SAINT-SIMON
377
SAINT-SIMON
stigated the vnolent measures of persecutions against
the Jansenists, which he hurled against Le Tellier,
was all the more strange coming from his pen, since
Saint-Simon himself, on the day following the death of
Louis XIV, was one of the most rabid in demanding of
the regent severe measures against Le Tellier and other
Jesuits. Father Bliard has shown how much care is
necessary in judging Saint-Simon's assertions regard-
ing the religious questions of his day. The historian
Emile Bourgeois, who cannot be charged with prejudice
in favour of religion, wrote in his turn, in!!)()."): " His-
tory has given up the habit, too hastily accjuircd, of
pinning her faith to the word of Saint-Simon." And
Bourgeois proved how inaccurate were the statements
of Saint-Simon by showing what use the latter made in
his " Memoirs" of documents of the diplomatist Torcy.
Saint-Simon, Memoires, ed. Boislisle (22 vols., Paris, 1876-1911); Saint-.Simon, £<Ti<.s- inedits.ed. FAUofcRE (6 vols., Paris, 1880-3); Saint-Simon, Lettres et depSches sur I'ambaa- sade d'Espagne, 1721-1722, ed. Drumont (Paris, 1880); Baschet, Le due de Saint-Simon, son cabinet et ses manuscrits (Paris, 1874); Ch^ruel, Saint-Simon considere comme historien de Louis XIV (Paris, 1865); Boissier, Saint-Simon (Paris, 1892); Bliard, Les memoires de Saint-Simon et le Pere Le Tellier (Paris, 1891); Bourgeois, La collaboration de Saint-Simon et de Torcy, etude critique sur les Mimoires de Saint-Simon in Rerue historique. LXXXVII (1905); Pii.astre, Lexique de la langue de Saint- Simon (Paris, 1905).
Georges Goyau.
Saint- Simon and Saint- Simonism. — Claude- Henri DE RouvROY, Comte de Saint-Simon, was born in Paris, 17 Oct., 1760; d. there, 19 May, 1S2.5. He belonged to the family of the author of the "Memoirs". At an early age he showed a certain disdain for tradition; at thirteen he refused to make his first Communion and was puiiishe(l by imprison- ment at Saint Lazare, whence he escui)ed. During the War of Independence he followed his relative, the Marquis de Saint-Simon, to America, took part in the battle of Yorktown, was later mad(; i)riboner, and re- covered his liberty only after the Treaty of Versailles. Before leaving America, being as yet only twenty-three years old, he presented to the Viceroy of Mexico the plan of a canal between the two oceans. In 17<SS he drew up important schemes for the economic improve- ment of Spain. During the Revolution he grew rich by speculation, was imprisoned for eleven months, and under the Directory, though leading a prodigal and voluptuous life, continued to dream of a scientific and social reform of humanity, gathering about him such scholars as Monge and Lagrange, and capitalists with whose assistance he proposed to form a gigantic bank for the launching of his philanthropic undertakings. He married Mile, de Champgrand in August, ISO], and divorced her less than a year later in the hope of marrying Mme. de Stael, who had just become a widow, but she refused. In ISO.'), completely ruinetl by his disordered life, he became a copyist at the Mont de Piete, relying for his living on his activity as a writer; failing in this, he led a life of borrowings and make-shifts, and in 1823 attempted to kill himself. Fortunately for him he made the acquaintance of the Jew Olinde Rodrigues who became enamoured of his social ideas and assured him his daily bread till the; end of his life. When dying, Saint-Simon said to Rodrigues: "Remember that to do anything great you must be impassioned". Ardent pa.ssion is what characterized Saint-Simon and explains the peculiar- ities of his life and of his system. This precursor of socialism was not afraid to be a fanatic and even to pass for a fool, while he retained his feudal pride and boasted of having Charlemagne among his ancestors.
The "Lettres d'un habitant de Geneve a ses contemporains" (1803), the "Introduction aux tra- vaux scientifiques du XIX«^ siecle" (1808), and the "Memoire sur la science de I'homme" (1813) show his trust in science and savants for the regener- ation of the world. The second of these works is a hymn to Bonaparte v.-ho created the university
Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, Comte
DE Saint-Simon
From a Contemporary Portrait
and the institute. In 1814, assisted by the future
historian, Augustin Thierry, Saint-Simon published
a treatise entitled, "De la reorganisation de la
societe europeene," in which he dreamed of a po-
hticiallj' homogeneous Europe, all of whose nations
should possess the same institutions, relying on Eng-
land to take the initiative in this federation. Later
he turned his attention to political economy. The
"Industrie", which he founded, brought out in
relief the confli(!t waged throughout Europe between
the military and
feudal ckLsson the
one hand and the
working class on
the other. The
same idea was
emphasized in the
"Censeur euro-
peen", edited by
Charles Comte
and Dunoyer, but
while the "Cen-
seur europeen"
distrusted schol-
ars and learned
men, Saint-Si-
mon's originality
consisted in try-
ing, to combine
manufacturing in-
dustry and what
he called "liter-
ar>' indu.stry",
and create a moral
code which all men should study. This authoritative
idea displeased Augustin Thierry and he abandoned
Saint-Simon, who in 1817 (the date set by Monsieur Per-
eire) took as his secretary, Auguste Comte, then 18
years old, the future founder of Positivism. Influ-
enced by the writings of Joseph de Maistre, whose " Le
Pape" appeared in 1819, and by those of Bonald,
Saint-iSimon and Auguste Comt(>, reacting against
the individualist ideas of the French Revolution,
recognized the necessity in modern society of a power
similar to the medieval theocracy. The "positive
scientific capacity" was to replace the ancient
ecclesiastical power; there should be "no more gov-
ernors to command" but "administrators to exercise
a directing function"; in a society become an indu.s-
trial as.s()ciatioii; the governmental, or mihtary regime
under which the pvopU- was "subject" should give
way to the administrative or industrial regimt^ in
which the people is to be associated. Saint-Simon
drew political conclusions; he found that the working
people occupied too small a place in the electoral
body and desired that power should be vested in
committees compo.sed of the directing elements of
the industrial world. Thus he was in no wise a dem-
ocrat; he would have only the heads of the industrial
hierarchy elected by the people, but would have them
recruited by co-option by choosing from the lower
ranks of society tho.se who deserve an elevation of
their condition. Lib(;ral economists long considered
that between their liberalism and Saint-Siinon's in-
dustriali.sm, which accorded so many jjrerogativcs
to an industrial hierarchy, there was little difTcrence;
but Saint-Simonism as it was d(!veloped by his tlisci-
ples was destined to be a socialist school.
In Saint-Sinion there was always a double ten- dency: his positivist and scientific studies impelled him to found a purely practical and demonstrable moral code, while his sentimental and mystical ten- dencies led him to desire a religion. He believed that Christianity had greatly forwarded morality, but he declared that its reign was at an end. His reli- gious tendency grew by degrees; he declared that the crisis was reached which had been predicted by the
