Paul Brown, whose Twelve Months in New Harmony I posted some time ago, was, from various indications, a friend of Josiah Warren. He was also the most articulate voice in favor of property-in-common that we have from the New Harmony community. He was the author of a number of books, on a range of subjects, as well as some uncollected writings, under the title “Gray Light,” which appeared in the New Harmony Gazette. I’m working on transcribing Gray Light, which is probably one of the five or six most interesting uncollected works I’ve run across in the last few years. In the meantime, Google Books has made available The Radical and Advocate of Equality, a very interesting collection of papers from 1835. I frequently disagree with Brown, who must have had some lively debates with Warren about property, but I think he is one of the most important voices in that “first mutualist moment” of 1825-7, ranking right up there with Warren, “The Mutualist,” and Owen himself.
Contr'un
Paul Brown, Gray Light, I-IV (1825-1826)
GRAY LIGHT By “$” [Paul Brown] (From The New-Harmony Gazette, Dec. 21, 1825-Jan. 10, 1827) For the New-Harmony Gazette. GRAY LIGHT.—NO. I. The inception and first instance of any mode, when not immediately perceived, is not an object of intuition or demonstrative knowledge. Such as that of the commencing of a customary way of subsisting, among the individuals of a race of animals with whatever degree of intelligence endued, must be abstracted to the most general sense, before it can be an object of assurance. To go to particulars, as of time, words, &c., is to carry the subject into […]
Utopian and Scientific
Paul Brown, “A Moral Catechism” (1822)
An appendix to Paul Brown’s 1822 work, An Enquiry Concerning the Nature, End and Practicability of a Course of Philosophical Education. It contains a rather fascinating attempt to sketch out a system of virtues, faculties and passions. APPENDIX. A MORAL CATECHISM. Question. What is the chief end of man? Answer. Happiness. Q. In what sense is happiness the chief end of man? A. Happiness is the chief end of man in this sense, that it is the chief end of his pursuit, the prevailing object in which all his wishes terminate, and that to which his desires and aversions have […]
Contr'un
Paul Brown, Gray Light, V-VIII (1825-1827)
GRAY LIGHT By “$” [Paul Brown] (From The New-Harmony Gazette, Dec. 21, 1825-Jan. 10, 1827) [Continued] GRAY LIGHT—No. V. Any irregularity of the passions is moral evil. According to movements of the passions, the outward actions are shaped. All excess of passion is moral evil. Any of the passions being in excess or attached to an improper object, is moral evil, because the passions, generally, have more or less of voluntary motion in them. Any thing undue, irregular, excessive, of this kind, immediately causes pain. Also these things constitute a predisposition to evil actions. Consecutive to our emotions, we act. […]