Among the Socialist Schools, that of Fourier occupies a distinguished place; it is the one most deserving of the gratitude of women through the principles that it has laid down. Be it understood, we separate in this connection the principles of Liberty and Equality from all that relates to the question of ethics, which we cannot resolve in the same manner as Fourier, any more for woman than man.
CHAPTER VII.
SUMMARY.
Appear, all ye modern innovators, before your judge, the public. Sum up your opinions.
COMMUNIST. The two sexes differ, do not perform the same functions, but they are equal before the law.
For woman to be really emancipated, society must be remoulded economically, and marriage suppressed.
PHILADELPHIAN AND ICARIAN. We are of your opinion, brother, except in what concerns marriage.
ORTHODOX ST. SIMONIAN. If Christianity has despised and oppressed woman, it has been because, in its sight, she represented matter, the world, evil. We, who are come to give the true meaning of the Trinity, rehabilitate or explain what our predecessors have condemned. Woman is the equal of man, because in God, who comprises everything, matter is equal to spirit. With man, woman forms the couple which is the social individual, the functionary. As woman is very different from man, we do not take the liberty of judging her; we content ourselves with summoning her that she may reveal herself.
Notwithstanding we think that she can only be affranchised by being emancipated in love.
PIERRE LEROUX agitated. Take care! It is not so much in sex that woman should be affranchised; it is only in her quality of wife and human being. She has sex only for him she loves; to all other men she is what they are themselves: sensation, sentiment, sense. She must be free in marriage and in the commonwealth as man himself should be.