Enfantin

Enfantin, BARTHÉLEMY PROSPER, one of the chief representatives of the Saint-Simon school of Socialism, was the son of a banker in Paris, where he was born 8th February 1796. He went to the École Polytechnique in 1812, but having joined the pupils who left school and fought against the allies on the heights of Montmartre and St Chaumont, he was expelled in 1814. Enfantin saw Saint-Simon only once, and apparently did not join the school till the death of the master in 1826. After the July revolution of 1830 Enfantin associated himself with Bazard for the active propagation of Saint-Simonism. Bazard expounded it in its relations to philosophy and politics; Enfantin mainly in its relations to the social state. Soon, however, a schism broke out between the two on the question of marriage and the relation of the sexes. Enfantin recognised two sorts of marriage, one permanent, to suit steady and constant temperaments, the other changing and temporary, to suit the lively and mobile. A theory so subversive of social order led to the intervention of the government. The 'Supreme Father' (as his disciples were wont profanely to call him) was, in 1832, sentenced to two years' imprisonment and to pay a fine of 100 francs. Being released at the expiration of a few months, Enfantin went to Egypt for a time. He was subsequently appointed a member of the Scientific Commission for Algiers, and on his return from Africa wrote a sensible, interesting book, entitled Colonisation de l'Algérie (Paris, 1843). After the revolution of 1848 he edited the journal entitled Le Crédit Public. He afterwards held an important situation on the Lyons and Mediterranean Railway. He died August 31, 1864. That Enfantin was endowed with very extraordinary powers of fascinating and managing men is shown by the influence he exercised over a numerous body of clever and enthusiastic disciples. His plans for the construction of the Suez Canal paved the way for the great project since realised by Lesseps. The principal works of Enfantin are his Doctrine de Saint-Simon, in conjunction with others (1830); his Traité d'Économie Politique (1831); La Religion Saint-Simonienne (1831). An edition of the collected works of Saint-Simon and Enfantin (Paris, 1865 et seq.), extended to 40 volumes (17 of them Enfantin's).

Enfeoffment. See FEOFFMENT.