CHAPTER IV.

SAINT-SIMON.

WHEN we turn from Babœuf and Cabet to SaintSimon we discover a man of a new type. He differed from his predecessors in aims, purposes, and character. We find in him one who did not desire the dead and uninteresting level of communism, but placed before him as an ideal a social system which should more nearly render to man the just fruits of his own individual exertions than does our present society.

Count Henry de Saint-Simon* was born at Paris in 1760. He belonged to a noble family of France, which traced its origin to Charlemagne. The family attained distinction early in the fifteenth century through the gallant conduct of one of its members at the battle of Agincourt. It divided into five branches in the seventeenth century. The celebrated Duke de SaintSimon, author of the "Memoirs of the Reign of Louis XIV. and of the Regency," belonged to one branch; Louis François de Saint-Simon, Marquis de Sandricourt, grandfather of the socialist, to another. Among the sons of the marquis were Balthasar Henri, Maximilien Henri, and Charles François Simeon, of whom the two latter became distinguished. Balthasar Henri was the father of the subject of this chapter.

* An interesting account of his life and teachings is given in A. J. Booth's "Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism" (London, 1871).

Although not the grandson of the duke, as has been erroneously supposed,* Saint-Simon would naturally have inherited his titles and property. They were lost to him, however, through the quarrel of his father with the duke. The titles he lost were those of a grandee of Spain and a duke of France, while the property he would have inherited yielded an annual income of 500,000 francs. "I have lost the titles and the fortune of the Duke of Saint-Simon," he writes, "but I have inherited his passion for glory." This was manifested in a singular way when he was only sixteen years of age. That he might not forget the grand destiny in store for him, he ordered his servant to awaken him every morning with the words, "Arise, Monsieur le Comte, you have grand deeds to perform." Saint-Simon had already entered the army at this time, and the year afterwards went to America and fought in the War of the Revolution under Washington. He took part in the siege of Yorktown and witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He distinguished himself for bravery on this occasion, and received honorable recognition of his gallant conduct from the Society of the Cincinnati. Upon his return to France, he was made colonel of the Regiment of Aquitaine at the early age of twenty-three. But he soon resigned his position and abandoned all hopes of a military career, although his prospects were certainly brilliant. In speaking of his sojourn in the United States, he says: "I occupied myself much more with political science than military tactics. The war in itself did not interest me, but the purpose of the war interested me exceedingly, and this interest

* It is so stated in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and elsewhere.

enabled me to endure its hardships without repugnance. I desire the attainment of the purpose, I was accustomed to say to myself, and I ought not to rebel against the means thereto. My vocation was not that of a soldier; I was drawn towards a very different, indeed, I may say, diametrically opposite, kind of activity. The life purpose which I set before me was to study the movements of the human mind, in order that I might then labor for the perfection of civilization. From that time forward I devoted myself to this work without reserve; to it I consecrated my entire life."*

Saint-Simon was taken prisoner by the British when returning to France in the Ville de Paris, and carried to Jamaica, where he was detained until the close of the war. In returning to Europe he visited Mexico, and there made an attempt to carry out one of the magnificent plans for the advancement of mankind which he had been revolving in his mind. He endeavored to interest the viceroy in a project for building a canal to unite the Atlantic with the Pacific. While his exertions were unsuccessful, it is interesting to note that one who drew his inspiration largely from Saint-Simon-viz., De Lesseps-may yet execute his

plan.

A few years later Saint-Simon formed designs for a canal to connect Madrid with the sea, and might possibly have succeeded in realizing them, had not the French Revolution recalled him to France. He

* Vide Lettres à un Américain, deuxième Lettre in his "L'Industrie ou Discussions Politiques, Morales, et Philosophiques," tome ii. pp. 33, 34 (Paris, 1817). Interesting comparisons between America and Europe are also to be found in the letters.

sided with the people, although his family traditions and early training would have led him to connect himself with the royalists, and although in the struggle he lost the property he had inherited from his mother. He was elected president of the commune where his property was situated, in 1789, and in an address to the electors proclaimed his intention to renounce the title of count, since he regarded it as inferior to that of citizen; and he refused another office lest it should be supposed he owed it to his rank. All this, however, did not prevent his imprisonment on account of his nobility, which rendered him in the eyes of the terrorists a dangerous character. He was kept in prison, first at St. Pélagie, afterwards at the Luxembourg, for eleven months, and was released after the Revolution of Thermidor.. It was at this time that his ancestor Charlemagne appeared to him and encouraged him with a prophecy of future greatHe describes the vision in these words: "At the most cruel epoch of the Revolution, and during a night of my detention at the Luxembourg, Charlemagne appeared to me and said: 'Since the world has existed, no family has enjoyed the honor of producing a hero and a philosopher of the first rank; this honor has been reserved for my house. My son, thy success as a philosopher will equal mine as a warrior and politician.'"

ness.

Upon his release from prison Saint-Simon began to speculate in the confiscated national lands, in order to obtain money to enable him to prosecute his plans for the improvement of society. He realized 144,000 francs from his investments, and then retired from business, as he thought he had all the property he needed. He devoted the following seven years to

preparatory study, taking up his abode first in the neighborhood of the École Polytechnique, afterwards near the École de Médecine. Physiology and the physical sciences interested him chiefly. What he had in view was a science of the sciences, a science to classify facts derived from all sciences and to unite them into one whole; and it was from him that his scholar, Auguste Comte, derived the idea of founding a universal science, as he attempted in his "Cours de Philosophie Positive." In fact this work was only a development of his "Système Politique Positive," which he, as a scholar of Saint-Simon, wrote at the instance of his master.*

* One finds in the writings of Saint-Simon all the fundamental ideas of Comte's philosophy: the oneness of science; its progress from the theological stage to positivism-called by Saint-Simon physicism-accompanying the transition from the military to the industrial régime; the present crisis of society due to the fact that this is a transitional period, or disharmony in the material world accompanying the disharmony in the world of thought; the belief that a restoration of harmony is dependent upon the advancement of science, and that social regeneration must be physico-political; the subordination of knowledge to feeling; finally, the view that religion of some kind is indispensable to social progress, and that the priests of this religion must be the rulers of the world. Indeed, Comte did not hesitate to acknowledge more than once his indebtedness to Saint-Simon for his scientific impulse, although in later years he seems to have become embittered towards the Saint-Simonians and refused all credit to his former teacher. Comte was original in so far as he expanded and developed what he received from his master, but this does not lessen his obligation. This whole question, which has been much debated, is discussed in a masterly way by John Morley in his article on Comte in the last edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica." Consult also Karl Hillebrand's essay on "Die Anfänge des Socialismus in Frankreich" in Deutsche Rundschau, Bd. xvii., 1878, and Booth's "Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism," pp.