ENFANTIN, BARTHELF'MY PROSPER, the chief representative of St. Simonism, and as such, usually styled pore Enfantin, was the son of a banker at Paris, where he was born in the year 1796. He became a pupil in the Ecole Polytechnique in 1812, but was expelled in 1814, in consequence of his having joined the pupils who left school and fought against the allies on the heights of Montmartre and St. Chaumont. He was after wards a commercial traveler in Russia, then a banker's clerk, and in 1825, became director of the Caine Hypothicaire. About this time, he became a disciple of St. Simon, whose ideas he developed, after the death of their author, in the Producteur. After the July revolution, E. associated himself with M. Bazard for the active propagation of St. Simonism. Bazard preached it in its relations to philosophy and politics; E. mainly in its relations to the social state. Soon, however, a seism broke out between the two on the question of marriage and the relation of the sexes. Recognizing the " mobility" of the affections, E. affirmed that they ought to be "free," and of course pronounced against the ties of marriage. E.'s views were pushed so far, that government deemed it necessary to interfere on the grounds of public decency. The " supreme father" (as
his disciples were wont rather profanely to call him) was, after a trial of two days, sen tenced to two years' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 100 francs. Being released at the expiration of a few months, E. went to Egypt, and, after an absence of two years, returned to France, and became a postmaster and farmer in the vicinity of Lyons. In 1841, he came to Paris, and was appointed a member of the scientific commission for Algiers, and on his return from Africa, wrote a sensible, interesting book, entitled Colonisation de l' Alger& (Paris, 1843). After the revolution of 1848, he edited the jour nal entitled Le Credit Public, a paper retaining much of the old St. Sirnonian character, hut which had to stop in 1850 for want of funds. E. afterwards held an important situation on the Lyons and Mediterranean railway. His principal works are his Doctrine de St. Simon, in conjunction with others (1830); his Traits d 'Economie Politique; La Religion Saint-Simonienne (1831); Moral; Le Livre Nouveau (1832); Correspondance Phil osophique et 1?eligieuse (1847); Correspondance Politique (1849); La Vie Eternelle, Passe, Presente, Future (1861). He died May 31, 1864.