Working Translations

Sylvain Maréchal, “The Pig-Keeper King” (1788)

In those days, a young king was inclined to dissipation, even to villainy; it was a hereditary vice. The états-généraux, natural guardians of the sovereign, who had never been emancipated from them, assembled & agreed on a means of correcting the young prince. One day, when he had abandoned himself completely to his foul penchants, and was plunged into a deep sleep, they seized his royal person; from his palace, they transported him on a litter, still sleeping, to a stable. […]

Working Translations

Sylvain Maréchal, ” Prometheus” (1788)

Thus far, the mythologists have misreported the allegorical history of Prometheus. Here are the facts: that ingenious artist of antiquity, having kneaded clay in water, made from it several figures of men, which he animated with the elemental fire. He took great pleasure in his work, like a father in his children. […]

Utopian and Scientific

Charles Fourier in the the “Journal de Lyon, Nouvelles de la France et de l’étranger”

It is amusing for me to make so many young muses gossip at will: if I have an article printed, these gentlemen immediately fight against me in verse and prose, in the two newspapers. Aren’t they a little confused being twenty to one? Couldn’t you, gentlemen, talk about anything other than me? Where would your mind be without my madness? You only develop it when I excite it. I Am not so uniform; satire, harmony, the triumvirate, all that is madness for some, good for others; but at least it is varied. You would still have cackled about the problem of women’s liberty, if I had given it. […]

Glossary

Simplism

Simplisme / Simplism 3. du SIMPLISME ou cause de la cataracte. Ce reproche de cataracte intellectuelle, adressé à un siècle savant sur divers points, pourrait sembler indécent si je ne l’étayais de preuves très-palpables. Je […]

Working Translations

Paraf-Javal, “Authority” (1907)

To date, all societies have been established according the principle of authority. Even what we mistakenly call socialism is as form of this principle. The delegation of its powers to a minority charged with distributing everything in the best interests of the collectivity (collectivism), amounts to an abandonment of its rights. The comrades who distribute will be privileged, governors and oppressors, while the others will be exploited, governed and oppressed. […]