Saint-Pierre, Charles Ireni^e Castel, a French ecclesiastic, was born near Barfleur, Normandy, Feb. 18, 1658. He was educated by the Jesuits at Caen, and joined the priesthood. He went to Paris in 1686, and succeeded Bergeret in the Academy, 1695. He became chaplain of the bishop of Orleans in 1702, and received, through him, the abbey of Tiron. He attended the Congress of Utrecht with cardinal Polignac in 1712. In some of his writings (Discours sur la Polysynodie) he severely judged Louis XIV, and advocated a constitu- tional government. For this he was expelled from the Academy ; but an association known as the Cluh de V En- tresol gave him opportunities to expound his humanita- rian schemes. It was closed seven j-ears after (1731) by cardinal Fleury. He died April 29, 1743. Most of his writings are included in his Ourrages de Politique et de Morale (Rotterdam, 1738-41, 18 vols.).
Saint -Simon, Claude (the younger), a French prelate, was born in 1695. In 1716 he became superior of the abbey of Jumieges. Being made bishop of No- yon, he was afterwards (in 1733) transferred to Metz: he there founded a seminary which bears his name, and in which he died, Feb. 29, 1760.
Saint-Simon, Claude Henri, Count of, one of the most eminent so-called socialistic or communistic philosophers of modern times. He was born at Paris of an ancient and noble family, April 17, 1760. Grown up in the midst of religious and social agitation, he en- tered the army and was made a captain at the age of seventeen. In 1779 he went to America, fought under Bouille and Washington, was captured with the count de Grasse in 1782, and, at the conclusion of the war, re- turned to France and was promoted to a colonelcj-. In 1785 he visited Holland and endeavored to induce the government to join with France in an expedition against the English in the East Indies. He then went to Spain with an eccentric project of uniting Madrid by a canal
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with the sea. Failing in both schemes, he returned to Paris, and, liiidin^ the lievoUition in full blaze, laid aside his aristocratic name, and fell in with the popular current. By speculating in confiscated property he found himself, in 1797, in possession of 1-W:,(J00 francs in specie. With this capital he led, the next ten years, a life of travel, study, experiment, and pleasure, and, in the intervals, brooded over a fanciful scheme of regener- ating human society. Locating himself in the Latin Quarter, Paris, he studied the whole circle of physical and social sciences. This was his theoretical education ; but he wanted also an experimental education. In or- der to this, he endeavored to realize in his own per- son the whole circle of human experiences, joys, and sor- rows. He entereil society ; he gave banijuets and balls; he gambled, drank, and debauched himself; he courted contagious diseases; he tried to keep off old age by medicaments and paint; he set all moral law aside, justifying it by the maxim that the end sanctified the means. It was right for him, the reformer, to do this. How could he apply the remedy if lie had not himself felt the pain! He married in 1801, but, soon dissatis- lied, he ])ut away his young wife and sought out an- other. From this state of dissipation and theorizing he awoke just in time to find that his money was all gone, and that poverty was staring him in the face. The germs of Saint -Simon's system are given in his first publication, Lettres cVuii Ilahituid a Geneve (1802). All men of thought were to form the spiritual order, all men of action the temporal order — an adaptation to modern society of the mediaeval distinction of the Kom- ish Church. This work was followed in 1807 by his Introduction aux Truvaux Scientijiques du Vdieine Sie- cle (Paris, 1807, 2 vols.). The novelty of these views attracted to Saint- Simon a circle of admiring youth, among whom were Olinde Rodrigues, Augustin Thier- ry, and Auguste Comte. This was the beginning of organized Saint-Simonism. In co-operation with these disciples, he now produced in rapid succession a Pros- pectus d'une Xouvelle Eiicyclopedie (1810) : — De la Rior- rjanisation de la Soclele Europeenne (1814) : — U Indus- trie (1817): — VOrganisateur (1819): — Sjsteme Indus- trial {1821-22): — Catec/dsme drs Induslriels (1823): — Opirdons Lilteraires, Philosophiques et Industrielles (1825). But these ambitious works did not produce the revolution in society which Saint-Simon looked for. They fell still-born from the press, or were left unread. The pretended saviour of mankind was oppressed with poverty and discouragement. Reaching the lowest depths in March, 1823, he made a fruitless attempt at suicide, but succeeded only in blowing out one of his eyes. Recovering from his wounds and despondency, he now summoned up his last jjowers in an endeavor to give the world a new religion. The result was his Nouceau Christ iuni.ime (Paris, 1825). In this he used many thoughts from the Bible. God is the infinite, universal being; he is the all; everything is in him and by him ; his central essence is love ; he reveals himself as reason, understanding, wisdom, strength, beauty. Man is his highest revelation. ]Man's ideal essence is also love. The ideal condition of humanity is not the cnslavino- of the one by the other, but the improvement of each by the other, and the transformation of earth into a paradise. By this process all evil is to be overcome and all bliss to be attained; men are to yield obedience to the authority of wisdom ; all are to lat>or for the happiness of all. But the (lod of Saint-Simon was a vague abstraction; the system was simply materialism with a slight tincture of^ naturalistic paiitiieism. Ma- terial well-being was the ideal paradise; Saint-Simon- ism was liedonism; Christianity was but a transient form of man's endeavor to find happiness. Catholicism did a gootl work in its day. so also did Protestantism; but Saiiit-Sinionism was now to supersede all i)revious systems. The new iura was to be lirought aljout by two principles — an end and a means. The end was, the most rapid possible amelioration, physical and moral,