The Arcades Project - Operi

propagated, and maintained the egalitarian doctrines, and who restored them
after their downfall. Everywhere it is bourgeois who lead the people in their battles
against the bourgeoisie." A passage immediately following deals with the bourgeoisie's
exploitation of the proletariat as political shock troops. Maurice Dommanget,
Blunqu; il Belle-He (Paris, 1935>, pp. 176-177. [a22a,4]
"The terrible scourge of poverty, so relentless in its torments, requires a no less
terrible remedy, and celibacy appears the most certain among those pointed out to
us by social science." In connection with a reference to Malthus: "'In our day the
pitiless Marcus [evidently used for "Malthus"], unfolding the dismal consequences
of a limitless increase in population . .. , has ventured to propose asphyxiating
those babies born to indigent families that already have three children, and then
compensating the mothers for suffering an act of such cruel necessity . ... Here we
have the last word of the economists of England!" [Jules Burgy,] Present et llvenir
des ouvr;ers (Paris, 1847), pp. 30, 32-33.
There exists on earth an infernal vat
Named Paris; it is one large oven,
A stony pit of wide circumference,
Ringed hy three bends of a muddy yellow river.
It is a seething volcano that never stops erupting;
Its shock waves travel through human matter.
[a22a,5]
Auguste Barhier, Illmbes et poemes (Paris, 1845), p. 65 ("La Cuve"