SAINT HILATEE
SAINT JUST
law, but abandoned it for the army, in
which he had a brilliant career. Mean
time he read much, especially Montaigne,
and in 1642 published his Comedie des
academiciens, and in 1647 his more famous
Maximes. In 1648 he was compelled to
leave the army on account of his criticisms
of the Prince de Conde, and in 1661
further political criticisms forced him to
leave France. After a short stay in
Holland he settled in England, where he
published, anonymously, most of his works.
The chief is his Reflexions sur les divers
genies du peuple remain, which is regarded
as an anticipation of Montesquieu. Though
a well-known sceptic, he was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Bayle says in one
of his letters that the Florentine envoy
sent a priest to St. Evremond as he lay
dying. When the priest proposed that he
should be reconciled he said : " Certainly
with my stomach." He had grave gastric trouble. Bishop Atterbury sourly com plains in his Correspondence, that St. Evre mond "died renouncing the Christian religion, yet the church of Westminster thought fit to give his body room in the Abbey." D. Sep. 29, 1703.
SAINT HILAIRE, Jules Barthelemy.
See BARTHELEMY SAINT HILAIEE.
ST. JOHN, Henry, Viscount Boling- broke, statesman. E. Oct., 1678. Ed. Eton and Oxford. He entered Parliament in 1701, and won some repute as an orator. From 1704 to 1708 he was Secretary of State for War, and was the Queen s favourite counsellor. From 1710 to 1714 he was Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1712 he was created Viscount Boling- broke. He had, however, relations with the Jacobites, and on the discovery of this, in 1715, he fled to France and was attainted. Ten years later Bolingbroke was suffered to return to England ; but his efforts to re-enter politics were fruitless, and he went back to live in France from 1735 to 1743. There he wrote his Letters on the Study and Use of History, which 697
was printed privately, and not openly
acknowledged until after his death (2 vols. r
1752). It is a covert Deistic attack on
Christianity, and was, says Lord Morley,
" the direct progenitor of Voltaire s opinions
on religion." Most of Bolingbroke s later
works (5 vols., 1754) are given to expres
sions of Deism. It is now well known
that he supplied Pope [SEE] with the
material for his Essay on Man. Boling
broke was an assiduous student of history
and philosophy, and he elaborated a
positive creed of mind and morals. His
prudence during life he was a man of
weak character and many enemies and
superficial profession of faith saved him
from being at the time generally classed
as a Deist, but no one questions it to-day ;
and Voltaire, who knew him well, has much
advertised the fact in his works. D. Dec. 12,
1751.
SAINT JUST, Louis Antoine, French politician. B. Aug. 25, 1767. Ed. by the Oratorian priests at Soissons, and Eheims. Saint Just began a legal training, but he abandoned it and devoted himself to study. Plato and Eousseau were his favourites, and he hailed with enthusiasm the outbreak of the Eevolution. Very eloquent, ardent, handsome, and cultivated, Saint Just soon became one of the heroes of the Eevolu tion ; and it is admitted by all that he was a man of the strictest morals and classical dignity of life. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the National Guard, and was in 1792 elected to the National Convention. In 1791 he had published Esprit de la Eevolution et de la Constitution de France. Austere and well read, he never theless sanctioned very drastic measures for the suppression of opponents. In 1793 he was appointed commissary to the army, and, although he greatly distinguished himself, his enemies conspired and brought him to the guillotine. Calm and stoical to the end, he, at the early age of twenty-seven, met his fate with pagan serenity. "Hecarried his head like a Holy Sacrament," as Des- moulins once said of him. D. July 28, 1794. 698
