Sylvain Maréchal
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Sylvain Maréchal(15 August 1750 – 18 January 1803) was a French essayist, poet, philosopher and political theorist, whose views presagedutopian socialismandcommunism.[1]His views on a futuregolden ageare occasionally described asutopiananarchism.He was editor of the newspaperRévolutions de Paris.
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Early life[edit]
Born inParisas the son of a wine merchant, he studiedjurisprudenceand became alawyerin the capital. At the age of 20, he publishedBergeries,a collection ofidylls,successful enough to ensure his employment at theCollège Mazirinas an aide-librarian.
Maréchal was an admirer ofJean-Jacques Rousseau,Voltaire,Claude Adrien Helvétius,andDenis Diderot,and associated withdeistandatheistauthors.
Vision[edit]
He developed his own views of anagrariansocialismwhere all goods would beshared.InFragments d'un poème moral sur Dieu( "Fragments of a Moral Poem on God" ), he aimed to replace elements of practiced religion with a cult of Virtue and faith with Reason (seeCult of Reason).
His critique of both religion andpolitical absolutism(Livre échappé du déluge- "Book Salvaged from the Flood", aparodyof theBible) and his atheism caused him to lose his position at the college; Maréchal was forced to live off his literary output.
In 1788, he was sentenced to four months in prison for publishing theAlmanach des Honnêtes Gens( "Honest Man's Almanac" ). The months were given names numbered one through twelve (for example, March is the first month, listed as "mars ou princeps",while February is"février ou duodécembre".The calendar also replaced the usual figures of acalendars of saintswith famous characters (such asBlaise Pascal). Later editions of theAlmanachused theFrench Republican Calendar.[2][3][4] From this moment on until his death he publishedanonymously- to prevent further prosecutions.
Atheist ideology[edit]
During Maréchal's lifetime, atheism was consistently frowned upon by the highly religious people of France. Living in a traditionalist Christian country, he would often write about his thoughts on the church, often critical of the doctrines and beliefs held by the Christians of his time.
In his 1799 essay,Preliminary discourse, or Answer to the question: What is an atheist?,Sylvain Maréchal proclaimed that he had no more need of God than God needed him, and proclaimed such an attitude was "true atheism" after rejecting several competing stances.[5]He outright rejected the idea of masters ruling his life, and that included the will of any god. For him,to believe in God is to submit to hierarchy.
Revolution[edit]
An enthusiastic supporter of theFrench Revolution,Maréchal also advocated the defense of the poor. He did not become involved in the conflict opposingGirondistsandJacobins,and became instead worried about the outcome of revolutionary events, especially after theThermidorian Reactionand the establishment of theFrench Directory.The encounter between him andFrançois-Noël Babeuf(Gracchus Babeuf) and involvement in the latter'sconspiracywas to find in Maréchal an early influence onutopian socialism,as evidenced by themanifestohe wrote in support of Babeuf's goals -Manifeste des Egaux(first issued in 1796).
His later works include an 1801Projet de loi portant défense d'apprendre à lire aux femmes( "Bill Forbidding the Teaching of Reading to Women" ), which relates to the subject matter ofwomen's studiesandegalitarianism,as well as aDictionnaire des Athées anciens et modernes( "Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Atheists" ). He died atMontrougein 1803.
Works[edit]
- Bibliothèque des amans. A gnide(1764)
- Bergeries(1770)
- Chansons anacréontiques(1770)
- Essais de poésies légères suivis d'un songe(1775)
- Dieu et les prêtres, Fragments d'un poème philosophique
- Le livre de tous les ages, ou, Le Pibrac moderne: quatrains moraux(1779)
- Fragmens d'un poème moral sur Dieu(1781)
- L'Âge d'Or(1782)
- Nouvelle méthode courte et facile pour apprendre à lire aux enfans(1783). Contains also:Le Drelincourt moderne. Quatrains moraux
- Livre échappé du déluge(1784)
- Histoire de France, représentée par figures accompagnées de discours.Tome premier;Tome second;Tome troisième;Tome quatrième;Tome cinquième(1787-1796)
- Almanach des Honnêtes Gens(1788)
- Costumes civils actuels de tous les peuples connus, dessinés da̕près nature, gravés et coloriés, accompagnés d'une notice historique sur leurs coutumes, mœurs, religions, &c. &c..Tome premier;Tome second;Tome troisieme(1788)
- Apologues modernes, à l'usage d'un dauphin, premières leçons du fils aîné d'un roi(1788)
- Antiquités d'Herculanum; ou, Les plus belles peintures antiques...(1789)
- Dame Nature à la barre de l'Assemblée nationale(1791)
- Dictionnaire des honnêtes gens(1791)
- Anecdotes peu connues, sur les journées des 2 et s Septembre 1792. a Paris(ca. 1792)
- La constitution française en chansons. A l'usage des honnêtes gens(1792)
- Jugement dernier des rois, prophétie et un acte, en prose(théâtre, 1793)
- Almanach des honnêtes gens, contenant les prophéties pour chaque mois de l'année 1793, des anecdotes peu connues sur les journées de 10 août, 2 et 3 septembre 1792; et la liste des personnes égorgées dans les différentes prisons(1793)
- Pensées libres sur les prêtres(1798)
- Le Lucrèse français, fragmens d'un poëme(1798)
- Culte et lois d'une société d'hommes sans Dieu(1798)
- Les Voyages de Pythagore en Égypte, dans la Chaldée, dans l'Inde, en Crète, a Sparte. en Sicile, a Rome, a Carthage, a Marseille et dans les Gaules(1799)
- Dictionnaire des Athées anciens et modernes(1800)
- Histoire universelle en style lapidaire(1800)
- Pour et contre la Bible(1801)
- La femme abbé(1801)
- Manifeste des Égaux(1801)
- De la vertu(1807)
- Projet d'une loi portant défense d'apprendre à lire aux femmes(1841)
Works in English translation[edit]
- The Woman Priest: A Translation of Sylvain Marechal's Novella, "La femme abbe",translated by Sheila Delany, 2016, University of Alberta Press.[6]
- For and Against the Bible: A Translation of Sylvain Maréchal's Pour Et Contre la Bible (1801). by Sheila Delany, 2020, Netherlands, Brill.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Hunt, Lynn (4 July 2013).Family Romance of the French Revolution.doi:10.4324/9781315003306.ISBN9781315003306.
- ^Google books: Archives
- ^Literary works
- ^Almanach des honnêtes gens, pour l'année M.DCCCI.
- ^"Preliminary discourse, or Answer to the question: What is an atheist?".Marxist Internet Archive.
- ^"The Woman Priest: A Translation of Sylvain Marechal's Novella, La femme abbe".Waterstones.
External links[edit]
- Sylvain Maréchal's essays translated in English at Marxist Internet Archive
- Sylvain Maréchalondata.bnf.fr
- Works by Sylvain MaréchalatProject Gutenberg
- Works by or about Sylvain MaréchalatInternet Archive
- Archive ofPierre Sylvain Maréchal Papersat theInternational Institute of Social History
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- 18th-century atheists
- 18th-century French male writers
- 18th-century French poets
- 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights
- French opera librettists
- 18th-century French philosophers
- French atheists
- Atheist philosophers
- French communists
- French socialists
- Enlightenment philosophers
- 18th-century French lawyers
- French erotica writers
- Newspaper editors of the French Revolution
- People involved in the Conspiracy of the Equals
- French male essayists
- Writers from Paris
- 1750 births
- 1803 deaths
- 18th-century French essayists
- 19th-century atheists
- Proto-socialists
- Proto-anarchists