Louis-Aimé, a distinguished French writer of the present century, was born at Lyons in 1779. After having received an excellent education in his native city, he set out for Paris at the age of twenty, and became connected with the Journal des Debats, for which he contributed articles on scientific subjects. By his Lettres à Sophie sur la Physique, la Chimie, et l'Histoire Naturelle, published in 1810, he gained for himself an honourable position among the rising literary men of his time, and which was more than confirmed a short time afterwards by his lectures at the Athénée on the literary history of France. He was appointed to a secretaryship under the Chamber of Deputies; and delivered a course of lectures during the same year to the École Polytechnique on the History of France, which he followed up in 1830 by a course on the History of Germany. Martin became early imbued with the somewhat extravagant ideas of progress then current in France, and devoted himself with praiseworthy energy to the realization of his cherished schemes for the regeneration of human society. He advanced new systems of instruction, projected communal libraries, and took a principal share in founding the Panthéon Littéraire, a collection of the chefs-d'œuvre of all nations, which, by popularizing instruction, were designed to improve the character, and increase the happiness of men. He published his views on this subject in his Plan d'Une Bibliothèque Universelle; Études des Livres qui peuvent servir à l'Histoire Philosophique de Genre Humain, Paris, 1837. But Martin soon became alive to the fact, that his plans for securing the welfare of humanity were not quite so enlightened or profound as he had been led to believe, and that the perfecting of mechanical contrivances, and the construction of railways, while ministering to the material comforts of a people, tend, besides, to augment their wants, and increase their desire for gratifying them. Accordingly, in his work De l'Éducation des Mères de Famille, dedicated to M. Lamartine, which received the prize from the French Academy in 1835, he endeavoured to conduct men to a higher order of truths, and pointed them to religion as the true source of earthly happiness. His ideas on religion, however, did not meet with the approval of the Roman Catholic church, and his book for the edification of the mothers of France was placed on the Index. A warm admirer of Bernardin de Saint Pierre, Aimé Martin married the widow of that eminent writer, collected his writings, and vindicated his memory from the unjust attacks to which it had been exposed. He died at Saint Germain-en-Laye on the 18th November 1847, aged sixty-two; and his friend M. de Lamartine pronounced an eloquent funeral oration over his tomb.

In addition to his other works, Aimé Martin published excellent editions of the works of Molière and of Racine, with notes; of the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld, with a critique; of the Œuvres Philosophiques of Descartes; and of Fénelon's Traité de l'Existence de Dieu, with additions.

Benjamin, an eminent artist and mathematician, was born in 1704. After publishing a variety of ingenious treatises, and particularly a scientific magazine under his own name, and carrying on for many years an extensive trade as an optician and globe-maker in Fleet Street, the growing infirmities of age compelled him to withdraw from the active duties of business. Trusting too fatally to what he thought the integrity of others, he unfortunately (though with a capital more than sufficient to pay all his debts) became bankrupt. The unhappy old man, overpoweredly this unexpected blow, attempted in a moment of desperation to destroy himself; and the wound he gave himself, though not immediately mortal, hastened his death, which happened on the 9th February 1782, in his seventy-eighth year. He had a valuable collection of fossils and curiosities of almost every kind, which, after his death, were disposed of by auction. His principal publications are—

The Philosophic Grammar, being a View of the Present State of Experimental Physiology, or Natural Philosophy, 1735, 8vo; A New Complete, and Universal System or Body of Decimal Arithmetick, 1735, 8vo; The Young Student's Memorial Book, or Patent Library, 1735, 8vo; Description and Use of both the Globes, the Auxiliary Spheres, and Orrery, 1736, in 2 vols. 8vo; Memoirs of the Academy of Paris, 1740, in 5 vols.; System of the Newtonian Philosophy, 1750, in 2 vols.; New Elements of Optics, 1769; Mathematical Instruments, their Art, Mechanic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, &c., 1759; Natural History of England, with a Map of each County, 1759, in 2 vols.; Philosopical and Philosophical Geography, 1759; Mathematical Institutions, 1764, in 2 vols.; Lives of Philosophers, their Inventions, &c., 1764; Introduction to the Newtonian Philosophy, 1765; Institutions of Astronomical Calculations, in 2 parts, 1765; Description and Use of the Air-Pump, 1765; Description of the Terrestrial Barometer, 1766; Appendix to the Description and Use of the Globes, 1766; Philosophy Britannica, 1778, in 3 vols.; Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy, in 3 vols.; Miscellaneous Correspondence, in 4 vols.; System of Philosophy; Philosophical Geography; Magazines, complete in 14 vols.; Principles of Pump-work; Theory of the Hydrometer; and Doctrine of Logarithms.

David, an eminent Protestant divine, born at Revel in 1639. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he went to Holland, and became pastor and professor of theology and philosophy, where he remained till his death in 1721. He is best known by his editions of the Scriptures. The most popular of his biblical works is his History of the Old and New Testament, 2 vols. folio, Amst. 1700, known as "Mortier's Bible." Martin, John, one of the most celebrated painters of the present century, was born at Haydon Bridge, near Hexham, Northumberland, on the 19th of July 1789. Having early expressed a desire to become a painter, his father decided upon apprenticing him to a coach-builder in Newcastle, to learn herald-painting, whither his family had removed. In consequence of a quarrel with his master, who does not seem to have treated young Martin very handsomely, the aspiring artist, eager "to practise," as he says himself, "the higher mysteries of the art," after having his original indentures cancelled, was placed under Bonifacio Musso, an Italian painter of considerable merit, and father of the eminent enamel-painter Charles Musso or Muss. Martin removed to London with his Italian master in September 1806, where he was engaged in painting on china and glass, "by which," he says, "and making water-colour drawings, and teaching, I supported myself; in fact, mine was a struggling artist's life when I married, which I did at nineteen." During his two years' residence in London, Martin applied himself with indefatigable industry during his leisure hours to the study of perspective and architecture, labouring till two or three o'clock in the morning in the depth of winter; and stimulated now by new responsibilities, he resolved to put forth a bold effort, and paint a large picture. This resolution he carried into effect; and after a month's application, he gave to the world in 1812 his first work, "Sadok in search of the Waters of Oblivion," which was admitted into the exhibition of the Royal Academy, and subsequently purchased for fifty guineas. His next works were the "Paradise," which obtained a place in the great room of the Academy, and the "Expulsion," which was sent to the British Institution. His next paintings, "Clytie" and "Joshua," were placed by the Academy in an ante-room, a circumstance which so offended Martin, that he removed his name from their list of candidates for membership, and by the laws of the academicians was thus rendered incapable of afterwards receiving any distinction at their hands. But the ultimate success of his "Joshua" amply compensated for the neglect shown to it by the Academy. This striking production was afterwards exhibited at the British Institution, and carried off the prize of the year. "The success of my 'Joshua,'" says Martin, "opened a new era to me." The attention excited by his next picture, the "Fall of Babylon," which appeared in 1819, was second only to that of the "Belshazzar." "Macbeth," one of his most successful landscapes, appeared the following year; and in 1821 he completed his elaborate picture of "Belshazzar's Feast," on which he had wrought an entire year, and which was awarded the premium of L200 by the British Institution. Martin had now attained a wide celebrity, and thus his most famous painting met at once with vehement opposition and unhesitating praise. His paintings were engraved, and found an extensive sale all over the kingdom. During all this storm of excitement this adventurous artist held on his way, and produced his "Destruction of Herculaneum" in 1822; the "Seventh Plague" and "Paphian Bower" in 1823; the "Creation" in 1824; the "Deluge" in 1826; and the "Fall of Nineveh" in 1828—one of the most popular of all Martin's works. The cycle of his great works was now completed, and while his later pictures met with admirers, the enthusiasm awakened by his earlier efforts did not reappear. His hands were now full with the illustrations of Milton, which he drew on plates, and for which he received 2000 guineas. Martin was now much before the public in connection with various plans for improving the city of London, an object which he had deeply at heart, and for which he laboured with much energy during the last twenty years of his life. Occupied with these projects, Martin laid aside his pencil for some time, and on resuming it, found that his power had greatly left him. Yet his "sublime style" was continued during the rest of his life. He produced "The Death of Moses" and "The Death of Jacob" in 1838; "The Eve of the Deluge" and "The Assuaging of the Waters" in 1840; "The Celestial City and River of Bliss" and "Pandemonium" in 1841; "The Flight into Egypt" in 1842; "Christ Stilling the Tempest," and "Canute the Great rebuking his Courtiers" in 1843; "Morning and Evening" in 1844; "The Judgment of Adam and Eve," and "The Fall of Adam" in 1845; "Evening—Coming Storm" in 1846; "Arthur and Eagle in the Happy Valley" in 1849; "The Last Man" in 1850; "Valley of the Thames, viewed from Richmond Hill," in 1851; "Scene in a Forest—Twilight," 1852. Martin had been employed for the last four years on three great pictures illustrative of the last judgment, entitled "The Judgment," "The Day of Wrath," and "The Plains of Heaven," at which he laboured until within a few weeks of his death, and which he left unfinished. Having been attacked with a stroke of paralysis, he repaired to Douglas, Isle of Man, in quest of health, where he died on the 9th of February 1854. (See Martin's Autobiographic Notes in the Athenæum of February 25, 1854.)

Martin during his day had no rival in point of popularity, except Turner the great master of landscape. Martin's brother artists not unfrequently found much in his style to censure. Leslie, who was one of his warmest friends, while admiring the original power of Martin, found frequent occasion to dissent emphatically from his mode of treatment. His merits and defects were alike unquestionable; and it was the bold originality of the man that provoked so much criticism. In his expression of material grandeur he addressed the eye rather than the mind; in his delineations of the awful and the terrible in nature his imagination outran his judgment. Yet he triumphantly succeeded in ravishing the senses of the multitude, and in dazzling the eyes even of sagacious men. Whether it was by an illusory trick rather than by a stroke of genius, by bold theatrical display rather than by the chastened power of an exalted imagination, that Martin captivated the eyes of his admirers, he at all events acquired a very great popularity, and so long as his manner was new, he was enthusiastically applauded as a man of pre-eminent genius. He was certainly gifted with a power to fascinate, but familiarity was calculated to break the spell.

Martinet, Louis-Claude de Saint, called the "Unknown Philosopher," was born at Amboise, of a noble family, on the 18th of January 1743. Originally designed for the magistracy, he preferred the profession of arms; and at the age of twenty-two became an officer in the regiment of Foix, and was made a chevalier of St Louis in 1789. His taste for spiritualism induced him to enter the secret school of Martinez Pasqualis, where he had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the theurgical operations practised at that institution. Though originally disposed to believe in that system, he nevertheless ultimately abandoned its mystical labyrinth for the pursuit of a purer spiritualism. While not embracing all the ideas of J. J. Rousseau, he yet displayed a profound sympathy for that philosopher. But his unhesitating admiration was reserved for the Teutonic philosopher Jacob Boehm, whose singular writings—many of which Saint Martin translated—stamp with a character of originality the illumination of the early part of the seventeenth century. The Revolution, in its various phases, found Saint Martin always the same. He saw in it the designs of Providence, and recognised equally a predestined instrument in the remarkable man who ultimately put an end to its excesses. Appointed in 1794 to give lectures at the normal schools, Saint Martin publicly refuted with great success the materialism of Garat, professor of mental philosophy at that institution. His life, nevertheless, remained obscure, being known only to a narrow circle of distin- guished friends, who knew how to appreciate him. It was with one of those, Count Lenoir Laroche, at Aunay, that he died of an attack of apoplexy on the 13th of October 1803.

A Life of the "Unknown Philosopher" was written by M. Gence in 1824. The sect called "Martinists" at the epoch of the Revolution did not receive their name from Saint Martin, as many have supposed, but from his master, Martinez Pasqualis. (Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques.)

The principal works of this eminent mystic are—Des Erreurs et de la Vérité, 1775; Tableau Naturel des Rapports qui Existent entre Dieu, l'Homme, et l'Univers, 1782; Lettre à un Ami sur la Révolution Française, 1795; Essai sur l'Association Humaine, 1797; Quelles sont les Institutions les plus propres à Fonder le Monde d'un Peuple, 1798; L'Homme de Dieu, 1799; Ecce Homo, 1792; Le Nouvel Homme, 1792; De l'Esprit des Choses, 1800; Découvertes en Repous au Citoyen Garat, 1802; Le Ministère de l'Homme Épris, 1802. Also, two volumes of posthumous works, entitled Quelle est la Manière de Rappeler à la Raison les Nations, les Sauvages que Poliches, qui sont Livrés à l'Erreur ou aux Superstitions de tout Genre? 1807.

Sr., one of the West India Islands, belonging partly to France and partly to Spain. (See Guadeloupe.)