Martin, Saint-, I\farquis Louis Claude de, called "the Unknown Philosoiilicr," a noted French mystic, was born at Amboise (Touraine) Jan. 18, 1743; was educated for the bar; preferred a military Ufc, and, through the influence of M. de Choiseul, obtained a commission. The regiment to which he was assigned contained several oflScers who had been initiated into a sort of nn-stical freemasonry by the Portuguese mystic Martinez Pas- qualis; he soon became enamored with mystical doc- trines, and read largely in that line. Mysticism, how- ever, was at that time confined to rather narrow limits in France ; the mind of nearly the whole country was ab- sorbed in the rising school of materialism, and to com- bat the latter became the task of our obscure officer of the regiment of Foix. Saint-Martin soon threw up his commission, and gave himself wholly to writing and meditation, bent to crush, by every means in his power, the cold, heartless form of speculation which was then everywiiere the order of the daj'. First he translated the works of Jacob Boehme ; but finally he originated a re- ligious mysticism, which, according to Morell (Hist, of Philos.in the \^th Cent. p. 208), consisted of the principles of the Cambridge Platonist Henry More, " reared up under the guidance of a versatile and enthusiastic spirit, as a barrier against the philosophical sensationalism of Con- dillac and the religious scepticism of Voltaire." But as all mystical schools have sooner or later found their natural issue in fanaticism, so Saint-Martin also struck against this self-same rock, and, despite the guarded manner in which he handled theological questions, the heresies contained in his writings are neither few nor small. Yet, notwithstanding many feats and vagaries of an ultra eccentric description, Saint-Martin has left us one of the best refutations of sensualist errors on record, and his influence against the materialism of the 18th century has to our very day failed to receive the recog- nition deserved. With his eyes fixed upon the invisi- ble world, he passed unscathed through all the horrors of the Frencli Revolution ; he saw the Reign of Terror, the Directory, the Consulate, and quietly and happily closed a life of great literary activity at Aulnay, near Paris, Oct. 13. l.sbs.
Among Saint - Jlartin's achievements, his victory over the sensationahst Garat deserves especial notice.
MARTIN
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MARTINDALE
" The legislators of the first French Revolution, in their atiompt to remodel society after the Keign of Terror, had taken as their code of laws, and as their nniversal ])anacea, a debasing theory, which they, however, imag- ined would regenerate the world, and according to which they most natnrally therefore wished to train the new generation. Such was the origin of the Ecole Noi-male, subsequently remodelled and organized by Napoleon, and still rendering the greatest services as a seminarj' of teachers. Saint-Martin had been sent by the district he inhabited to attend the lectures delivered in that school, and, of course, was expected to receive as soimd gospel the teaching of the celebrated philosopher Garat, whose prelections on ' ideology' were scarcely anything else but a rechauffe of Condillac, dressed up with much taste, but still more assurance. A disciple of Jacob Boehme, the young mj'Stic, felt that what society required was not the deification of matter, nor the Encydopedie made easy ; he boldly rose tip to refute the professor, and, by a reference to the third volume of the Debuts dts Ecoles Normales, the reader can follow all the circuinstances of a discussion which ended in Garat's discomfiture. M. Caro (Saint-Martin's biographer) has supplied a valuable resume of the whole affair — an extremely important epoch in the life of Saint-Martin." ]M. Caro, in his Essai sur la vie et la Doctrine de Saint-Martin (Paris, 185G), has giv- en a complete list of Saint-JIartin's works. They are rather numerous. The best are the following : Des Er- reurs et de la Virite, ou les komrnes rappeles au Princip>e unirersel de la Science (1775); L' Homme de Desir ; and De VEsprit des Choses, ou coup d'ail Philosojyhiqtces sur la nature des etres, et sur Vohjet de leur existence (1800, 2 vols. 8vo). These supply a clue to the main features of the author's character, and by a careful study of them we are enabled to ascertain the exact position he occu- pies in the gallery of modern metaphysicians.
M. Damiron, in reviewing the life and works of Saint- Martin (^Arckires Litteraires, 1804), affords lis the fol- lowing resrime of Saint-Martin's views : " The system of Saint-Martin aims at explaining everything by means of man. Man is to him the key to every phenomenon, and the image of all truth. Taking, therefore, literally the fam.ous oracle of Delphi, 'Nosce te ipsum,' he maintains that, if we -would fall into no mistakes respecting exist- once, and the harmony of all beings in the universe, we liave only to understand ourselves, inasmuch as the body of man has a necessary relation to everything visible, and his spirit is the type of everything that is invisible. What we should study, then, are the physical faculties, whose exercise is often influenced by the senses and ex- terior objects, and the moral faculties or the conscience, which supposes free-will. It is in this study that we must seek for truth, and we shall find in ourselves all the necessary means of arriving at it :" this it is which our author calls natural revelation. For example : " The smallest attention," he says, '• suffices to assure us that we can neither communicate nor form any idea without its being preceded by a picture or image of it, engen- dered by our own understanding; in this way it is that we originate the plan of a building or any other work. Our creative faculty is vast, active, inexhaustible ; but, in examining it closeh-, we sec that it is only secondary, temporary, dependent, i. e. that it owes its origin to a creative faculty, which is superior, independent, and imi- versal, of which ours is but a feeble copy. Man, there- fore, is a type, which must have a i>rototype, and that prototype is God." This extract affords a fair insight, "rve think, into the philosophical mysticism by which Saint-^Iartin attempted to sujiplant the shallow mate- rialism and growing infidelity of his age, and to induce liis countrymen to take a deeper insight into the consti- tution of the human mind, and its close connection with the divine. See, besides M. Cato's work aboye alluded to, Damiron, Memoirespour sercir a Vhistoire de philosophic au 18' siecle,vo\. i; Malter. S(iini-.]furlin, Lc J'hilii.<<oj)he ■inconnu (1862) ; Morell, llistonj of Modern Philn.inp/,//. p. 208, 201); London Qaarierli/ Ikview, 1850 (Jan.); 1857