and wound one another, conceal, dissimulate, and spy on one another, catch each other out, quarrel and tell lies. Girls deceive their parents, husbands and wives their husbands. Unmarried

their wives

show contempt

for their

own

rightful children;

and leave them to the mercy of

infants

among

society,

am

I

sure of it

I

mothers

neglect or

abandon

will

their

see

all

that as plainly as

if I

will

had

you. These things are so because they must be so, and your

whose well-ordered ways your chief boasts

who of wretched beings who

anything but a swarm of hypocrites foot, or a

— yes,

Crime and debauchery

fate.

appear in every imaginable shape and form. lived

girls

girls will suffocate their babies; suspicious fathers will

unmarried

multitude

willing torture

you about,

to

can't be

secretly trample the laws under

serve as instruments for inflicting

upon themselves; or imbeciles

in

whom

prejudice has utterly

whom

silenced the voice of nature, or ill-fashioned creatures in

nature cannot

claim her rights.

The Chaplain. — That is a close likeness. But Orou. — Oh yes, we marry. The Chaplain. — Well, how does it work? Orou.

—

sleep in the

It

agreement to occupy the same hut and to

consists only of an

same bed

for so

do you never marry?

long as both partners find the arrangement

good.

The Chaplain. — And when

they find

bad?

it

— Then they separate. The Chaplain. — But what becomes of the children? Orou. — Oh Stranger! That question of yours Orou.

finally reveals to

last

the last depths of your country's wretchedness. Let that the birth of a child

is

me

always a happy event, and

A

its

tell

you,

death

is

my

me

friend,

an occasion

grow up woman. Therefore we take infinitely better care of our children than of our plants and animals. The birth of a child is the occasion for public

for

weeping and sorrow.

to be a

man

child

is

a precious

thing because

it

will

or a

celebration and a source of joy for

its

entire family. For the hut

increase in wealth, while for the nation

means another

pair of hands

and arms

it

for Tahiti

a future farmer, fisherman, hunter, soldier,

it

means an

signifies additional strength. It

— we see in the newborn baby

husband or

father.

When

a

woman

goes from her husband's hut back to that of her family, she takes with her

all

the children she had brought with her as her dowry; those born during the

Denis Diderot

(158)

marriage are divided equally between the two spouses, and care

is

taken to

number of boys and girls whenever possible. The Chaplain. But children are a burden for many years before they old enough to make themselves useful. Orou. We set aside for them and for the support of the aged one part in

give each an equal

—

are

—

six

of

And

our harvests; wherever the child goes, this support follows him.

all

so,

you

the larger the family a Tahitian has, the richer he

see,

The Chaplain. — One

— Yes.

Orou.

dependable method

It's a

is.

part in six! for

encouraging the growth of

population, for promoting respect for our old people and for safeguarding the welfare of our children.

The Chaplain. — And

does

ever happen that a couple

it

who have

separated decide to live together again?

—Oh,

Orou.

marriage can

yes. It

last is

happens

The Chaplain. — Assuming, for in that case,

Orou. the time it

at

all.

The

it

as

its

is

last at least

not with child,

nine months?

name of its mother's husband

paternity, like

its

at

means of support, follows

goes.

The Chaplain. — You husband

child keeps the

was conceived, and

wherever

of course, that the wife

wouldn't the marriage have to

— Not

it

any

Also, the shortest time

fairly often.

one month.

spoke about the children that

a wife brings to her

dowry.

—

Orou. To be sure. Take my eldest daughter, who has three children. They are able to walk, they are healthy and attractive, and they promise to be strong when they are grown up. If she should take it into her head to get married, she would take

them

would be extremely happy better of his wife

if

along, for they belong to her, and her husband

to have

them

she were carrying

in his hut.

still

He would

think

all

the

a fourth child at the time of her

wedding.

The Chaplain. — His

Orou.

child?

— His or another's. The more children our young women have had,

the more desirable they are as wives. are, the richer

The

stronger and lustier our young

they become. Therefore, careful as

we

men

are to protect our

young girls from male advances, and our young boys from intercourse with women, before they reach sexual maturity, once they have passed the age of puberty we exhort them all the more strongly to have as many children as possible. You probably haven't fully realized what an important service you will have rendered my daughter Thia if you have succeeded in getting her with child. Her mother will no longer plague her every month by saying,

Love

"But Thia, what

is

in Tahiti

the matter with you?

l

(

You never

S9)

get pregnant, and here

you are nineteen years old. You should have had at least a couple of babies by this time, and you have none. Who is going to look after you in your old age if

you throw away your youth

way? Thia,

in this

begin to think there

I

something wrong with you, some defect that puts men

my

and correct

child,

it if

you can. At your age,

I

Find out what

off.

is

it is,

was already three times

a

mother!"

The Chaplain. — What and

girls before

Orou.

—That's

family circle, and

Our

precautions do you take to safeguard your boys

they reach maturity? the main object of our children's education within the

it's

the most important point in our code of public morality.

boys, until the age of twenty-two, that

is

two

for

to three years after

they reach maturity, must wear a long tunic that covers their bodies completely,

and they must wear

a little

chain around their loins. Before they

reach nubile age, our girls would not dare to go out without white veils.

The two misdeeds of taking off one's chain or raising one's veil are rarely met with because we teach our children at a very early age what harmful results when the male has attained his will ensue. But when the proper time comes full strength, when the principal indication of virility lasts for a sufficient time, and when we are confirmed in our judgment by the quality and by the frequent emission of the seminal fluid and when the young girl seems wilted and suffers from boredom, when she seems mature enough to feel passion, to

—

—

inspire

and to

it

satisfy it

— then the father unfastens

daughter's

is

to point out in

is

emancipated

advance to the boy certain

might well choose

certain boys that they

or girl

is

as partners.

air

with singing and the sound of musical instruments. is

led

by her

father

girls

and to the

The day when is filled all

When

all

is

paraded

aspects and in

young

girls

all

night long

and mother into an enclosure where dancing

in front of her, allowing her to

sorts of attitudes.

For

a

examine

young man's

The remainder

enacted on a bed of leaves, just as you saw

it

on your

is

going

in progress.

his

A

body from

initiation, the

do the honors of the occasion by letting him look

female body unadorned and unconcealed.

girl

boy

the sun has risen,

on and where games of wrestling, running and jumping are naked man

a

young men

a gala holiday. In the case of a girl, the

assemble the night before around her hut and the

she

her

The young man can now ask a woman for her favors or be to grant his. The girl may walk about freely in public places and breast uncovered; she may accept or reject men's caresses.

with her face

we do

and cuts

veil.

asked by her

All

his son's chain

The mother removes

the nail on the middle finger of the boy's right hand.

at the

nude

of the ceremony

arrival here.

is

At sunset

(i6o)

Denis Diderot

the girl returns to her parents' hut or else moves to the hut of the

young man

she has chosen and remains there as long as she pleases.

The Chaplain. — But is

this celebration a

—

marriage ceremony or

is it

not?

Orou. Well, as you have said What do I see written there in the margin? A. B.— It is a note in which the good chaplain says that the parents' advice on how to choose wives and husbands was full of common sense and contained many acute and useful observations, but that he could not bring himself to .

.

.

—

quote the catechism

itself because it

would have seemed intolerably

He

to corrupt, superstitious people like us.

sorry to have place,

left

out certain details that would have shown, in the

what vast progress

a nation can

first

make in some important matter without

the assistance of physics and anatomy,

and

licentious

adds, nevertheless, that he was

if it

busies itself continually with

it,

in the second place, the different ideals of beauty that prevail in a country

where one judges forms

in the light of

momentary

with a nation where they are appreciated period of time.

must have modeled

To

wide forehead,

a small

attracts the

is

woman

mouth, large eyes,

narrow waist, and small hands and

Tahitians, however, scarcely one of these things

who

over a longer

be considered beautiful in the former country a

a high color, a

features, a

pleasures, as contrasted

for their usefulness

feet.

.

.

of any account.

most admirers and the most lovers

the one

is

.

finely

With the

The woman who seems

many children (like the wife of Cardinal d'Ossat) and whose The Athenian Venus has next to nothing in common with the Venus of Tahiti the former is a flirtatious Venus, the latter a fertile Venus. A woman of Tahiti said scornfully one day to a woman of her acquaintance: "You are most

likely to bear

children seem likely to be active, intelligent, brave, healthy and strong.

—

beautiful enough, but the children

children are beautiful, so the

men

you bear are ugly;

prefer

Following this note by the chaplain, Orou continues

—

Orou. What a happy moment when it is discovered that she is with

I

am

ugly, but

my

me." :

young girl and her parents child! She jumps up and runs about, she throws her arms around her father's and mother's necks. She tells them the wonderful news amidst outcries of mutual joy. "Mother! Father! kiss me! I it is

for a

am pregnant !" "Is it really true?" "Really and truly !" "And who got you with child?" "Such-and-such a one."

The Chaplain. — How can she know who the father of her child is? Orou. — How could she not know? With us the same rule that applies marriage applies also to love affairs next.

—each

lasts at least

to

from one moon to the

Love

The Chaplain. — And

— You

Orou. moons

is

the rule strictly observed?

can judge for yourself. First, the interval between two

but when

isn't long,

The Chaplain. — To whom

—To

This

it

well-founded

no longer belongs to the mother.

does

it

belong?

whichever of the two men the mother chooses to give

the only right she has, and since a child

is

men have

appears that two

it

claims to be the father of a child,

Orou.

(rôi)

in Tahiti

women

and value, you can understand that among us loose

men keep away from them. The Chaplain. Then you do have a few

it.

an object of both interest

is

are rare

and that

our young

—

me

women? That makes

— Yes, we have some, and more than one kind — but that

Orou.

When

subject.

herself

one of our

a

is

handsome,

a

good

qualities.

The only

tendency there

is,

another

brave, intelligent,

hope that the child

to

thing a

is

twice as pleased with

girl

will

would be ashamed of

bad choice. You have no idea how much store we

set

by good

and courage; you have no notion what

health, beauty, strength, industry

it,

is

well-built,

young man, because she has reason

inherit its father's

would be

pregnant, she

girls gets

the child's father

if

industrious

to

licentious

feel better.

a

even without our having to pay any particular attention

good physical inheritance to be passed on from generation to

for

among us. You are a person who has traveled in all sorts of countries me if you have seen anywhere else so many handsome men and beautiful women as in Tahiti. Look at me. What do you think of me? Well, there are ten thousand men on this island who are taller than I am and just as strong; but there is none braver, and for that reason mothers very often point me out generation

—

tell

to their girls as a

good father

The Chaplain. — And own hut, how many Orou. Every fourth,

your

—

fall

be

kind of circulation of men,

workers of

all

for their children.

out of

all

these children you have sired outside

to your share? it

a

boy or

a girl.

women and

ages and occupations

You

children

— which

is

see,

we have developed

—that

is,

a

of able-bodied

much more important than human labor) in your

trade in foodstuffs (which are only the products of

country.

The Chaplain. — I black veils that

Orou.

I

is

it.

What

is

the significance of those

— They indicate barrenness, either congenital or that which comes

with advanced age.

men

can easily believe

have seen a few persons wearing?

Any woman who

considered dissolute, and so

commerce with

a barren

woman.

is

lays aside such a veil

any man who

raises

and mingles with

such

a veil

and has

(i62)

Denis Diderot

The Chaplain. — And Orou.

— That

Failure to wear this veil dissolute

who

if

the gray veils?

shows that the woman

when

it

is

having her monthly period.

should be worn also stigmatizes a

men during

she has relations with

woman

that time, and likewise the

as

man

has relations with her.

The Chaplain. — Do

you punish

this libertinism?

—Only with public disapproval. The Chaplain. — May with Orou.

a father sleep

her son, a brother with his

— Why not? Chaplain. — Well! The

daughter, a mother with

his

husband with someone

sister, a

else's wife?

Orou.

To

say nothing of the fornication, what of the

incest, the adultery?

Orou.

— What do you mean by those words,

The Chaplain. — They are crimes, burned at the stake in my country. Orou. to me.

fornication, incest,

horrible crimes for

—Well, whether they burn or don't burn

in

your country

But you cannot condemn the morals of Europe

for not

Tahiti, nor our morals for not being those of Europe.

dependable rule of judgment than that.

And what

and adultery?

which people are

shall it

is

You need a more Do you know a

be?

better one than general welfare and individual utility? Well, now,

what way your crime of if

incest is

you think that everything

is

nothing

being those of

tell

me

in

contrary to the two aims of our conduct;

settled once

and

for all

promulgated, a derogatory word invented, and

Why don't you tell me what you mean The Chaplain. — Why, incest .

.

by

a

because a law has been

punishment established.

incest.

.

—

Orou. Yes, incest ... ? Has it been a long time man without hands, head or tools made the world?

since your great

work-

The Chaplain. — No. Orou.

— Did he make the whole human race

The Chaplain. — No, Orou.

he made only one

at

one time?

man and one woman.

— Had they children?

The Chaplain. — Of course.

— Let's suppose that these two original parents had no sons—only to Or that they had only daughters — and that the mother was the Orou.

first

die.

sons and that the wife lost her husband.

The Chaplain. — You say, incest

Orou.

is

embarrass me. But

a horrible crime, so let's talk

—That's

all

in spite of

very well for you to say. But as

another word until you

tell

me why

incest

anything you

about something

is

for

may

else.

me,

I

won't speak

such a horrible crime.

Love

The Chaplain. — All offend nature, but isn't

order?

right,

What would happen

would become of a nation's

Orou.

I

grant you that perhaps incest does not

enough that

threatens the political

it

to the security of the chief of state,

and what

come

to

or so fathers of families?

— That would be the

The Chaplain. —

( x ^3)

tranquillity, if millions of people should

fifty

great society but fifty or so

I'll

objection

it

be under the thumbs of

in Tahiti

lesser of

little

ones,

two

There would be no

evils:

single

more happiness and one crime the

should think, though, that even here,

common for a son to sleep with his mother. Orou. No, not unless he has a great deal of respect

it

less.^,

must not be

very

—

degree

for her, or a

of tenderness that makes him forget the disparity in their ages and prefer a

woman

of forty to a

of nineteen.

girl

The Chaplain. — What about intercourse between fathers and daughters? Orou. after. If

— Hardly

more frequent, unless the

ugly and

girl is

sought

little

her father has a great deal of affection for her, he helps her in getting

ready her dowry of children.

The Chaplain. — What you say suggests to me whom nature has not smiled have a rather hard

on

OROU.

women

that in Tahiti the

time of it.

— What you say only shows that you haven't

a

high opinion of the

generosity of our young men.

The Chaplain. — As

for

unions between brothers and

sisters,

I

imagine

they are very common.

Orou.

— Yes, and very strongly approved

The Chaplain. — According so

to you, the

of.

same passion that gives

rise to

many evils and crimes in Our countries is completely innocent here. Orou. Stranger, you have poor judgment and a faulty memory. Poor

—

judgment, because whenever something

forbidden,

is

it

people should be tempted to do that thing, and do

because you have already forgotten what old

women who

selves to

or slavery.

punishment

is

knowledge

—

young boys who take

and our laws

—

for

girls

who

them we have

If

off their chain before the

room

in that case the parents get a strong

importance to

all

these lapses.

without

in the hut.

There

time established by nature reprimand. There are

long time;

— but

little

they are recognized or

their white veils

lift

a locked

women who find the nine months of pregnancy a who are careless about wearing their gray veils attach

do have dissolute

either exile to the northern tip of the island

There are precocious

their parents'

We

told you.

inevitable that

Faulty memory,

sneak out at night without their black veils and offer them-

men, even though nothing can come of it.

surprised, the

are

I

is

it.

You would

as a

find

women and

matter of it

girls

fact

we

hard to believe

I

Denis Diderot

(164)

how much our morals have been improved on these points by the fact that we have come to identify in our minds the idea of public and private wealth with the idea of increasing the population.

The Chaplain. — But

when two men have the same man? Orou. I haven't seen as many as four instances. The choice of the woman or man settles the matter. If a man should commit any act of violence,

a passion for the

don't disturbances ever arise

same woman, or when two

girls desire

—

would be

that

a serious

misdemeanor, but even then no one would take any

make

notice unless the injured party were to

almost unheard of for a is

women

that our

men

girl or

woman

do

women; but no one

The Chaplain. — So far as

I

a public complaint,

which are strong, beautiful emotions

—

is

and maternal all,

here love,

they must be

lukewarm.

Orou.

— We

have put

universal, powerful

in their place

and lasting

—

another impulse, which

of your companions, though not in their hearts, and

anywhere on the

face of the earth a

man who,

shame, would not prefer to lose his child to lose his wife

may be

—rather than

sure that

as he does

a

if

his

fields,

is

tell

more in all

always on the

me,

if

there

is

he were not held back by

husband who would not prefer

and

all

the amenities of life?

man can be led to care as much about own bed, his own health, his leisure,

if ever a

about

harvests or his

—

lose his fortune

is

Examine your conscience

self-interest.

candor, put aside the hypocritical parade of virtue which lips

unknown

practically wife,

they exist here at

if

it is

worried with this state of affairs.

is

can see, jealousy

But tenderness between husband and

in Tahiti.

and

The only thing I have noticed of homely men than our young

so.

are a little less considerate

are of ill-favored

fairly

to

his fellow

You men

his house, his

he can be depended upon to do his utmost to look out

for the well-being of other people.

Then you

will see

him shedding

tears over

when she is ill. Then you will and handsome young men highly regarded.

the bed of a sick child or taking care of a mother find fruitful

Then you

women,

nubile girls

will find a great deal

of attention paid to the education of the young,

because the nation grows stronger with their growth, and suffers a material loss if their well-being is impaired.

The Chaplain. —I am says.

The poor

afraid there

is

some reason

in

what

this savage

peasant of our European lands wears out his wife in order to

spare his horse, lets his child die without help, and calls the veterinary to look after his ox.

Orou.

—

back to your

them how

I

didn't quite hear

what you were

own country where

well our

everything

is

just saying.

so well

method works. Then they

will

But when you get

managed, try to teach begin to realize

how

Love

newborn baby

precious a Shall

you

I tell

came, we

is

and how important

we were levying

we

stores of food

Do you

this tax collected

you would care

substance?

If

have yet to

sail

away, you

We

to us.

be made up;

we have

aid to

us.

some with

A

We

off this debt,

and

comes to

our most beautiful

This

is

with us

a

brood of

value, imagine that

own you

have vast areas of land yet

we have

up the gaps

fill

tried to get

you

to

in

our population.

we need

for this

soldiers, so we women and girls out. Among these

have a surplus of

in

have thus first

men; you and your

in five or six years

stronger and healthier than you,

We

We

!

whom our men

way

they turn out to be inferior in some

ours.

for

draw the blood

far

been unable

assigned to receive

neighboring nation holds us in vassalage, and we have to

pay an annual tribute to them

it

to

bodies and from your its

any children, and these were the ones we

on us when

came

enlisted your services to help us

there are

girls

your embraces.

pay

We

hang

have epidemics from time to time, and these losses must

we have sought your

over men, and

to

own

same tribute from you

have allowed you to give them to

to beget

even though

didn't give a

will leave

and estimate

have external enemies to deal with, and

women and

we

girls

under the plow; we need workers, and

them

us,

extracted a more valuable tribute

from your

to try

You were

girls.

along two hundred leagues of coastline, and that every twenty

miles they collect the to be put

We

— but our women and we could have

think

When you

let it out.

you and your companions.

taxes on

all

^)

1

to increase the population.

You thanked

us laugh.

didn't loot your ship;

When you go

out of your veins.

from you than

made

the heaviest of

asked no money of you;

give

it is

But take care that you don't

a secret?

astonished and your gratitude

children.

C

you do what you liked with our women and

let

any of your

in Tahiti

we

shall

to our

friends have helped us

send them your sons

if

own. Although we are

we have observed that you have the edge we immediately marked out some of

intelligence. So

women and girls to collect the seed of a race superior to we have tried, and that we hope will succeed.

an experiment

have taken from you and your fellows the only thing we could get from

you. Just because

we

are savages, don't think

find a

man

and he

will

shrewd

as

as

gold,

always ask for something he has need

and desires

foot,

What

is

and what

iron.

are incapable of calculating

lies.

piece of gold for a scrap of iron, that

others?

we

Go wherever you will, and you will always you are. He will give you what he has no use for,

where our best advantage

is

By the way, why

of. If

he offers to trade you a

because he doesn't care a hang for

is it

that you are not dressed like the

the significance of the long robe that covers you from head to

is

that pointed bag that you let

sometimes draw up around your ears?

hang over your shoulders and

(i66)

Denis Diderot

The Chaplain. — The society of men

vows

is

who

reason

are called

dress as

I

monks

in

I

do

is

that

I

am

a

member

of a

my country. The

most sacred of their

woman and

never to beget any

never to have intercourse with any

children.

Orou.

—Then what kind of work do you do?

The Chaplain. — None. Orou.

— And your magistrates allow that sort of idleness — the worst of

The Chaplain. — They

more than allow

it:

they honor

it

all?

and make

others do the same.

Orou.

— My

thought was that nature, or some accident, or some

first

cruel form of sorcery,

had deprived you of the

and that out of pity they had

my

daughter

tells

me

that

let

you go on

you are

a

man

ability to reproduce

your kind,

living instead of killing you. But

as robust as

any Tahitian and that

she has high hopes of getting good results from your repeated caresses. Well, at last

I

know why you kept mumbling

religion,

my

magistrates

show you such

The Chaplain. —I Orou.

—

yesterday evening, "But there's

my

me why it is that your you with so much respect?

holy orders!" Could you explain to

Still,

favor and treat

don't know.

you must know why

it

was

you have condemned yourself of your own

The Chaplain. —That's

that, although

free will to

hard to explain, and

you

are a

would take too

it

man,

be one no longer? long.

to their vows of — Are monks The Chaplain. — No. Do you have female monks? Orou. — was sure of The Chaplain. — Yes. the male monks? Orou. — As well behaved seclusion, they dry up The Chaplain. — They are kept more

Orou.

sterility?

faithful

also

it.

I

as

strictly in

from unhappiness and die of boredom.

Orou. country!

— So nature

If

everything

we are. The good

is is

avenged

for the injury

managed the way you

done to her! Ugh! What say,

a

you are more barbarous

than

chaplain

tells

us that he spent the rest of the

day wandering

number of huts, and that in the evening, after and mother begged him to go to bed with Palli, the second

about the island, visiting a supper, the father

eldest daughter. She offered herself in the tells

same undress

us that several times during the night he cried out,

holy orders!"

The

arms of Asto, the his hostess.

third night he suffered the

eldest,

as Thia's,

"My

same guilty torments

and the fourth night, not to be

and he

religion!

unfair, he

My

in the

devoted to

NICOLAS-EDME RESTIF DE LA

BRETONNE (1734-1806)

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations

The

printing press opened the

way

to a literary career for Restif de

la

Bretonne. This Burgundian peasant's son was apprenticed for a time to an

Auxerre typographer, and was capital as a master printer.

to write

next

and print

his

squandered in the

his

was

a

young man when he

set

up

in the

presses at his disposal, in 1767 he began

He

published nearly 300 volumes during the

works.

3 5 years. Restif

still

With a rake

who

frequented high and low society,

money, and ended up earning

a pittance as an underling

Napoleonic police bureau of intercepted

letters.

While

his erotic

and sometimes pornographic novels earned him the sobriquet of "Rousseau of the gutters," he also produced books of serious intent. In The French Daedalus (178 1), he used the popular form of the imaginary voyage to

introduce a tranquil, egalitarian society in Megapatagonia. The Andrograph (1782)

— much

praised

and detailed proposals lines

by Benjamin Franklin for a total reformation

— soberly

advanced rigid

of society along communist

through a minute regulation of every aspect of existence.

167

Vic tor in

prenant

Engraving from La Découverte

.ron

australe par un

vol

Homme-^olant, Paris, 178 1,

Megapatagonian Maxims

Then all.

the wise Teugnil spoke

.

.

.

"When everybody works," he said, On the contrary, work is then only

each individual

is

obliged to do, he

The work merely

is

"the burden amounts to nothing at a pleasure, because

no matter what

never pushed to the point of fatigue.

and renders them more supple. It mind instead of stunting it. Among your Europeans, on the other hand, where inequality reigns, everybody must be unhappy some because of overwork, others because of idleness. Everybody must become quite stupid. The workers are brutalized, the idlers become exercises his limbs

contributes to the development of his

—

either torpid or feverish with bizarre passions. Doubtless they think only of

nonsense and extravagant fancies.

If

some common sense

is

found among you,

it is

perhaps only in the middling estate. Moreover, such persons must be

very

rare, either

because there are so

many bad

work

the people are crushed by heavy

or

examples, or because most of

drowned

Do

in idleness.

I

guess

right?"

"Quite right,

illustrious

Megapatagon," answered Hermantin.

"Here, on the other hand, the the right degree.

stand at

all

Among

us,

you

faculties of each

what others comprehend

powerful geniuses

who go

person are developed to

who cannot underAnd although we have among us

will not find creatures easily.

further than others, they only surpass in the faculty

of invention. Their ideas are readily understood by everybody, even in the

most abstract matters.

"You have observed how we employ our

days. All of

The day

the one you witnessed upon your arrival here.

them is

are similar to

divided into two

equal parts, twelve hours of sleep or total repose, and twelve hours of activity. In the twelve hours of rest

is

included the time

living as private individuals in the

hours are devoted to the public.

men

bosom of their

They begin

Restif de

la

The

six in

morning, at

the evening. Tasks are

Bretonne, La Découverte australe par un Homme-Volant, ou Le

Dédale français; Nouvelle très-philosophique: Suivie de la Lettre d'un Singe, Paris, 1781), HI, pp.

other twelve

at six o'clock in the

daybreak, and finish with the end of daylight at *From Nicolas-Ed me

women, and

give to love,

families.

496-505, 508-14, 520-3; translated by the editors.

16g

etc.

(Leipzig,

i.e.

Ni colas- Edme

(170)

Rest if de la Bretonne

among all the citizens, in proportion to their strength and by the Venerable Syndic of each dwelling section. Every neighborhood has one hundred families and every section has twenty-five, at the head

distributed capacity,

of which stands the oldest of the Vénérables,

who

is

called a Section-Head.

In his absence, the next in line represents him. Vénérables

who have

reached

the age of 150 no longer work, but

work, but a Venerable trains

command. Children under 20 do not yet them to make different things as part of their

play during recreation hours. In addition to their occupation, they learn to read and write, they are taught related languages, the true principles of their

mother tongue, then morality,

"The

and without

carefully lasts

history,

and physical science.

task each one has received from the Venerable Syndic

four hours.

haste. One's

whole mind

Then everyone assembles

the

in

is

discharged

The work commonroom of the

devoted to

is

it.

neighborhood to take a meal, which has been prepared by fellow-citizens whose special responsibility

meal,

it

was during the four hours of general work. After the

enjoy the rest necessary in these hot climates.

all

hour and a

half,

They

sleep for an

and then they give themselves over to various diversions

until

supper. At the end of this period, everyone retires to his private quarters with his wife

and children.

"One is not always obliged to take the same job. On the contrary, those who wish to change do not meet with the slightest objection on the part of the Venerable Syndics. The citizens are even encouraged to make such switches. And only those who absolutely insist upon it always perform the same task. "The men do all the outside work and the rough work; the women, those tasks that are performed indoors, except such heavy work as might entail handling metals, copper, metal plates, or stone

work

is

engage

done by women, except shoe-making, in

unpleasant

for

we

and wood.

All needle-

are very careful lest they

anything that might spoil their daintiness or involve them toil.

Women

are submissive

and respectful toward men;

in

in turn

they are respected and honored by them as the repositories of the future

why should anybody want to degrade or seduce a woman who might one day be his own? Our pleasures consist of games that exercise the body without tiring it and that require skill rather than strength. The generation. For

only glory appreciated in a country such as ours

is

the victor's prize.

Women

amuse themselves with dances, which tend to give them attractive bearing, or with games of skill that have the same purpose, to make their movements easy and graceful. In addition, they occupy themselves with creating and trying on

all

sorts of finery; they unite their sweet

either with the masculine sounds of the

men

and well-modulated voices

or with instruments they play.

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations

game they

Besides, they have a sort of

among themselves

who

seeing

most seductive smile, who

made

that they are

work

is

most

will find the

man

for

is,

to practice

man

as

effective

means of pleasing men them from childhood

is

inculcated into

is

for the fatherland.

Thus, among us

almost a game and games are a form of education. Every day

holiday, but not as

would be with the Europeans,

it

171 )

can assume the most engaging manner, the

For the idea

in all possible situations.

greatly enjoy, and that

(

if

is

a

they adopted our

customs. For among them there would doubtless be one part of mankind who amused themselves without doing anything, while the other worked without

amusing

itself"

"Have you any "These

sorts of pleasures are only trifles

or a nation in real,

plays," said Hermantin, "any dramatic presentations,

Megapatagon?"

illustrious

its

and we have time only

going about inventing

"Do you

worthy of

infancy," answered the wise Teugnil. for the

artificial

a nation of children

"We

want only the

enjoyment of true pleasures without

ones."

not have the fine arts, such as painting, sculpture, music,

poetry?"

"We beautiful

and only earth,

despise painting.

women whom we

Our

a single survivor

we might

arts of painting

find

handsome men and our

human

were condemned to

race were annihilated

live eternally alone

on the

pardonable that he should apply himself to the two

and sculpture

in order to beguile his solitude

with a deceptive

—

we had your way of living leaving our country to on end we might desire to paint cherished objects. But here,

image. Perhaps, too, travel for years

it

portraits are our

see every day. If the

if

—

with our customs, painting and sculpture would only be child's play. value necessary occupations more than useless arts. painters; these few are

employed

in

To

be sure,

We

we have some

depicting the splendid deeds of our most

virtuous citizens, and the paintings are intended to adorn the apartments of the Vénérables

who performed

we have it. the human

one of the charms of life to

It is

these actions. As for music,

voice, to sing of the great

Poetry, the sister of music, expression. But

we adopt

it

is

men,

a livelier

only

I

told

listen to the cultivated

their pleasures

and

you that sounds of

their loves.

and more harmonious method of

for joyful subjects; it is

ones, harmful if used in education. In a word,

absurd

we have only

in dreadful

three kinds of

poetic writing: that which celebrates the actions of heroes, benefactors of

humanity, of

whom

the ode; and songs.

one can speak only with enthusiasm; that which we It is

call

prohibited to versify any other work of the intellect."

Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne

(172) "It

among

a principle

is

us that the sole end of society

Do

together more agreeably.

effeminate. First of all, work, to

but strengthens

us.

more supple and for war,

which we are

Our games have

all

as their

subject, does not stultify us,

attacked.

And above

We even

all,

we

to

persuaded them that

become individuals

train ourselves

elevate the souls of

our young people beyond the fear of death. With this end fully

live

purpose to make our limbs

to avoid the laziness of the savages.

we might be

because

men

to have

is

not imagine that such principles make us

in view,

we have

beings emanating from the sun and the earth,

all

distinct in appearance, are nevertheless not cut off

from one another, but are forever linked together and that death only makes

them change

places so that they exist thereafter in another form. In truth,

do not retain the memory of our previous transformations. This since the organs of

memory have

disintegrated. But

infinite

That

is

sufficient to

we

impossible

It is

enough

whole of it through memory and

to feel one's present existence, to grasp the foresight.

what of it?

is

occupy us agreeably. The memory of an almost

multitude of previous existences would only tax our brains, overload

them, and destroy our attentiveness to things present. This memory would children

kill

by making them too

among

dissensions

rationalist. It

vicious peoples,

would perpetuate hatreds and

and so on. Wise nature did not wish

it so.

But through analogy we know that we are merely subject to decomposition,

and that must draws

its life

be. Plants

matter that constitute

is

it. It is

It is

no more an annihilation than

principles

we

the same intelligence and the same

therefore as eternal as

its

Principle.

This

is

so

death of planets and suns, because the death of these great

in despite of the

Beings

decompose and reproduce themselves. Each animal

from the same source.

inculcate in our youth.

is

ours, or that of plants.

They

These are the

are dedicated to the public good

to the point of gladly sacrificing their lives because they are assured of

existing again immediately after the dissolution of their bodies and of thus

dwelling eternally in this beautiful land. dissolution of dead bodies and

most pious.

We

burn them.

we

We

pay great heed to the immediate

consider the speediest

To bury them

in the earth

is

method

to be the

second best, but

it

somewhat the process of decomposition. To embalm them in order to preserve them is a sacrilege. If we had criminals here, we would have them retards

embalmed

as the

most horrible disgrace with which they could be branded."

"This way of thinking said

Hermantin, "but

it

is

completely opposite to that of the Europeans,"

seems to

me

to be wiser."

"Our young men have no fear whatever of death and would make excellent soldiers if we were ever attacked by ambitious Europeans. Finally, we pay our dead great honor, and their names are preserved for many years. They are

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations

073)

repeated from one generation to another in each family, along with accounts of one or two of their noblest and most remarkable exploits.

back to your question about our morality,

it

.

.

But to come

.

consists solely in taking the

shortest route and the one beset with least obstacles in order to be happy.

And

sensuality

since

uncontrolled would cause great trouble, you

that this is not the

imagine

we

path

season pleasure and generate a hunger for deprivations. There

We never carry among

morals in

Europe

munity

them

us

We

luxury

—

similarly, a

all

caprice.

moral behavior

this

a

is

left

—

moderation

as

Through our

may

that deprivations

so to speak. Therefore in

we have

our pleasures.

But what strengthens good

to the point of utter satiety.

reject vice in a

in a public

it,

form and

that they are never

is

— to individual

feeling,

body.

is,

We know

choose.

you have

told

me

the case

is

sense of equality, our com-

uniform and public.

We

practice virtue in a

body. Laziness, uselessness, sumptuary excess, or

becomes impossible among

No man

us.

can gorge himself

assemblage of his fellow-citizens. Each one takes only what he

among

needs. This fortunate habit has succeeded in eradicating

and gluttonous temperaments, recognized by their in the isles of this

A

with his wife.

hemisphere.

A man

will not

foul breath

commit

brother in the midst of brothers

duties will not neglect his

own. He

will not

who

us guzzling

and complexions

excesses of debauch

are discharging their

be vagrant

in a land

where

all

about him are employed. As our ways are established forever, we had to

make them mild. You see from our occupations and diversions that they could not be more so. I repeat to you, equality cuts all vices at the root. No more thieves or assassins or idlers or corrupters. Since

mockery might have produced some abuses, patagon must abandon

this

it

is

among

wretched way of showing

atmosphere of goodness and honesty prevails among so sacred that

no one permits himself the

even where there

Only that which ridiculous

nature.

is is

us.

an

all is

which might injure

allegory

—

is

unworthy of the

monkeys who is

it,

Monkey

Isle

is

not

—the

eldest son of

are capable of reasoning,

one of the reasons

are banished from our system. This sort of thing

people of the

Truth above

comes forth from our mouths; that which

mask of myth and of

We leave it to those among the

drama

least jest

Mega-

his wit. In its stead,

an intention of later producing an agreeable surprise.

such as those you have discovered. This all

a people of equals

prohibited. Every

is

why comedy and good only

for the

and the flighty Europeans."

cried Hermantin. "Ah! that my revered ancestor might have had the pleasure of seeing and conversing with you! He would

"Happy Megapatagons!"

Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne

(174) have admired above even

in a

globe.

more

We

the fact that you are the moral antipodes of his country

all

perfect sense than

have learned from you. ancestor does not

It is

we

is

as fine as yours.

He

at present ours, a religion

which makes

fraternity,

charity, that

situation on the

a

law of

it,

has transplanted into

which teaches equality

and which declares that without

to say, the virtue of loving our brothers, of cherishing them,

is

and wretched creatures.

are only vile

All the precepts of this religion tend

toward disinterestedness, purity of manners, beneficence, modesty. of great wealth are accursed in this religion. his

Lord

God.

we

most wise Megapatagons, that our revered

not,

know maxims

your hemisphere, which

and

you are antipodes by your

soon rejoice his old age with the account of everything

shall

name of that

in the

principle

It

forbids

anyone to

which makes us

all

All

men

person

call a

equally the sons of

enjoins brothers to share with one another their bread, their clothes,

It

without regard to rank, nationality, religion, opinion

"And do

not

"Pardon me,

.

illustrious son of the wisest of Vénérables."

"But who then are they whose deeds are recorded you gave us

"They

in

."

.

the peoples of Europe then profess this religion?"

all

in the history

books

an upside-down language?"

are the

"This time,

same peoples."

illustrious Christinians,

you are making fun of me, or these

people are making fun of their legislator and of the great

God whom you

say

they worship."

"They

mocking him, wise Teugnil, but swept away by

are not

their

passions, they follow hardly anything of their religion. Their priests are in this respect in its

no more meticulous and they are the

most fundamental

tenets,

first

to violate the religion

though they are the most

careful of

men

to

preserve the prerogatives this religion bestows upon them in the eyes of the people." "I

do not understand you, noble Christinians. Either they profess

religion or they

"They

do not."

profess it."

"Without obeying

"That

"You

is

arouse in

To

it?"

so."

me

dictated by the great teaches!

their

profess

it

incredible scorn for the Europeans. So noble a religion,

God himself— I

it by the precepts that it Your Europeans are monsters."

recognize

without practicing

it!

—

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations

(175)

On Marriage* XXXIV.

Art.

matrimony

young people of both

All

sexes will be destined to wed, for

the state for which Nature, religion, and the social laws

is

intended them. Every well-built individual will be obliged to marry, and to

end detailed procedures

this

XXXV. The As

sick,

Only

will be set forth in the following articles.

in cases of infirmity or

whatever their ailments may

for the

deformed,

if

marry

at

all.

they are vigorous, they will only be prohibited from

marrying virgins, but they thirty-five

deformity will exceptions be made.

be, will not be required to

be able to secure widows of

will nevertheless

and over. Such widows,

for their part, will not

many

well-formed young men, unless there are too case the magistrate will grant a license to the

widows

to

and handsomest of the surplus youths. Deformed men, their handicap, will be favored for

all

be able to marry

for the girls, in

as a

compensation

where celibacy

positions

which

marry the youngest

is

for

a suitable

qualification.

XXXVI. nor interest.

In the future the choice of a

The degree

him the right

to choose

mate

will

depend neither on caprice

of merit of each presentable

among

all

the

young man

girls, as set forth in

will give

Article

XXX

of

the First Title. For this purpose, at the four great marriage festivals which

be fixed around the solstices and equinoxes, namely at the

will

St.

André,

Carnival, at the St. Jean, and on the ninth of September after harvest,

work

will stop for three

days throughout the nation.

The whole population

assemble to witness the marriages and to participate

will

newly weds. These three days in families that

have boys or

will

at all

in

the joy of the

be preceded by a fortnight of preparation

girls to

be married at the approaching

Their clothes will be got ready, and they

will

festival.

be given special instruction

the boys, as prescribed in Article XLI below, the

girls, in Article

LXV

of the

Gynographs regulation. Choosing will take place on the second of the three festival days, the first in

having been employed by the eligible young people

reading the moral register and in parading before one another.

day,

all

the girls will range themselves in a row or a

dance with the

locality,

class will step forth

From

and the boys

will

and choose among the

Nicolas-Ed me Restif de

la

On

number of rows

be lined up separately. girls

the ones

who

selection in accor-

The

first

please them, in

Bretonne, L'Andrographe, ou Idées d'un Honnête- Homme, sur un les Nations de l'Europe, pour opérer une Réforme générale des

Projet de Règlement, Proposé a toutes

et, par elle, la bonheur du Genre-humain (The Hague: Gosse and Pinet, 1782), pp. 53—65 ; translated by the editors.

moeurs,

Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne

(176)

who

the presence of their parents,

come the second

will

Within the

speak with those of the

will

and so on through the

class,

different classes of

sixth,

who

will

Then

girls.

choose

last.

young men, those who have rather more merit

always take precedence (the drawing of

lad will have a

lots, discussed in Article XXX, among those who are perfectly equal): in each class every number beginning with one for the most deserving, and this

system

in force

will

taking place only

be

will

through the

members of class

last

Each

six.

girl

thus

publicly chosen will modestly follow her future husband to the altar, where all

the boys and girls will be forthwith united in a single general blessing.

The

parents have but to see to

that the couple related to

it

pronounce the "yes." In making choices, forth in Article

tion, the in the

XXVIII of the Gynographs, and other conditions

XXIX

with Article

of this regulation for

newly weds

Immediately

in

accordance

after the benedic-

Every wife

Article XLII.

will

have a ring inscribed

and rank of her husband.

class

XXXVII.

In the event that a girl chosen

herself to receive

him

known through one established

girls.

be separated, to be reunited only at intervals and

will

manner prescribed by

with the

them by blood

relative age will be regulated as set

by

Article

as a

by

a

young man cannot bring

husband, she will immediately make her opposition

Dames

of the matrons of the Committee of Ancient

LXXX

Then

of the Gynographs regulation.

the reasons

for the rejection will

be examined in the open, not to determine their validity

there will always be

some

— but to

inflict

punishment on the

girl if the

reasons

are to her discredit. In case of doubt, her marriage will be put off until the

next festival

in case she

;

is

wrong and the

reasons advanced are

false,

she will

be cast into the lowest ranks, to be chosen in the future only by members of the class

merit and good looks

last in

;

in case she

is

right, she

may

that

same day be rechosen by one of the substitute young men, who are ten in number, in place of the one whom she has justly rejected. (To the details of Article XII of the Gynographs should be

added that

girls

of

first

merit will be

placed in the front row, the more readily to be viewed and selected by the

members of Note that in

class

one and

girls a

class

two and other young men of

distinction.

degree of beauty, gentleness, or at least amiability must

be joined to the virtues appropriate to their sex.)

XXXVIII.

Every boy who has some bodily defect

will

be excluded from

the legitimate classes, and different classes of cripples will be constituted, in

accordance with their degree of infirmity. (1) Those disabled by accident can

still

work

will

have a choice of marriage

or regular, as with the following class. (2)

deformity will form a second class

who

who

or the ecclesiastical state, secular

The lame without any

can be given young

girls as

other

wives

if

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations

^U)

The bandy-legged will qualify men will only

they are otherwise vigorous and healthy. (3)

only for widows. (4) Congenital hunchbacks and deformed

women

obtain

rejected girls

past forty. (5)

who have

The deaf and one-eyed

blind will have the ugliest girls Selection

among

have

will

as

wives only

The

not been chosen at the marriage festivals. (6)

who have

not been able to find husbands.

the malformed will have as

many

divisions as

among

the

robust. Priority will be given to those uniting the least deformity with the

greatest merit; the rest will be ranked in accordance with the merit which

and the greatest deformity. Finally, illness is

communicable, such

it

who

reached

offsets their deformities, until that subject is

has the least merit

should be observed that those whose

as the scrofulous, the scorbutic, the herpetic,

the syphilitic, and so on, will not be able to marry, or will be permitted to

marry only women past

fifty,

who might

be willing to expose themselves

to the disease. This will apply also to those attacked

by epilepsy, consump-

and so on.

tion,

The

XXXIX. specific,

since the

reasons for the rejection of a

Committee of

Five, will have carefully excluded those

Thus, (1)

cause.

tion; (2)

A

A

and secret

specific

secret vice

known

young man

who will who might

Elders,

will

have to be

be treated under Title fall

under some general

insult to a girl will be a cause of rejec-

to the girl; (3)

An

insult to her father, brother,

uncle, male cousin germane, mother, sister, aunt, female cousin germane,

teacher of either sex; (4)

Mockery of the

girl; (5)

Refusal to do her a favor;

Having on some occasion demonstrably preferred someone

(6)

With

all

right

and the boy put

else to her.

these reasons, especially the last, the girl cannot be proved in the off to another festival

and even cast into

a

lower

class,

unless the offense has been grave in nature.

XL.

Even

but then the

if the

reasons are not legitimate, the rejection will be sustained,

girl will

be punished in accordance with the circumstances. In

case of failure to prove frivolous charges, her marriage will merely be post-

poned to another But

if

the

festival

girl falsely

and the boy

made

will

no longer be able to choose

her.

serious accusations, or if she gave illegitimate

That he is not handsome; amusement, to which people apply the

reasons for rejection such as the following: (1)

That he has no taste empty term agreeableness

for light

(2)

errors

when

in fact

;

(3)

That he

is

serious and cold; (4)

That he made

he was right, such as having occasionally voiced correct

observations about the real shortcomings of the young lady; (5) That he

—

is

That his family is inferior in such and similar instances the girl will be demoted to the lower classes, and in (4) and (5) she will be put in the last row. As for the boy who is rejected without cause, too rigidly virtuous; (6)

Nicolas-Edme Restifde la Bretonne

(178) he

may

taken,

among all the girls who have not been among ten of the following class, who

again choose that very day

if

like the

there are any

left;

otherwise,

boys will always be kept

in reserve as a

supplement

in case of a

shortage.

XLI.

In addition to the sage counsel

which has been given to the young

people before marriage, the chief of the Committee of Elders will address them

immediately recapitulate

after the celebration that all

forms part of the festival and he will

the earlier instructions, to wit (1) That marriage

is

:

a

hallowed

and the act of marriage the most honorable and sacred of nature's mysteries; (2) That consequently one may permit oneself nothing which

state

might profane

it

either

by brutal transports of passion or indecent

liberties,

obscene speech, and so on; (3) That the delights with which nature accompanies the act of marriage are a beneficence for which thanks are due her; (4)

That these delights should persuade

a reasonable spirit to bear

That

tion the pains attached to the conjugal bond; (5)

pleasure in the birth of his children it

should

make

a wife dearer to us

children well; (6) rage,

is

the tenderest that can be experienced,

and should commit us to bringing up the

That the impatience of a husband with

and so on, are

with resigna-

since a father's

and puerile;

acts at once ferocious

his wife, brutality,

(7)

That

for the sake

of the children's constitution and the father's health, the taste for carnal pleasure inspired

by

a wife should cease to exercise the

dominion and ardor

of a novelty, since this taste might consume the husband's strength and give the fatherland children with

weak bodies but

disproportionate to their strength; (8) That there a sort of gentle intimacy

violent passions, that is

among married

is,

couples

founded upon confidence and mutual need, which

is

preferable even to the tenderest love, since that can only be a detriment to

the fulfillment of one's duties because

it is

too absorbing; (9) That one cannot

master the art of inspiring love or prevent

it

from waning, but one can be

adept at winning confidence, fostering mutual dependence, and these virtues are the foundation of happiness; (10)

That spouses should be

other, politeness being a kind of amiability

polite to each

which renders us agreeable,

for

no persons have more need to be agreeable one to another than spouses destined to live together; (11) That consequently they should not be exigent, captious, sensitive; sincerity, amiable candor, frankness should be the soul

of their converse; (12)

They

will

be warned that they should enjoy hymen's

pleasures only in stealth until the age of 35

;

(13)

That

at this age

they will be

mature men; (14) That it is low, criminal, and reprehensible to give a bad example to youth either by word or indecent action contrary to good

free, as

morals; (15) That a good example set by one's conduct with one's spouse will

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations

(i79)

who have

particularly

be praised and there will be public rewards for those

distinguished themselves in this respect; (16) That the proper education of children that

it

is

the principal responsibility of married people, in view of the fact

serves the general

fathers of

wicked parents father of a classes of tion,

good while accomplishing

wicked children will

a private

good; (17) That

be esteemed, while good children of

be considered doubly meritorious; (18) That the wicked

good son

men,

will not

will nonetheless

be punished and relegated to the

as will be specified in Article

but that his good son

may

LV

last

of Title Three of this regula-

obtain his pardon once; (19) That a pusillani-

mous husband who

lets

and led by

out of weakness or love will be publicly censured for the

his wife

himself in a cowardly manner be dominated, mastered,

offense; for further offenses he will be obliged to appear in the village or

first

city assemblies with a little distaff

and

a little spindle in his hat; (20) That,

on the other hand, every husband

who

preserves masculine dignity without

harshness,

who

is

the guide, protector, noble and upright defender of his

spouse, will be lauded

if

he has these qualities to a notable degree, and in the

event of exemplary conduct in this respect, he will be raised to a class above the one in which he stood at the time of his marriage; (21) That distinguished services rendered to the state, sublime moral virtues, an invention useful

excellent results, will likewise raise a citizen in grade

him

and

and superb system of bringing up children that has produced

rare, a splendid

to the level of top

man

and might even elevate

in the top class, in accordance

with his deserts;

(22) Finally, that a bad husband, quarrelsome, drunk, brutal to the point of striking his wife, will be sequestered from society, confined to the class of

the helpless deformed, and treated with terrible severity.

Still

further instruc-

might be added according to the time and circumstances.

tions

The newly weds will see their wives only through the grillwork men and women in the common room set aside for meals and public diversions. Each evening the young man will return to his parents' home, XLII.

separating

and

his wife's parents will take their

daughter home, where she

before her marriage. But she will sleep alone,

enough to get

to her, joy will be with him.

encouraged by the parents,

who would

and

if

will live as

her husband

However, he

will

is

clever

never be

otherwise be considered blameworthy.

Until the age of 35, a husband cannot be seen with his wife anywhere without

dishonor and without exposing himself to censure; but anything he does in secret will

and without being discovered, though the

be praised.

And

it

will

results

may

betray him,

be a great achievement to have had several

children by one's wife without ever having been caught by the parents or seen

alone with one's wife. This virtue carried to the highest point of perfection

(

1

Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne

80

will result in

advancement by

a

degree to a higher

advancement the husband

to another cause of

class.

And

if it is

joined

be graded one number

will

higher than his equals in merit.

Should

XLIII.

it

happen that

a

newly wed husband,

in defiance of this

wise regulation, presumes to behave freely with his wife in accordance with present abuses, he will be deported, that

to say, sent to the colonies until

is

the age of 35, at which time he will be obliged to go back to his country,

where he

will

him and he XLIV.

be placed in the lowest

will follow the

But

if

the

common

class.

His wife will then be returned to

lot.

young husband employs new and

happy moments with

he will be praised for

his wife,

clever

it,

means to pass

whatever they

are,

provided that he uses no violence or firearms, only stratagems either to take the parents of his wife by surprise or to conceal himself from totally undiscovered.

The law

them and remain

provides that in this case the young wife

not elude him or try to make her husband

fail.

If

may

such a thing should happen,

she would be punished as a felon by the Committee of Ancient Dames, even

without her husband's

when

the

complaint. There will be instances, however,

filing

young husbands

will

be warned by their families that nothing

is

to

be attempted; and mothers especially will be authorized to keep the newly

weds under

their surveillance

on those occasions.

XLV. When brides become pregnant, their husbands will be allowed to see them every day and to spend one or two hours with them under the eyes of the mother and the whole household. For this purpose, mealtimes will be preferred. This indulgence

young

soul of the

is

intended to

instill a

kind of contentment in the

wife, who* will take care to inform her

she believes herself pregnant. Until the pregnancy

is

mother

as soon as

confirmed, however,

permission will be granted the husband only for a brief interview. Finally, in the last if his

two months, the husband may remain much longer with

his wife

parents or the Elders judge he can do so without neglecting his duties.

Otherwise

this privilege will

not be granted.

The bad conduct

of husbands or

wives will deprive them of this advantage.

XLVI.

If,

despite

conjugal union,

it

infidelity, a single

all

the security which the regulation gives to the

should transpire that a

woman commits

an essential

eyewitness will suffice to convict her; for even

if

she has

not committed the crime of adultery, an intimacy great enough to arouse suspicion will be

enough

to render her

husband himself who has seen

it,

his

unworthy of her husband.

marriage will be broken, entirely annulled, the

woman

will

If it is the

testimony will be irrefutable. The if

there are

be confined to outcasts disgraced

in

still

no children; and

the eyes of nature in

The Pursuit of Happiness through Rules and Regulations proportion to her transgression and the degree of there is

its

(181)

That

certainty.

is,

if

only one witness and consequently the consummation of the adultery

is

not completely proved, she will be put in the rank of the least deformed,

and

as

such she might be given in marriage to a deformed young

among

who

those

widower.

If

there

can marry is

girls, as set forth in Article

a clear-cut conviction either

man from

XXXVIII, or

to a

on the testimony of her

husband or of two or more witnesses, the woman thus

justly repudiated will

be given to the most deformed blind men, and condemned to serve them and to lead

them under pain of prison and flogging

herself well or to care for them.

in case she fails to

conduct

should be noted that the guilty will always

It

known only to the chief of the Committee who marry them will be ignorant of their

be sent to a different region, to places of Elders, so that the deformed particular crime

as

and

be able to reproach them with

will not

indiscretion,

inveterate

indolence,

calumny, and so on. (This should serve

When women

Gynographs.)

malice,

certain,

habitual

supplement to Article XIX of the

If

the charge

is

not completely proved, they

be deprived of the right to bring up their daughters.

will

If

the crime

is

they will be treated as prescribed in Article XLIII of the Gynographs.

man who is unfaithful, it will be ascertained whether his partner widow or a deformed person or a guilty woman assimilated to deformed. Then the circumstances will be examined to see whether the

If it is

the

base

slovenliness, as a

are unfaithful after they have had children, the

marriage will not be dissolved.

was

For there are

it.

other crimes for which girls will be cast into the deformed classes, such

still

the

a girl or a

act occurred after he

had long been unable to approach

lacked this excuse in his favor. wit: (i) If

it is

a

well-formed

And girl

a decision will

his wife or

whether he

be made accordingly, to

and one without reproach

whom

he has

thus dishonored, he will not be obliged to pay damages; under the system of equal wealth established by this regulation such penalties could not be inflicted,

and even under the present system they should not be imposed since

they would hurt the family of the seducer, which

punishment

will

not being able to pass before the

girl or

knees and asking their pardon, even

He would

is

not guilty. But the seducer's

be personal and will consist throughout his whole

if

life

he should meet them ten times a day.

be forbidden to reply to anything they might say to him, or to

complain, save to the Committee of Elders to put bounds to the matter on

own

of

her parents without falling on his

initiative. (2) If the

man

the adulterer will be broken

has seduced a married if

woman,

its

the marriage of

he has no children and his wife demands

it.

She will remain free to marry again anyone permitted by law to marry widows.

But the two adulterers

will not

be able to marry each other under any

(

1

82 )

Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne

circumstances.

The woman

will

be consecrated to the blind, deformed ones,

and the man obliged to take the hand of any blind to receive him, with the injunction that he (3) If the

husband has been adulterous with

girl

must

who would condescend

treat her well,

and so on.

widow, the marriage

a

will not

be dissolved, but the guilty one will be publicly stigmatized by the Committee

and

will

be barred from amusements at the four marriage

festivals. Instead

of

giving themselves over to pleasures like the rest on those days, the guilty of

every description, especially the

last

group, will do the heavy work, will

carry water, help in the kitchen, and so on. In case of repeated offenses, they will

be condemned for

life

(see Article LXII

on crimes and LXVIII on cooks

under the following Title). (4) If the husband has forgotten his duty with a deformed person, he will only be subject to a reprimand and condemned to do the lighter

work during the

four festivals. (5) Finally,

if it

was with

one assimilated to the deformed, the marriage would be dissolved

were no children and the wife demanded the same sentence as the criminal

it.

And

the husband

woman would

it

should be observed that

if

if

there

condemned

in

be obliged to marry her,

the adultery in this case destroying the marriage as (6) In conclusion,

a guilty

the

is

written in the Gospel.

man

has fornicated with

women of the last three classes at a time when he was forced to abstain from his own wife, either because of her illness or absence, the punishment will be incomparably lighter and of the easiest kind, such least onerous service at the marriage

several countries are absolutely

bonds,

it

could be omitted.

.

.

.

festivals.

If,

as a

reprimand and the

of course, the laws of the

opposed to the dissolution of the marriage

CONSTANTIN FRANÇOIS CHASSEBOEUF, COMTE DE FOLNET (1757-1820)

The End

of Privilege*

After Volney had completed studies in law and medicine, his adventurous spirit

took him to a Lebanese monastery, where he learned Arabic, to

Egypt and

Syria,

and

at the

end of the century to the United

States.

He

represented Anjou in the Estates-General of 1789, and in the following year became secretary of the Constituent Assembly. His attempt to run a

Corsican estate according to novel political and economic theories was interrupted by imprisonment during the Terror. Volney escaped the guillotine and, after an interval in

which he devoted himself to public

education, re-entered active political

champion of libertarian ideas even

and the Restoration. Though he wrote travel,

life.

a

an outspoken

Empire

number of works on languages,

and ancient history, Volney's fame

or a Survey

He remained

in the legislative bodies of the

rests principally

on The Ruins:

of the Revolutions of Empires (1791), where he unveiled a future

society founded on liberty, justice, and the general will.

From

Constantin François Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney, The Ruins: or A Survey of the of Empires (London: J. Johnson, 1792), pp. 1 17-31 translated from Les Ruines, ou

Revolutions

Méditations sur

;

les

révolutions des empires.

183

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