Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 06
General
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 06
Literature -- Collections
should realize the ideal of Jesus Christ, and tend directly and
constantly to the moral, physical, and social amelioration of the poorer
and more numerous classes,--in other words, the greatest happiness in
this life of the greatest number, the principle of Jeremy Bentham and
his Utilitarian school.
His disciples enlarged upon the hints of the master, and attributed to
him ideas which he never entertained. They endeavored to reduce his
hints to a complete system of religion, philosophy, and social
organization. Their chiefs, I have said, were Amand Bazard and
Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin....
Bazard took the lead in what related to the external, political, and
economical organization, and Enfantin in what regarded doctrine and
worship. The philosophy or theology of the sect or school was derived
principally from Hegel, and was a refined Pantheism. Its Christology was
the unity, not union, of the divine and human; and the Incarnation
symbolized the unity of God and man, or the Divinity manifesting himself
in humanity, and making humanity substantially divine,--the very
doctrine in reality which I myself had embraced even before I had heard
of the Saint-Simonians, if not before they had published it. The
religious organization was founded on the doctrine of the progressive
nature of man, and the maxim that all institutions should tend in the
most speedy and direct manner possible to the constant amelioration of
the moral, intellectual, and physical condition of the poorer and more
numerous classes. Socially men were to be divided into three
classes,--artists, _savans_, and industrials or working men,
corresponding to the psychological division of the human faculties. The
soul has three powers or faculties,--to love, to know, and to act. Those
in whom the love-faculty is predominant belong to the class of artists,
those in whom the knowledge-faculty is predominant belong to the class
of _savans_, the scientific and the learned, and in fine, those in whom
the act-faculty predominates belong to the industrial class. This
classification places every man in the social category for which he is
fitted, and to which he is attracted by his nature. These several
classes are to be hierarchically organized under chiefs or priests, who
are respectively priests of the artists, of the scientific, and of the
industrials, and are, priests and all, to be subjected to a supreme
Father, _Père Supréme_, and a Supreme Mother, _Mère Supréme_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account