SAINT SIMON and SAINT SIMONIANISM. CLAUDE HENRI, Comte de SAINT Snrox, a French social philosopher, founder of the sect named after him, Saint Simonians, belonged to a different branch of the same family as the preceding. and was born at Paris. Oct. 17. 176 ). Although destined to become the propagator of the most revolu tionary and democratic ideas of modern times, he was reared in a perfect hot-bed of aris tocratic prejudice. Nevertheless, from his earliest years, Saint Simon exhibited a decidel hostility to the established system of things, mainly, however, it would seem (according to the anecdotes in vogue) from a certain puerile vehemence and obstinacy of nata•3. He was cursed, moreover, with a precocious vanity. What are we to think of a lad scarcely 16 giving his servant orders to rouse him every morning with such a flattering summons as Monsieur le Comte, vow avez de grander closes d faire, especially when, in point of fact, he had nothing to do? Saint Simon was pretty well educated in philosophy, like most of the young nobles of his time, and had D'Alembert among others for his tutor. At 18 lie entered the army, served in America, and distinguished himself on the day when lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown (Sept. 17, 1781), with all his forces. Captured by the British on his return home, lie was taken to Jamaica, where he remained till the peace in 1783 restored bins to liberty and France. But the monotony of garrison life did not suit his restless and impatient spirit, and in 1785 he quitted the service, and traveled in Holland and Spain, busying himself with various industrial schemes, such as connecting Madrid with the sea by means of a canal, and introducing diligences into Andalusia—the latter of which.proved successful. The great revolution foundin him— noble though he was—an enthusiastic disciple, and he voted in his patrimonial canton for the abolition of titles of nobility, but did not take any part in the political events that followed. His energies were devoted to matters more profitable than patriotic—viz., the purchase of confiscated property—and it is unhappily not at all doubtful that when France was laboring in the agony of a mighty struggle after new life, Saint Simon was consumed by an ignoble passion for enriching himself. But then, as his disciples have naïvely observed, it was necessary that he should acquire a fortune in order that he' might be able to devote himself satisfactorily to ideas. It was during the revolution, and while a temporary imprisonment in the Luxembourg, that visions of a new social system, based on scientitic principles, and not on political conventionalities, first unfolded themselves before his ardent imagination. His ancestor Charlemagne appeared to him one night in a dream, and said: Depuis gue le monde ethic aucune n a joui de l'honneur de produire un heros et un philosophe de premiere ligne. Cet honneur etait reserve d ma maison. Hon fits, ter SUCCe8 comae phllosophe egaleront cone gu' :eta, obtenu comae militaire et comme politigue. Saint Simon, though now 38 years of age, com menced to study " science, of which he was as yet quite ignorant. The plan lie adopted was pleasant and ingenious. He took a house opposite the ecole polytechnigue, and invited to his table trio professors of mathematics, of physics, and of astronomy, from whose lips—in the intervals of their feeding—he acquired the necessary information. Then he changed Isis lodgings, and fixed himself near the acole de medicine, where, suing the same method with the physiologists, he learned from them something of the structure of organized bodies. In 1801 he married, and threw open his salons to all the savants-anti 4rtists of Paris; but his lavish hospitalities—prodigalities, perhaps, they ought rather to be called—soon dissipated the fortune he mat amassed during tee revo lution. Meanwhile a notable social idea seized him. Hearing that the husband of Madame de Steel had just died, he resolved to marry the widow, whom lie considered to be the only woman fit to associate with him in his great project for the regeneration of society. To be sure was a little impediment in the way—viz., his being already want d; but in France there is never ;my difficulty in getting a divorce; and Saint 'Shinni was soon as good as a bachelor again. Betaking himself to Coppet, he unfolded his tail to the Intly, and begged her concurrence, urging his suit (it is said) by the most impr,ssive considerations; 3eadame, vow tiles In femme In plus e•traordinaire du monde; C011ieile yea aids l'hoinfue le plus extraordivaire; a noes deux nous aurions, sans doute, un enfant plus extraordinaire encore. Madame de Steel, however, declined to further the philanthropic projects of Saint Simon in the way he wanted, and the reformer—now beginning to be in straits—published at Geneva a Lettre (run Habitant de Geace a acs Cwitempor in.1 (103), in which he proposes (among other things) that there should be an annual subscription for the benefit of men of genius—mathematicians, physicians, chem ists, paysiologists, litterateurs, painters, and musicians—that spiritual power should be in the hands, not of the clergy, but of savants, and temporal power in the hands of the landed proprietors. while the privilege of choosing "chiefs of humanity" should belong
to everybody; finally, he asserts that religion is only a human invention. Saint Simon's proposal (so obstintaely prejudiced arc men against what is right) .vas not adopted—was not even noticed, either by " men of genius" or others, and in the course of a few months he was glad to accept the office of copyist at the Mont-de-Pi6te. Even this humble means of making a livelihood he had to resign from ill health, and he would probably have died of starvation had he not fallen in by chance with au old revolutionary friend called Diard, who took him into his house and furnished him with means to publish one of his most important works, the Introduction aux T•avaux Seidntijiques du Dix-nouvieine. Siiecle (Par. 1807). The death of Diard, in 1810, once more plunged Saint Simon into misery. Soon after, we find him writing to Lacilpilde, C11 Vier, Degerendo, CarnbacCriis, etc., in this style; Mena,ear," sovez more &occur, jc ?nears de . . . Depuis quinze lours, je mange do pain, et je bois de Com; je travaille sans feu et j'ai venda jusqu'a 'ores habits poor loarnir aux frais des copies de 711011 travail. There is nothing ludicrous here-, it is the plain unaffected agony of utter want. In 1812 his wretchedness crime to a crisis; lie left Park, betook himself to Peronne, where he fell dangerously ill, but recovered throng!' the attentions of his family, who now settled it small pension on him; he then returned to Paris. After the restoration, he began—in spite of his extravagant vanity— to reap the neve•-failing reward of enthusiasm and perseveranee—a crop of disciples. Of these the most distinguished was Augustin Thierry, who assisted him in the redaction of his Th;orgonbottion de la Societe Euroreenne—a work intended to demonstrate time inu tility of the congress of Vienna, end the incapacity of all mere political congresses to establish a durable peace. He proposes the institution of a European parliament, having. the right to arbitrate in eases of difference among the various nations, and adds that the first step toward the reorganization of Europe is the union of France and England. In 1817-18, he published D Industrie, ou Discussions Poliliques, Morales, et Philosophiques, partly written by himself and partly by his disciples. The third volume is the work of the celebrated Auguste Comte (q.v.). By this and other literary enterprises Saint Simon had exhausted all his funds, and as he sew no prospect of getting nny more he resolved to eornmit suicide. and actually discharged a loaded pistol at his own head (Mar. 9. 1823), which, however, only deprived him of an eye, and not of life. The last, and by far the most remarkable work of Saint Simon, is his Nouveau Obristianixtne (Par. 18241). which contains his final and matured convictions. According to lihn, Christianity has been diverted from its original design. Progressive by nature, and meant to he modified by the (deluging circumstances of times alai countries, it has been stiffened into tintfficrable dogmas by ecclesiastical conclaves. The clergy, whose mission is to instruct, are igno rant of the thoughts and manners of modern times, and have exhibited at complete and deplorable ineapa•ity. Protestantism is no wiser time Catholicism. It has set its face against the fine arts, and has shown a cruel and fatal indifference to the physical amelio ration of the poor. But genuine Christianity embraces in its consideration all the needs of humanity. From its grand principle, "love one another," it derives the proposition., that " religion ought to direct all the social forces toward the moral and physical ameli oration of the class which is at once the most numerous and the most poor." From this premise is deduced the idea of a social hiererchy based on capacity and labor—the new spiritual church comprising all functions and professions, sanctifying science and indus try, regulating vocaliona, fixing as In ties, dividing heritages, end Inking the best measures to make the labors of each conduce to the good of ell. Saint Simon did not live to carry out his principles in detail as far as they would have logically carried him, dying on May 19, 1825; hut in the writings of Comte we find time legitimate terminus and result of his sweeping speculations. Much in the character and system of Saint Simon is unquestionably false, exaggerated. and even laughable; but the Man Who reckoned among his disciples names like MM. Augustin Thierry, Auguste Comte, Oliude Rod rigttes, Thinly (de Blois), Leon Halevy, Duvergier, Bazard, Enfantin, Cerelet, Euchet, Carnet, Michel Chevalier, Henri Fournel, Duped, BarrauIt, Charles Deveyrier, Ta Pierre Leroux, Jean Reynaud, Emile Pereire, Felicien David, Saint ()heron. Charton, Cazeaux, Dubochet, and Stephane Mouy—is one whom posterity %ILI not w.11 ingly forget.