Modern French Philosophy | Page 7

of a perfect social order in another world. It was now
thought that humanity would be better employed, not in imagining the
glories of a "hereafter," but in "tilling its garden," in striving to realise
here on earth something of that blessed fellowship and happy social
order treasured up in heaven. This is the dominant note of socialism,
which is closely bound up at its origin, not only with political thought,
but with humanitarianism and a feeling essentially religious. Its
progress is a feature of the whole century.
The most notable expression of the new socialistic idea was that of
Count Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), a relative of the celebrated
Duke. He had great confidence in the power of science as an instrument
for social reconstruction, and he took over from a medical man, Dr.
Burdin, the notions which, later on, Auguste Comte was to formulate
into the doctrines of Positivism. Saint-Simon's influence showed itself

while the century was young, his first work _Lettres d'un Habitant de
Genève_ appearing in 1803. In this he outlined a scheme for placing the
authoritative power of the community, not in the hands of Church and
State, but in a freely elected body of thinkers and artistes. He then
endeavoured to urge the importance of order in society, as a counterpart
to the order erected by science in the world of knowledge. To this end
was directed his _Introduction aux Travaux scientifiques du
Dix-neuvième Siècle_ (1807-8). He also indicated the importance for
social welfare of abandoning the preoccupation with an imaginary
heaven, and pointed out that the more social and political theory could
be emancipated from the influence of theological dogmas the better. At
the same time he quite recognised the importance of religious beliefs to
a community, and his sociological view of religion foreshadowed
Guyau's study, an important work which will claim our attention in due
course.
In 1813, Saint-Simon published his _Mémoire sur la Science de
l'Homme_, in which he laid down notions which were the germ of
Auguste Comte's Law of the Three Stages. With the peace which
followed the Battle of Waterloo, a tremendous stimulus was given in
France to industrial activity, and Saint-Simon formulated his motto "All
by industry and all for industry." Real power, he showed, lay not in the
hands of governments or government agents, but with the industrial
class. Society therefore should be organised in the manner most
favourable to the working class. Ultimate economic and political power
rests with them. These ideas he set forth in _L'Industrie_, 1817-18, La
Politique, 1819, _L'Organisateur_, 1819-30, _Le Système industriel_,
1821-22, _Le Catéchisme des Industriels_, 1822-24. Since 1817 among
his fellow- workers were now Augustin Thierry and young Auguste
Comte, his secretary, the most important figure in the history of the
first half of the century.
Finding that exposition and reasoned demonstration of his ideas were
not sufficient, Saint-Simon made appeal to sentiment by his Appel aux
Philanthropes, a treatise on human brotherhood and solidarity. This he
followed up in 1825 by his last book, published the year of his death,
Le Nouveau Christianisme. This book endeavoured to outline a religion

which should prove itself capable of reorganising society by
inculcating the brotherhood of man in a more effective manner than
that of the Christian Church. _Fraternité_ was the watchword he
stressed, and he placed women on an equal political and social footing
with men. He set forth the grave deficiencies of the Christian doctrines
as proclaimed by Catholic and Protestant alike. Both are cursed by the
sin of individualism, the virtue of saving one's own soul, while no
attempt at social salvation is made. Both Catholics and Protestants he
labelled vile heretics, inasmuch as they have turned aside from the
social teaching of Christianity. If we are to love our neighbour as
ourselves we must as a whole community work for the betterment of
our fellows socially, by erecting a form of society more in accord with
Christian principles. We must strive to do it here and now, and not sit
piously getting ready for the next world. We must not think it religious
to despise the body or material welfare. God manifests Himself as
matter and spirit, so Religion must not despise economics but rather
unite industry and science as Love unites spirit and matter. Eternal Life,
of which Christianity makes so much, is not to be sought, argued
Saint-Simon, in another world, but here and now in the love and service
of our brothers, in the uplift of humanity as a whole.
Saint-Simon believed in a fated progress and an inevitable betterment
of the condition of the working classes. The influence of Hegel's view
of history and Condorcet's social theories is apparent in some of his
writings. His insistence upon organisation, social authority and the
depreciative view of