Selected Works of Robert Owen: The book of the new moral world

416 Pages·1993·9.25 MB·English

by  Robert Owen, Gregory Claeys (ed.)

The Pickering Masters
Selected Works of
Robert Owen
The Book of the New Moral World
Edited by
Gregory Claeys
THE PICKERING MASTERS
SELECTED WORKS OF
ROBERT OWEN
Volume 3. The Book of the New Moral World

SELECTED WORKS OF
ROBERT OWEN
EDITED BY
GREGORY CLAEYS
VOLUME
3
THE BOOK OF THE
NEW MORAL WORLD
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1993 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© Taylor & Francis 1993
General Introduction © Gregory Claeys 1993
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages.
No part of this bookmay be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Owen, Robert
Works of Robert Owen. - (Pickering Masters
Series)
I. Title II. Claeys, Gregory III. Series
335.0092
ISBN: 978-1-851-96088-0 (set)
Typeset by Waveney Typesetters
Norwich
CONTENTS
Introductory Note vi
THE BOOK OF THE NEW MORAL WORLD
First Part (1842) 1
Second Part (1842) 81
Third Part (1842) 125
Fourth Part (1844) 193
Fifth Part (1844) 241
Sixth Part (1844) 299
Seventh Part (1844) 361
v
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The bibliographical details of the various Parts of The Book of the New Moral
World are as follows: Part One editions, Glasgow 1836; Glasgow, 1837; Glas­
gow, 1840; abridged editions 1838 and 1840. A French edition of Part One was
published at Paris, c. 1838. Parts Two and Three appeared in 1842, Parts Four
to Seven in 1844. The first American edition was published in 1845, and
another edition of the complete work appeared in 1849. An abridged French
edition, Le Livre du Nouveau Monde Moral appeared in 1848 and it was
reprinted in 1849 and 1852. There was a German translation, Das Buch der
neuen moralischen Welt in 1840.
The 1842 edition of Parts One to Three is reprinted here; it has been
reprinted in 1970.
vi
THE BOOK
OV THE
NEW MORAL WORLD,
CONTAINING THE
RATIONAL SYSTEM OF SOCIETY,
FOUNDED ON DEMONSTRABLE FACTS, DEVELOPING THE
CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF
HUMAN NATURE AND OF SOCIETY.
BY
ROBERT OWEN.
Truth, without Myitcry, Mixture of Error or Fear of Man, can, alone, emancipate
the Human Race,from Sin and Misery.
IN SEVEN PARTS.
PART I.
XanBoti:
PUBLISHED BY THE HOME COLONIZATION SOCIETY,
AT THEIR OFFICE, 57, PALL MALL,
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.
MDCCCXLII.

TO
HIS MAJESTY, WILLIAM IV.,
KING OF GREAT BRITAIN, etc.
Sire,
Circumstances, not under your controul, have placed you at the head of the
most powerful association of men for good or for evil, that has hitherto existed
in any part of the globe; and other circumstances are about to arise, also
beyond your controul, which will render it necessary for you, Sire, and those
whom you may call to your councils, to decide whether this power shall be now
directed to produce the good or the evil.
The book, the first part of which, with this letter prefixed, I submit to your
Majesty, contains truths, of the highest import to you, Sire, to every member
of your family; to every subject of the wide-spread empire over which you
preside; to every human being, high or low, now living and to all those who
shall live hereafter. It unfolds the fundamental principles of a new moral
world, and it thus lays a new foundation on which to re-construct society and
re-create the character of the human race. It opens to the family of man,
without a single exception, the means of endless progressive improvement,
physical, intellectual, and moral, and of happiness, without the possibility of
retrogression or of assignable limit.
Society has emanated from fundamental errors of the imagination, and all
the institutions and social arrangements of man over the world have been
based on these errors. Society is, therefore, through all its ramifications,
artificial and corrupt, and, in consequence, ignorance, falsehood, and grave
folly, alone govern all the affairs of mankind.
Under your reign, Sire, the change from this system, with all its evil
consequences, to another founded on self-evident truths, insuring happiness to
all, will, in all probability, be achieved; and your name, and the names of
those who now govern the nations of the world will be recorded, as prominent
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