Pierre Leroux and the Circulus
107
toutes ces langues; ESSE, manger, ajoutent-elles. Le même mot signifie à la fois être
et manger.
4
What was to be done? Leroux did not side with those who,
since the time of Pythagoras, had been arguing the case in favour of
vegetarianism. His approach was different. Rather than engage in
principled revolt against the natural order of things he sought to impose upon it the transforming vision of the circulus. Leroux’s theory
bound together the human, the natural, and the divine. It offered an alternative to the discourse of mastery that characterized so much of
nineteenth-century thought, to the discourse that represented humankind as a demi-god controlling nature, overcoming all resistance and
requiring that matter submit to the dictates of mind. The idea of the
circulus enabled the possible emergence of a new collaborative relationship between humans and their natural environment. At the most
elementary level Leroux was interested in improving the quality of the
soil, an ambition that was shared by a host of contemporary agronomists in France and elsewhere in Europe.
5 How could the soil be made
more fertile? What new forms of manure could be employed? Leroux
addressed these issues but, as we shall see, he went further and argued
that the proper use of human excrement could effectively replace
money and release humans from enslavement to the wage-based
economy that was the mark of modern industrial societies.
6
Although Leroux often returned to the subject of the circulus,
for the purposes of the present discussion I shall concentrate on the
book that provides the clearest and most detailed statement of his position: Aux Etats de Jersey sur un moyen de quintupler pour ne pas
dire plus, la production agricole du pays (1853).
7 The text runs to 227
pages, the first 79 of which focus on Leroux’s proposals for renewing
the island’s sewage system. He provides a breakdown of the costs in___________________________
4 Pierre Leroux, La Grève de Samarez, ed. Jean-Pierre Lacassagne, 2 vols
(Paris: Klincksieck, 1979 [1863-65]), II, p. 429.
5 For a contemporary discussion of how to define soil see Constant Prévost, “Terrain”
in Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle, ed. Charles d’Orbigny, 13 vols (Paris:
Renard, 1846), XII, pp. 477-79.
6 See the highly perceptive article by Dana Simmons, “Waste not, want, not: Excrement and economy in nineteenth-century France”, Representations, 96 (2006), 73-98.
7 Page references cited in the body of the text are to Pierre Leroux, Aux Etats de
Jersey, sur un moyen de quintupler pour ne pas dire plus, la production agricole du
pays, (London: Universal Library; Jersey: Nétré, 1853).
107
toutes ces langues; ESSE, manger, ajoutent-elles. Le même mot signifie à la fois être
et manger.
4
What was to be done? Leroux did not side with those who,
since the time of Pythagoras, had been arguing the case in favour of
vegetarianism. His approach was different. Rather than engage in
principled revolt against the natural order of things he sought to impose upon it the transforming vision of the circulus. Leroux’s theory
bound together the human, the natural, and the divine. It offered an alternative to the discourse of mastery that characterized so much of
nineteenth-century thought, to the discourse that represented humankind as a demi-god controlling nature, overcoming all resistance and
requiring that matter submit to the dictates of mind. The idea of the
circulus enabled the possible emergence of a new collaborative relationship between humans and their natural environment. At the most
elementary level Leroux was interested in improving the quality of the
soil, an ambition that was shared by a host of contemporary agronomists in France and elsewhere in Europe.
5 How could the soil be made
more fertile? What new forms of manure could be employed? Leroux
addressed these issues but, as we shall see, he went further and argued
that the proper use of human excrement could effectively replace
money and release humans from enslavement to the wage-based
economy that was the mark of modern industrial societies.
6
Although Leroux often returned to the subject of the circulus,
for the purposes of the present discussion I shall concentrate on the
book that provides the clearest and most detailed statement of his position: Aux Etats de Jersey sur un moyen de quintupler pour ne pas
dire plus, la production agricole du pays (1853).
7 The text runs to 227
pages, the first 79 of which focus on Leroux’s proposals for renewing
the island’s sewage system. He provides a breakdown of the costs in___________________________
4 Pierre Leroux, La Grève de Samarez, ed. Jean-Pierre Lacassagne, 2 vols
(Paris: Klincksieck, 1979 [1863-65]), II, p. 429.
5 For a contemporary discussion of how to define soil see Constant Prévost, “Terrain”
in Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle, ed. Charles d’Orbigny, 13 vols (Paris:
Renard, 1846), XII, pp. 477-79.
6 See the highly perceptive article by Dana Simmons, “Waste not, want, not: Excrement and economy in nineteenth-century France”, Representations, 96 (2006), 73-98.
7 Page references cited in the body of the text are to Pierre Leroux, Aux Etats de
Jersey, sur un moyen de quintupler pour ne pas dire plus, la production agricole du
pays, (London: Universal Library; Jersey: Nétré, 1853).