In 1831 a schism took place in the Saint-Simonian church. Enfantin’s views regarding love and marriage were becoming constantly less and less orthodox. His belief in the substantial correctness of the impulses of the flesh led him to advocate, first, divorce, then views which can fairly be called free-love. In this he departed widely from the doctrines of the earlier and purer Saint-Simonism. A violent controversy followed the announcement of Enfantin’s later opinions. The debates lasted day and night for some time. They were all terribly in earnest. Young men were borne from the room unconscious and some even lost their reason. The matter did not terminate until Bazard and a large number of disciples, including Mde. Bazard, M. Fournel and his wife, and Pierre Leroux, withdrew from the association. To the credit of the women connected with the Saint-Simonians, it should be stated that not one of them remained with Enfantin.
Enfantin and Bazard had been the two fathers, and in their assemblies Bazard had had a seat beside Enfantin. His chair was left vacant, as an appeal to some female Messiah to come forward and occupy it, and form together with Enfantin the couple-prêtre, the true priest man-woman. As man and woman together formed one unit, the supreme priesthood could only be perfect when composed of both. Enfantin’s beauty and wonderful magnetism appear to have attracted numerous candidates, but the right one never appeared. The perfect priest remained an unrealized dream.
After the schism Enfantin and a number of his disciples decided to come out from the world, and for this purpose retired to Ménilmontant, where Enfantin owned a house surrounded by a large garden. Here forty or fifty of the faithful led a most strange life. It was one of severe asceticism. Husbands separated from their wives for the sake of their religion, after they had assumed the monastic dress. Sometimes the wives shared the enthusiasm of the disciples; sometimes they murmured. One of them, who finds the trial a hard one and yet appreciates her husband’s motives, writes to him: “On Wednesday, I shall see you assume the dress of an apostle, and then I can give you but a sisterly kiss. I will endeavor to collect all my strength to hear you renounce me as a wife and your Amelia as child. Such a proceeding requires an energy which I trust I shall possess. Receive the tender farewell of her who will soon no longer be able to subscribe herself—your Amelia.” To a friend she writes: “I am sensible of the aims to which his noble and generous heart leads him, when he separates himself from me. This knowledge is sufficient for me to accept the sacrifice, and, after all, what is my grief, what are my tears, when the enfranchisement of the world is concerned?”
As they held the performance of labor to be a religious act, they employed no servants, and at Ménilmontant you might have been edified by the sight of a man scrubbing the floor, who has since attained a world-wide fame. They were generally cheered in their work by music. Another part of their creed laid stress upon mental development, and we find at the monastery instruction given in astronomy, geology, physical geography, music, and civil engineering. Any one might well be proud to have had such instructors as those who taught. To mention only one, the teacher of music was David, the composer of the operas “Lalla Rookh,” “Désert,” and “Herculanum.”
It is not necessary in this place to describe the strange and fantastic life by which the apostles endeavored to attain a more elevated spiritual state, reverencing Saint-Simon and Enfantin as sacred messengers of God. They were finally dispersed by dissensions, the desire of some to return to their families, financial difficulties, and external persecution. Enfantin and Chevalier were imprisoned for holding illegal assemblies. The faith, however, continued to prosper for a few years, and missionaries were still sent out to teach the New Christianity. One of the latest expeditions was headed by Enfantin himself after his release from prison. Its aim was to connect the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. De Lesseps was associated with them in this, but he finally separated from them, as they could not agree upon the engineering plans. Enfantin and other Saint-Simonians continued to advocate the project and scouted Stephenson’s assertion that it was impossible. This may seem at first like strange missionary work, but it does not, when you remember that to them all labor for the advancement of humanity was sacred. It is owing to Enfantin’s persistent endeavors that the Suez Canal was built. When Enfantin heard that De Lesseps was going on with the canal alone, it was thought that he might feel injured. He exhibited, however, a truly noble spirit, and simply remarked that, “Provided the work which I have brought into notice, and caused to be studied as highly useful to the moral and material interests of humanity, be executed, I will be the first to bless him by whom it is executed. Undoubtedly, it is but just that posterity should know that the initiation of that gigantic enterprise was taken by those whom the Old World could recognize only as Utopists, dreamers, or fools.”[59]
The Saint-Simonians never reunited after the Egyptian expedition. A considerable number were able to make themselves useful in that country on account of their engineering skill. Mehemet Ali, the viceroy, recognized their talents and employed them in numerous ways. One received a commission to found a Polytechnic School at Cairo, another was placed at the head of a school of artillery, two others were appointed professors in the school at Kauka, and several medical men received positions in the hospital. David delighted the Alexandrians with concerts, and Barrault charmed them by his eloquent lectures. An Egyptian paper declared of Barrault that “Alexandria, since the best days of its glory, has never heard within its walls a voice so eloquent or a poetry of language so harmonious.”[60]
The most of these Saint-Simonians returned to France, and, like many of their former associates who had not left their native soil, acquired positions of prominence and influence.
Enfantin himself received a post as director of the Lyons Railway and became wealthy. He never lost faith in Saint-Simonism, but thought that as much had been done for the system as was then possible, since its doctrines had been proclaimed far and near, and were slowly leavening the mass of society.
Many of the principles taught by the Saint-Simonians must receive our hearty approbation. We sympathize with their endeavors to improve the lot of the poor and oppressed, and assent to them when they preach the dignity and sacredness of labor, the reverence due woman, and the duty of maintaining peace between nation and nation. When Chevalier proposes that the armies of Europe, “instead of being applied to the destruction of property and life, should be employed upon works of public utility,”[61] we are reminded that the coming of a time has been prophesied when “nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”[62]
Saint-Simon has ceased to be the prophet of a religious school, but he did not sacrifice life and happiness in vain. He still lives in the lives and actions of men, and to-day possesses an historical importance which has been well expressed in these words: