Enfantin

Enfantin, Barthelemy Prosper (1796-1864), a French theorist and social reformer, was born at Paris. In 1813 he entered the Ecole Polytechnique, but had to leave Paris for joining in the defence of the city against the Allies. For some time he was a commercial traveller in different Continental countries, but in 1823 he set up in business at Paris, and in 1825 made the acquaintance of St. Simon, who made him the heir of his visionary schemes. When the Revolution of 1830 occurred Enfantin declared his programme, among his principles being communism, with temporary as well as permanent marriage, and the abolition of inheritance of property. [St. Simon.] He organised a model community, which failed owing to a quarrel with the director of the political part of the programme. He then established a kind of convent at Menilmontant, of which he became "le Pere," but this was suppressed by the Government in 1832, and he was punished as an offender against public morals. His next step was to start a colony in Egypt. This failed, and he reappeared in France as a farmer. In 1841 he was appointed one of a commission to Algeria, and he wrote a work upon colonisation in Africa. He afterwards received an appointment upon the Lyons and Mediterranean railway, and passed the rest of his life in obscurity.