Pierre Leroux and the Circulus
115
not enough. Truly fertile soil was a combination of animal, vegetable
and mineral elements. It became “un composé, un mixte, une
substance à un certain degré vivante” (p. 118). Leroux proudly told his
readers that during his exile in London he had successfully grown a
crop of beans having first made soil by mixing his own faeces and
urine with coal, ashes, brick and sand, actions that vindicated God’s
words when he told Ezekiel to bake barley cakes using “dung that
cometh out of man” (Ezekiel 4. 12). The man who used his own faeces to make soil and grow food completed the circle of life and reintegrated humankind within the purposeful totality of living things. Were
such practices to become generalized then there would be enough
meat and good quality bread to support an increasing population (p.
21). It would be like a return to Eden. However, the implications of
the theory of the circulus went beyond the eradication of hunger. The
triumph of the circulus signalled the defeat of egoism in the name of
solidarity: “Le cercle naturel remplace la circulation des économistes,
qui n’en est qu’une odieuse contrefaçon” (p. 179). The circulus was
“le moyen par lequel cette Nature unit tous les êtres” (p. 177). The
circulus re-established “l’unité de la vie et la chaîne qui lie tous les
êtres” (p. 176). It constituted a religious truth and inspired faith (p.
196). The Word was to be preached abroad and enacted in practical
living (p. 196).
In his younger days Leroux had been a Saint-Simonian. Central to Saint-Simonian doctrine had been the desire to rehabilitate matter, to restore to the material universe the value that had traditionally
been denied to it by the Christian tradition. In his writings on
agriculture Leroux effectively extended this notion of rehabilitation to
include faecal matter and bodily fluids: “la question véritable est de
savoir si les excréments ont une valeur, et quelle est cette valeur” (p.
137). Humans had failed to understand the depth of meaning surrounding excretion:
Voilà des siècles que les hommes satisfont tous les jours à une fonction naturelle
sans la comprendre!
Leurs déjections, après qu’elles sont sorties de leurs corps, leur sont inutiles et
odieuses: ils disent donc: Ces déjections ne servent à rien.
Ils ne sauraient s’en nourrir; au contraire, la Nature a arrangé tout de manière à ce
qu’ils ne fussent pas tentés de le faire. Ils disent donc: Cela ne peut pas être une
nourriture pour d’autres êtres.
Leurs sens sont blessés, ils disent: Voilà une chose abominable. (p. 137)
115
not enough. Truly fertile soil was a combination of animal, vegetable
and mineral elements. It became “un composé, un mixte, une
substance à un certain degré vivante” (p. 118). Leroux proudly told his
readers that during his exile in London he had successfully grown a
crop of beans having first made soil by mixing his own faeces and
urine with coal, ashes, brick and sand, actions that vindicated God’s
words when he told Ezekiel to bake barley cakes using “dung that
cometh out of man” (Ezekiel 4. 12). The man who used his own faeces to make soil and grow food completed the circle of life and reintegrated humankind within the purposeful totality of living things. Were
such practices to become generalized then there would be enough
meat and good quality bread to support an increasing population (p.
21). It would be like a return to Eden. However, the implications of
the theory of the circulus went beyond the eradication of hunger. The
triumph of the circulus signalled the defeat of egoism in the name of
solidarity: “Le cercle naturel remplace la circulation des économistes,
qui n’en est qu’une odieuse contrefaçon” (p. 179). The circulus was
“le moyen par lequel cette Nature unit tous les êtres” (p. 177). The
circulus re-established “l’unité de la vie et la chaîne qui lie tous les
êtres” (p. 176). It constituted a religious truth and inspired faith (p.
196). The Word was to be preached abroad and enacted in practical
living (p. 196).
In his younger days Leroux had been a Saint-Simonian. Central to Saint-Simonian doctrine had been the desire to rehabilitate matter, to restore to the material universe the value that had traditionally
been denied to it by the Christian tradition. In his writings on
agriculture Leroux effectively extended this notion of rehabilitation to
include faecal matter and bodily fluids: “la question véritable est de
savoir si les excréments ont une valeur, et quelle est cette valeur” (p.
137). Humans had failed to understand the depth of meaning surrounding excretion:
Voilà des siècles que les hommes satisfont tous les jours à une fonction naturelle
sans la comprendre!
Leurs déjections, après qu’elles sont sorties de leurs corps, leur sont inutiles et
odieuses: ils disent donc: Ces déjections ne servent à rien.
Ils ne sauraient s’en nourrir; au contraire, la Nature a arrangé tout de manière à ce
qu’ils ne fussent pas tentés de le faire. Ils disent donc: Cela ne peut pas être une
nourriture pour d’autres êtres.
Leurs sens sont blessés, ils disent: Voilà une chose abominable. (p. 137)