4 - Comte's Growing Independence, 1819–1821

Summary

I will be careful to indicate to you exactly what is my work and what is Saint-Simon's.

Comte to Valat, 1820

COMTE'S FIRST SIGNED ARTICLES: LE CENSEUR EUROPÉEN

In mid-1819 Saint-Simon and his friends were unable to fulfill the requirement of a new law that they deposit “caution money” at the Treasury in case they incurred a fine. Consequently, the government forced Le Politique to close. Comte's work for it must have been well regarded because in June he began to write articles and book reviews for Le Censeur européen, which had replaced Le Censeur and was just beginning its daily publication. Besides being pleased with the pay, Comte was happy to work for a well-respected periodical with strong ties to the Independents.

In the second issue, which appeared on June 16, 1819, Comte contributed an article in which he again called for a less wasteful administration. He condemned the proliferation of useless functionaries since Napoleon's regime because they made the government more expensive and more powerful. The government should be based on the “noble passion of equality,” which had been so “grand” and “pure” in 1789. Comte defined equality as the “horror of privileges,” which entailed the elimination of sinecures and the limitation of state power.