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P.-J. Proudhon, Selections from the “Carnets”

April 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] Selections from the Carnets Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ————— Carnets, Vol. 1 (Carnet No. 1, 17): 27. Serial law. Everything in nature is simple and complex. What we call a simple idea or element is nothing but the term with which we ended our analysis. Each day I experience the truth of that observation, […] Carnets, Vol. 1 (Carnet 2, 38): 133. In order to organize society, to reestablish order, we must not wish to escape antinomic principles; we must seek one that coordinates with them. This principle exists, simpler and more common than anything the laws have ever prescribed: return […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Relation of Sex in Humanity” (1894)

April 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] RELATION OF SEX IN HUMANITY. By Voltairine de Cleyre. A Lecture Delivered before the Ladies Liberal League, Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 12, ’93, in Reply to Professor Cope. Before proceeding to state my own position on the subject of the relation of sex, I will very briefly restate the principal points of Professor Cope’s argument. He viewed the question from the two standpoints of biology and sociology, beginning with the former which, he declared, furnishes the foundation facts from which sociological conclusions are to be drawn. And having done so, arrived at the conclusion that the natural position of woman […]

Voltairine de Cleyre in “Lucifer the Light-bearer”

April 7, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ A FIRST LETTER TO “LUCIFER” ] Phila., March 5, ’90. Dear Sir: I have for some time contemplated sending you a line, to let you know that I, at least, do not belong to that ultra-fine class of reformers who are afraid of facts. Certainly I do not make the sex question the prime issue, for the reason that I believe sexual freedom to be impossible short of economic independence; nevertheless I honor you for your fearlessness in fighting the battle which you believe to be most necessary; and certainly any one who takes the slightest pains to […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Gates of Freedom” (1891)

April 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] The Gates of Freedom [Address delivered before the Liberal Convention at Topeka, Kan., March 15, `89`.] “They have rights who dare maintain them.” This is my text. And the purpose of my lecture is threefold. First to state the facts concerning the actual status of woman in relation to society as a whole—what position she really holds in human economy. Not, mind you, what classes of men regard her, not how “she is considered by the law,” not what she herself imagines, but the bald fact of what she is. Second—to show upon what ground we demand certain “rights” […]

Dyer D. Lum, “To Hell with Her” (1891)

April 5, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] “To Hell With Her.” I know a woman (in the profane, rather than in the sacred sense of that verb). She was born in far Norseland, and the bloom on her cheeks vied with the aurora borealis, the one dazzling young fishermen by day as the other did by night. Radiant in beauty and health, an eidelweiss on the bleak snow-covered scenery, the natural instincts which burn even in polar regions had their way: she married early. She gave birth to six children. She is now thirty and in this land of liberty. Free, or a deserted wife to […]

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Justice is Blind” (1891)

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Aye, and deaf and dumb in Kansas! For what, save utter deafness to all justice, could lead a judge to so far forget the dignity of authority as to sentence any living being without first asking the question: “Have you anything to say which sentence should not be pronounced against you?” True, the question is often a farce. I venture to say that not once in five hundred times is the sentence altered thereby; but true also we are treading upon dangerous times when judges no longer respect even the form of justice.

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Voltairine de Cleyre, “Courting” (1890)

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] COURTING Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 15, ’90. A friend and myself undertook that serious affair the other day, and the results being peculiar I want to take the public into my confidence. People usually prefer privacy on such occasions, but we got into a roomful all intent on the same errand. Specified, the errand was this: The famous “Kreutzer Sonata” was to be tried. Tolstoi, voice by Robert Arundel, was to justify himself before Judge Arnold; the prosecuting attorney, over the heads of a few poor itinerant booksellers, was to tear the asceticism of Galilee in rags, and the public […]

Dyer D. Lum (1839-1893)

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

Links Dyer D. Lum in the Boston Investigator (1857–1861) Dyer D. Lum in the Banner of Light (1867–1872) Dyer D. Lum in The Evolution (1877–1878) Works by Dyer D. Lum Dyer D. Lum, “Cure Meslier,” The Boston Investigator 27, no. 5 (May 27, 1857): 2. Dyer D. Lum, “Infidels Should Avow Their Sentiments,” The Boston Investigator 27, no. 11 (July 8, 1857): 1. Dyer D. Lum, “The First Christians,” The Boston Investigator 27, no. 36 (December 30, 1857): 1. [letter] – Boston Investigator, (Boston, MA) Wednesday, November 14, 1860; pg. 237; Vol. 30, Issue 30; Dyer D. Lum, “Axioms,” The […]

Dyer D. Lum in the “Boston Investigator”

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] To A. C. Middleton:—I have read your communication in the Investigator of the 13th inst., requesting information about Meslier, other than that given by Voltaire, and will relate what has fallen in my reach. Naigeon, in his “Ancient and Modern Philosophy,” under the head “Meslier,” after giving a brief account of his life and an extract from his “Testament,” blames Voltaire for not publishing the whole of Meslier’s work. Your remark, that “this extract is Deistical,” refers only to the first part of his work. The second part, that Naigeon accused Voltaire of suppressing, was Atheistical. “Nobody had ever […]

Dyer D. Lum on the Verge (1877-1878)

April 4, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third_last] I’ve been back at work on archiving the works of Dyer D. Lum, this time focusing primarily on his poems, but one thing always seems to lead to another. In the process, I found two essays, a short note, a long review essay and a poem by Lum in a periodical called The Evolution. Comte’s positivism seems to have been one of the interests of the contributors, who included Modern Times resident Henry Edger, and, indeed, we find Lum himself preaching the positivist gospel himself. Even more than Edger, however, his reading of Comte seems ready to become an […]