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revolution ? What is this school , active , indefatigable , full of strong convictions , elevated talents , which , every day recruited and strengthened , writes , preaches , teaches , braves all the force of ridicule , returns the contempt it meets , and marches forth openly to the conquest of society ? Claude Henry , Count de Saint Simon , was born at Paris in 1760 . He was of the family of Saint Simons , on whom Louis XIII . showered his
favours , and which , in the time of Louis XIV . and the Regent , had an illustrious representative , whose voluminous work proved him to be one of the distinguished writers of the age . Henry de Saint Simon was proud of his birth , and often referred to it . On one occasion he disclaims literary pretensions , and says , " I write as a gentleman , a descendant of the Counts of Vermandois , as heir to the pen of the Duke de Saint Simon . " Again , elsewhere he says , " Whatever there is greatest in deeds or in sayings , has
been done or said by gentlemen . Our ancestor , Charlemagne , Peter the Great , Frederic the Great , the Emperor Napoleon , were born gentlemen ; and the thinkers of the highest order , Galileo , Bacon , Descartes , and Newton , were all gentlemen / ' There are few details of the infancy of Saint Simon . In one of his letters he begins the narrative of his life in 1777 ,
when he entered on the military profession . Two years afterwards he went to America , and served under Bouille and Washington , To a youth full of enthusiasm , and who at the age of seventeen made his servant wake him every morning with the words , " Rise , Count , you have great things to do , " a new world and a revolution was an interesting spectacle . He conversed with Franklin , assisted at the emancipation of a great people by arms , and was from that moment convinced that the revolution of America indicated
the commencement of a new political era , and would introduce important changes into the social order of Europe , He remained five years in America , proposed to the Mexican government a plan to unite the two seas , which met no encouragement , returned to France , and travelled in various parts of Europe , directing his attention to important and useful undertakings . He was not drawn into the vortex of the revolution , but remained calm ; and , as he says , " thought of founding a grand establishment of industry , and a
scientific school of perfection . " Count Redern , a Prussian , joined him in this enterprise ; but wanting the strong benevolent impulse of Saint Simon , soon relinquished it , and the latter turned his attention to science . Then he perceived the necessity of a new philosophical system , and conceived the plan of laying the foundation of the French school . After some years' intense study in France , he visited England , at the peace of Amiens , and afterwards Germany . In 1808 he published " L'Introduction aux Travaux Scientifiques du
19 siecle , " an admirable work , but little known , only 100 copies having been printed to distribute among literary friends ; in 1810 he published •* Prospectus d ' une Nouvelle Encyclopedic . " In the dedication to his nephew , Victor de Saint Simon , an original enthusiasm appears , unequalled even in Diderot . In politics he first published , in 1814 , a pamphlet , " De la Reorganization de la Society Europ £ enne . " New and striking views of historical facts distinguish this tract of 120 pages , which ends with the passage so
often quoted by his school , — " The golden age is not behind but before us ; it consists in the perfection of social order ; our fathers have not seen it , our children will some day attain it , we must smooth the road for them . " In 1815 , in conjunction with M . Augustin Thierry , he brought out " Une Opinion sur les Mesures k prendre contre la Coalition de 1815 . " In this he urged his favourke position , that alliance with England was indispensable ; that the English ought to be , from the similarity of their institutions , princi-
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84 French Sect of Saint Simonites .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/12/
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