and unrealities.

Saint-Simon himself, who as presented to us by his disciples is a
half-mythic personage, seems, so far as I can judge by those of his
writings that I have seen, to have been a man of large ability and
laudable intentions; but I have not been able to find any new or
original thoughts of which he was the indisputable father. His whole
system, if system he had, is summed up in the two maxims "Eden is before
us, not behind us" (or the Golden Age of the poets is in the future, not
in the past), and "Society ought to be so organized as to tend in the
most rapid manner possible to the continuous moral, intellectual, and
physical amelioration of the poorer and more numerous classes." He
simply adopts the doctrine of progress set forth with so much flash
eloquence by Condorcet, and the philanthropic doctrine with regard to
the laboring classes, or the people, defended by Barbeuf and a large
section of the French Revolutionists. His religion was not so much as
the Theophilanthropy attempted to be introduced by some members of the
French Directory: it admitted God in name, and in name did not deny
Jesus Christ, but it rejected all mysteries, and reduced religion to
mere socialism. It conceded that Catholicity had been the true Church
down to the pontificate of Leo X., because down to that time its
ministers had taken the lead in directing the intelligence and labors of
mankind, had aided the progress of civilization, and promoted the
well-being of the poorer and more numerous classes. But since Leo X.,
who made of the Papacy a secular principality, it had neglected its
mission, had ceased to labor for the poorer and more numerous classes,
had leagued itself with the ruling orders, and lent all its influence to
uphold tyrants and tyranny. A new church was needed; a church which
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
Barthelemy Prosper Enfantin....

Bazard took the lead in what related to the e