SAINT-SIMON, CLAUDE HENRI, Comte de, founder of the sect which bears his name, was born of a family which claimed kindred with the old counts of Vermandois and the Emperor Charlemagne, on the 17th October 1760. His grandfather was the famous Duc de Saint-Simon, author of the Memoirs; but his father having lost his ducal designation, Claude Henri, although counting kindred with emperors, had to commence life among the lower grades of the French noblesse. Having received a solid education under the teaching of such men as D'Alembert, this youth, remarkable from the first for restless eccentricity, entered the American service as a French officer in 1777. Here he fought under Bouillé and Washington, and was made prisoner in 1782 with De Grasse. Returning to Paris in the following year he was made colonel of a regiment of Aquitaine. From his earliest recollection he had dreams of his future greatness, and his servant had been long instructed to awaken him with "Leverz-vous, M. le Comte, vous avez de grandes choses à faire." After various unsettled wanderings in France and Spain, he at last came to the conclusion that something must be done for "the advancement of
human civilization." He had reached nearly his fortieth year when he resolved to commence a thorough course of study preparatory to the inauguration of the new scheme which was troubling his brain. All he knew as yet was that it must be a "physico-political" reformation which he was to effect. He accordingly commenced a ten years' course of intellectual and practical study, to put himself thoroughly abreast of the knowledge of the world. Taking up his residence near the Ecole Polytechnique, and subsequently near the Ecole de Médecine, he began his "theoretical education." Here he studied the physical sciences, and acquainted himself with the whole field of physiological knowledge. This department completed, he entered upon his "experimental education." He now strove to realize "in his own person the whole range of human situations and emotions," to enable him the more fully to fraternize with humanity in every phase. He married, he gave dinners, he got up balls. He played, he drank, he debauched himself. Old age was artificially brought near; rosy youth was counterfeited by medicaments; contagious diseases were courted; and, in short, all the appliances of science and art were laid under contribution to the gratification of pleasure or the production of pain. All moral law was set at defiance, but Saint-Simon calmly took refuge in the plea, that the end justifies the means. Could not a man be permitted any amount of self-indulgence when he kept his eye steadily on the highest theoretical philosophy? For a man to seek self-indulgence through sheer love of pleasure, was one thing; for a man to court self-indulgence through pure love of experimental philosophy, was quite a different thing. The one was simply another name for perdition; the other was the high road to virtue. So reasoned Saint-Simon. He rose from the giddy whirl under which all this process of experimentalism had submerged him, just in time to discover that his money was all spent. He was now glad to accept a clerkship at L.40 a year. Poverty stared him in the face; but the genius of his great mission beckoned him on. In 1812, when he had reached at once the brink of starvation and of fifty-two, he gave to the world his first publication. It bore the name of Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to his Contemporaries. In this work we discover the germs of his social philosophy, which, to say the least, were sufficiently shadowy. All men of thought were to form the spiritual order, all men of action the temporal order,—an adaptation to modern society of the mediæval distinction of the Roman Church. These Letters were followed up by an Introduction to the Scientific Labours of the Nineteenth Century. Startled by the novelty, and excited by the original views of these works, a few ardent youths began to gather round Saint-Simon, over whom the master exercised the fascination of an enthusiast. There were Olinde Rodrigues, Augustin Thierry, and Auguste Comte the well-known author of the Philosophie Positive. The Saint-Simonian school being thus inaugurated, the pupils began their tasks under the eye of their master. The Re-organization of European Society appeared in 1814, by Saint-Simon and Thierry; and in 1819 a small pamphlet called the Parabole, by the same authors. The doctrines promulgated in this brochure were subsequently elaborated in more formal works, particularly in the Catechisme des Industriels. Next appeared the Système de Politique Positive of Auguste Comte, afterwards developed into the Cours de Philosophie Positive of the same author. In that work Comte neglected too much the sentimental and religious elements for the taste of his master. Saint-Simon's work of reform succeeded very slowly; poverty still haunted him in his obscurity; the great master became tired of life, and attempted suddenly to blow out his brains. He had miscalculated upon his courage, for he only succeeded in getting rid of an eye. This occurred on the 9th of March 1823. Whether he continued to instruct his servant as
to what he should call to his master each morning does not appear. He was probably content when the menial had announced the simple "Levez-vous." He was evidently much confused as to his own destiny; and indeed the gradual approach of that life-long hallucination of which Saint-Simon had been the dupe, now became more and more apparent. Paris continued scantily to supply his school with new pupils; and Bazard and Enfantin now sought the person of this industrious teacher. Whether or not the ideas of Saint-Simon had gained clearness and solidity by the recent opportunities which he had of gazing into the world of spirits, he at all events now announced it as his intention to leave his last bequest to the world in the form of a new religion. The Nouveau Christianisme, in 1825, contained an exposition of his great religious maxim, "Love one another." Everything both in substance and form connected with Christianity was destined to a progressive change; only this adage was to remain eternal and immutable. First came Catholicism; next came Protestantism; and lastly, men were to enjoy the mild sway of Saint-Simonianism. This revolution was to be effected by two principles—an end and a means; first, "The most rapid possible amelioration, physical and moral, of the condition of the class the most numerous and poor;" and the means of effecting this was, "To each man a vocation according to his capacity, and to each capacity a recompense according to its works." The last act of Saint-Simon's life was the organization of Le Producteur. This journal, afterwards to be conducted by Rodrigues, Bazard, and Enfantin, was to be the vehicle on which pure Saint-Simonianism was to be wheeled to the doors of the citizens of Paris. The master now, after much experience of ill-health, was to bestow his last instructions upon his pupils. They gathered round the couch of the dying man, when he addressed them as follows:—"It has been imagined," said he, "that all religion must disappear. But religion cannot disappear from the world; it can only change its form. Do not forget this; and remember that, in order to do great things, one must be enthusiastic." Simple words, and yet possessed of more truth than the speaker was aware of. He died on the 19th of May 1825, aged sixty-five years.
The subsequent history of Saint-Simonianism is curious. On the death of the master, M. Bazard announced himself as his successor, and began to lecture on his creed. Fresh pupils flowed in, and in a short time they formed themselves into a little church, which chose as its creed a mystical theosophy composed mainly of the more recondite doctrines of their deceased master. They dwelt together in the Rue Morsigny, and started a weekly journal called the L'Organisateur. On the establishment of the government of Louis Philippe, the sect made considerable progress. They gained an able coadjutor in Pierre Leroux, editor of Le Globe newspaper, by the conversion of whom they gained over the influence of this important journal as a vehicle for disseminating Saint-Simonianism. The result was an immense increase in their numbers throughout all parts of France, particularly among the young and well-educated. A schism soon occurred, however, among their leaders as to some peculiar points of doctrine, of which the most important was "the future of women." Enfantin wishing to proclaim the social equality of the sexes, the rest of the fraternity formally seceded. A government prosecution led to the dissolution of the Society of the Rue Morsigny, and Le Globe newspaper became defunct. Enfantin could not brook the idea of allowing Saint-Simonianism to die so cheaply; and he accordingly, with some forty adherents, retired to a country house in the neighbourhood of Paris, and instituted a sort of monastery, in which the duties of the devotees were divided between manual and intellectual labour. This institution was broken up, and Saint-Simonianism dispersed, by a public prosecution on the
Saint-Simon. 27th of August 1832. Since that time the creed has become virtually extinct; but the Saint-Simonian notions still operate in French thought, and it is really astonishing to observe how strong a hold the system must have taken upon the minds of thinking men, when we find in so many public departments of the French state, the outgrowths of the industrialism taught by the descendant of the Vermandois.