THE work of which the following is a translation, was published in the course of the last year at Paris. The nature of it will be manifest from the title-page. Who Saint-Martin was, will appear from the following Historic Notice of him and his writings, published A.D. 1824, by one of his surviving friends, a Mons. J. B. M. GENCE, thus: —
PREFACE. — The works of 'le Philosophe inconnu' may have been ignored or despised by the literary vulgar, or even by the philosophical vulgar (for there is such a class), whose merely rational understanding can see nothing beyond their senses. But the thoughtful, who rise in their minds to truths of a higher order, the knowledge of which they receive in their hearts, have relished and valued the books of our theosopher, in France, Germany, England, and even beyond Europe.
Those who knew the author personally, as simple and modest as he was learned and profound, venerated him and loved him equally. I had the happiness to be of the number; and it was on this ground that I undertook to write an impartial "Historic Notice" of him for the 'Biographic Universelle.' But I had the mortification to see this Notice truncated and disfigured; the author's doctrine parodied, his motives distorted, his sentiments calumniated, and plagiary even was added to insult. I now publish the Notice in full, for the honour of the respected person who is the subject of it, and that of his honest friends who are included with him in the attacks upon his memory and his religion.
Thus the Preface. The Biographic Notice then proceeds: —
LOUIS CLAUDE DE SAINT-MARTIN, a learned and profound spiritualist, termed 'le Philosophe inconnu,' was born of a noble family, at Amboise, on the 18th January, 1743. He owed to the cares of a step-mother, the first elements of that tender and pious education, which as he said, made him ever after love God and man. At the college at Port-Levoy, to which he was sent at an early age, the book he liked the most was Abbadie's 'Art de se Connaitre Soi-meme'; to the reading of this book he attributed his subsequent disengagement from the things of this world. Being destined by his parents for the magistracy, he applied himself in his studies, rather to the natural bases of justice than to the rules of jurisprudence, the study of which was repugnant to him. As he felt that it would be his duty as a magistrate to give up all his time to his office, he preferred the army, in which, during peace, he would have leisure to pursue his meditations, and to study man. He entered as officer, at twenty-two years of age, the regiment of Foix, then in garrison at Bordeaux.
Notwithstanding his taste for spiritual philosophy, he fulfilled with great activity, the duties and requirements of the military service. He became acquainted with Martinez-Pasquales (v. 'Biog. Univ.'), chief of the sect called Martinezists, into which and under whose direction he was initiated, by formulas, rites, practices, and so-called theurgic operations. But this way of magical incantations did not satisfy the mind of our philosopher, and he frequently exclaimed, "But, Master, is all this necessary to gain a knowledge of God?" Nevertheless it was through this door, that he first entered the spiritual path.
The members of this school, took the Hebrew name of Cohen (Priests); its doctrines, which Martinez presented as a secret public instruction, i.e. which he had received by tradition, are to be found couched in the early writings of Saint-Martin, especially in his 'Tableau Naturel des Rapports entre Dieu, l'Homme, et l'Univers.'
After the death of Martinez, the school was transferred to Lyons. It was here that — armed with doctrines opposed to the Encyclopedistes, who were striving to propagate themselves, Saint-Martin destined to combat atheistical philosophy, as he was one day to attack the strongholds of revolutionary materialism — published his first book. In combating the erroneous doctrines of a pretended philosophy of nature and history, he recalls man back to the Truth, founded upon the Principle of knowledge itself, and on the nature of intelligent being; but he makes use of the traditions of Scripture only as corroborative proofs, or enigmatically, in order not to repel readers who were too much imbued with the prevalent theories of the Baron d'Holbach. This same school of Martinez-Pasquales, whose proceedings closed in 1778, was afterwards reopened in Paris, in the society of the G. P. or that of the — Philalethes — professing ostensibly the doctrines of Martinez and Swedenborg, but seeking less the Truth than the secret of the philosophical work. Saint-Martin was invited, in 1784, to the latter of these associations; but he refused to participate in the proceedings of its members, who seemed to him to speak and act only as freemasons, and not as real initiates, that is, as united to their Principle.
Saint-Martin willingly joined the meetings where the members honestly occupied themselves with exercises of solid virtue. The manifestations of an intellectual order, obtained by a sensible mediumship, in the Martinez seances, disclosed to him a science of spirits; the visions of Swedenborg, of a sentimental order, a science of soul. As to the phenomena of somnambulic magnetism, which he pursued at Lyons, he considered them as of an inferior order, but believed in them. In a conference he had with Bailly, one of the Commissioners appointed to report on the subject, in order to convince him of the existence of a magnetic power, where there could be no collusion on the part of the patient, he relates that he quoted certain operations made on horses treated by that process; when Bailly thus answered him, "But how do you know that horses do not think?"
A lover of everything that might lead him to the knowledge of a truth, especially in sciences which are subject to exact principles, the study of mathematics — in which Saint-Martin sought the spirit which might reveal to him the science of numbers — led to his intimacy with Lalande; but their views were too antipathetic, and it did not last long. Although he did not believe in Lalande's pretended atheism, he saw himself in danger of being drawn deeper and deeper into that system. Our philosopher agreed better with the principles of J. J. Rousseau, whom he had studied. He thought, like him, that men were naturally good; but by this "nature," he understood that which they had originally lost, and might recover again if they intended it; for he conceived that men are drawn away in the world more by vicious associations than by wickedness. In this he was not like Rousseau, whom he considered misanthropical from excessive sensibility, from looking at men not as they were, but as he wished them to be.
As for himself, on the contrary, he loved mankind, as being better than they seemed to be; and the charm of good society led him to think what social meetings might become, in a more perfect intimacy with our Principle. He acted in conformity with this sentiment. Instrumental music, country walks, and friendly conversations were the recreations of his spirit; and acts of kindness, those of his soul. He had nothing of his own while he had anything to give, and he was overpaid in happiness for all that he gave. He always found something to be gained in conversation. It was to his intimacy with persons of the highest rank (Marquis de Lusignan, Marechal de Richelieu, Duc d'Orleans, Duchesse de Bourbon, Chevalier de Bouflers, &c.), who naturally found his spiritualism too elevated for the spirit of the age, that he said he owed the confirmation and development of his ideas on the principles of the great subjects he studied; being thus enabled to hold communion both with himself and with others, and those who were most free from prejudice. He travelled also with this view, like Pythagoras, to study man and nature, and compare the testimony of others with his own. To him might more truly be applied Jean-Jacques' motto: Vitam impendere vero. Devoted altogether to the search for Truth — the constant aim of all his studies and his works, Saint-Martin at last gave up the military service, that he might devote himself entirely to his subject, and to the sort of spiritual ministry to which he felt himself called.
It was at Strasburgh through the medium of his friend Madame Boecklin, that he became acquainted with the works of the Teutonic theosopher, JACOB BOEHME, who in France was looked upon as a visionary; and, at an advanced age, he studied the German language, in order to read and translate into French, for his own use, the writings of this celebrated illumine, which fully discovered to him what in the documents of his first masters he had obtained but a glimpse of. He ever afterwards regarded him as — the GREATEST HUMAN LIGHT THAT HAD EVER APPEARED. In the year 1787, Saint-Martin visited England, where he formed a friendship with the Ambassador Barthelemy, and where he became acquainted with the publications of William Law (who died in 1761), relating to Jacob Boehme's theosophy. In 1788 he made a journey to Rome, in company with Prince Calitzin, who used to M. Fortia, d'Urban the following remarkable words, "I am really a man only since I have known Saint-Martin." On his return from his travels in Italy, Germany, and England, he could not avoid accepting the cross of the order of Saint-Louis, of which he considered himself undeserving; though it was conferred upon him more on account of the nobility of his sentiments, than for actual services.
The revolution, in its varied phases, found Saint-Martin always the same, always going straight to his aim: Justum, et tenacem propositi virum. Elevated by his principles above the consideration of birth and opinions, he did not emigrate; and, whilst holding in horror all the disorders and excesses, both of anarchy and despotism around him, he believed that good would arise out of the terrible visitation of the French Revolution, by the arrangement of Divine Providence; and thought he saw a great temporal instrument in the man who afterwards arose to suppress it. It was at the epoch of 1793, when even family feeling itself, as well as that of Society, seemed to be in dissolution, that Saint-Martin went to devote his care and render his last duties to his infirm and paralytic father. At the same time, notwithstanding the straits to which his very limited fortune now reduced him, he contributed, as one of its citizens, to the public wants of his commune. On his return to the capital, being comprehended in the decree of expulsion, issued 27 Germinal, an II., against nobles, he submitted, and left Paris.
Whilst other men were occupying themselves with the political interests which agitated Europe, Saint-Martin was corresponding on topics of an elevated and abstract character, though of importance from their influence on the destiny of nature and man, [Which, for the chief part, forms the contents of the present volume.] with a member of the Sovereign Council of Berne. Living in solitude, separated from his acquaintances, in the midst of a sea of stormy passions, he called himself, in his isolation, the Robinson Crusoe of spirituality. He did not escape a mandat d'arret, on the occasion of some pretended religious conspiracy denounced to the revolutionary tribunal of justice. The 9th Thermidor saved him. His correspondence with the Swiss Baron, a natural and religious philosopher, who, inclined towards external sensible manifestations, questioned him on those matters, might have made him suspected; though the spiritual philosopher always called his friend back to the inward moral sense, and referred him to his dearly loved Boehme. They became greatly attached to each other, though they never met; they mutually exchanged portraits. . . .
As faithful in the discharge of his public duties, as he was in those of friendship, he served personally in the Garde Nationale. He informs us that he was on guard in 1794 at the Temple, when the son of Louis XVI. was confined there. Three years previously he had been included in the list of candidates for the appointment of Governor to the Dauphin. In May, 1794, when he was appointed to draw up the catalogue of the books of his commune, he was greatly interested by the discovery of spiritual treasures in 'La Vie de la Soeur Marguerite du Saint Sacrement.'
Towards the end of the same year, notwithstanding his nobility, which interdicted his residence in Paris, he was chosen by the district of Amboise, as one of the so-called pupils to the Normal Schools, intended to train masters for the public instruction. After having, like Socrates, consulted his genius, Saint-Martin accepted this mission, in the hope (said he) that, by God's assistance, he might — in the presence of two thousand hearers, animated with what he called the spiritus mundi — usefully display his character of religious spirituality, and combat successfully against the prevailing anti-social and materialistic philosophy. Summoned thus to the capital, he arrived there very opportunely to defend and develope the cause of the moral sense, against the professor of the physical sense, or analysis of the human understanding. The stone which he slung, as he himself expressed it, at the forehead of the analysis-philosophy, was not thrown in vain. — V. Correspondence, 19th March, 1795.
Having returned in peace and honour to his department, he took part, in 1795, in the first electoral assemblies; but he himself was never a member of any legislative body. Peace between France and Switzerland made his connection with Berne still more active. The correspondence between the two friends, became more than ever, an interchange of explanations on the text of JACOB BOEHME on the one side, and of Saint-Martin's doctrine on the other. The writings of our philosopher indeed require it, even where he appears least mystical, the flashes of light which break out in them, leaving a desire that he would express himself more openly.
In the midst of a revolution, in reference to which, he said in his spiritual language, that France had been visited the first, and very severely, because she was the most guilty, — he had the courage to advance principles very different from those which then obtained, although he gave the example of submission to the actual order of things. In his 'Eclair sur l'Association humaine,' amongst others, he shows that the luminous basis of social order in the theocratic rule, is the only really legitimate one. But he nowise contemplated founding a sect. He always wrote anonymously as le Philosophe inconnu; and on giving his writings to his friends, he recommended to them secrecy. His object in rising and referring to God as the principle of all authority, was simply to recall all men — from the herdsman to the prince, to that unity of Principle, the law of which all would find within themselves, without need of referring to books, even to his own.
The interior spiritual introversion, by which man seeks to have opened in himself the knowledge of the Principle itself of all that is real — a view far higher than the mere rational intuition of Kant, is the idea which ultimately rules in our author's writings, even in those which are of the least serious character; under which he masked his philosophy, when the subject might otherwise have been exposed to desecration. . . .
The elevated views and sentiments which, at this period, caused him to admire the good German philosopher, extended to questions concerning natural order, of which he treated. Having been led to discover, under external visible nature, an interior invisible world which he conceived might be revealed through cultivation, to the intellectual and moral man, — according to his fertile conceptions no science need remain unknown to him. He followed the progress of discovery in every kind of knowledge, comparing the results with those he had taken from JACOB BOEHME and his own reflections. It was in thus penetrating an unknown world, that he composed and produced 'L'Esprit des Choses,' in which he tries to lift up a corner of the curtain, and to throw some light on a nature, [Saint-Martin was not acquainted with the commentaries of Freher on Boehme's writings, in the English language, (but in MS.,) or he would have expressed himself as then having all that remained of theosophical light to aid him in his researches concerning the spiritual ground of the forms of material life. — Note of ED.] which, it appeared to him, had been openly unveiled, by Divine Inspiration, to JACOB BOEHME. . . .
Notwithstanding the extent of his knowledge, and the originality of his ideas, which led him to bring everything home to his spiritualism, Saint-Martin was admired for his good sense, and his simple and amiable modesty. His endearing character and communicative spirit would, doubtless, have secured to him many partisans, but he did not seek to make proselytes; he wanted only friends for disciples — friends, not of his books only, but of each other. He kept a journal of his friendships; and as his translations of his cher philosophe were for provision for his old age, so he regarded his new friends as acquisitions, and esteemed himself rich in rentes d'ames. To see his humble air and simple exterior — his profound knowledge, his extraordinary enlightenment, and his exalted virtues, would never be suspected. But the candour, the quiet of his conversation, and we may venture to say, the atmosphere of beneficence which seemed to be spread around him manifested the sage — the new man, formed by sound philosophy and religion. . . .
It will be readily imagined that the hopes of a man, so earnest for all that was real, could but increase with his age. He accordingly tells us that, having entered his 60th year (in 1803), he was advancing towards the great joys which had been so long foreshadowed to him. . . . He had had warnings of a physical enemy, the same that had carried off his father; but he was far from being afflicted on this account, and he said Providence had always taken too much care of him to leave him cause for anything but thanksgiving. The country round Aunay, near Sceaux, where he possessed a friend, had always offered to him beauties of nature, which elevated his soul to their original; making him sigh like the old men of Israel, who, when they beheld the new temple, regretted the charms of the ancient one. A similar idea had accompanied him through the course of his years, and his desire was to retain it to the last.
He seemed to have a presentiment of his end. A conversation which he had wished to have with a profound mathematician on the science of numbers — the hidden sense of which continually occupied his mind, was brought about through the medium of the writer of this notice, with M. de Rossel. At its conclusion, he said: "I feel that I am going — Providence may call me — I am ready. The germs which I have endeavoured to sow will fructify. I leave to-morrow for the country residence of one of my friends. I thank Heaven for having granted me the last favour I had to ask." He then bade adieu to M. de Rossel, and pressed both our hands.
The day following, as he had said, he went to the country seat of Count Lenoir La-Roche, at that same Aunay which he loved so well. After a slight repast, when he had retired to his chamber, he had an attack of apoplexy. Although his tongue was not free, he was able to make himself understood by his friends, who collected round him. Feeling that all human aid was useless, he exhorted those around him to place their trust in Providence, and live together like brethren in Gospel love. He then prayed in silence, and departed without a struggle, and without pain, on the 13th October, 1803.
Although Saint-Martin was already so extensively read, he was generally so little known in the world, that the public papers, in announcing his death, confounded him with his master, Martinez-Pasquales, who died at St. Domingo in 1779. Though the disciple may have passed for the head of a religious doctrine, his sentiments, as we have seen, were far from having been dictated by any private or exclusive view. The aim of all his discourses and writings was, on the contrary, to show that the way of truth would open itself to all true Christians by meditation and true devotion; not that Saint-Martin did not believe in the legitimacy of the Christian priesthood, as the author of 'Les Soirees de St. Petersbourg' has erroneously stated; but he thought that Christ's institution might be made effective anywhere, by a sincere faith in the power and merits of the Redeemer.
How then could a writer, professing a Christianity so indulgent, have incurred, on the other hand, the animadversions of pretended apostles of toleration and philanthropy? It was because his religion was neither political nor a pretence; it was because the light which emanated from his convictions, notwithstanding the clouds in which he seemed to veil himself, dimmed the glimmerings of philosophism. Saint-Martin wrote much, and his books develope gradually, with more and more force and distinctness, the religious character with which they are stamped. They have also been commented upon, and in part translated, but principally in the languages of the North of Europe.
We shall see by a general glance at the author's doctrines, every one of whose writings will present a particular aspect, that it is not surprising that minds carried away by passion, or given up to the errors of the senses, should not have understood or liked him. But it is reasonable to conclude that, as moral ideas and religious sentiment become simplified and purified by a more extended spiritual culture, the want will be felt of an enlightened spiritual philosophy, to oppose to the materializing tendency of the natural sciences — which attributes faculties and functions to the physical organs, and makes passive and blind agents the principle of activity and intelligence.
The aim of Saint-Martin's works, is not only to explain Nature by Man, but to bring all our knowledge back to the Principle, — of which the human mind may become the centre. Nature, as it is fallen and divided in itself, and in man, preserves nevertheless in its laws, as man does in several of his faculties, a disposition to return to the original unity. In these respects, Nature puts itself in harmony with man, as man does with his Principle. Hence it follows that the Nosce te ipsum ought, in the idea of I, to include the rational I as well as the spiritual. This knowledge therefore, is not the theory of a type or subject of our ideas, such as Plato derives from the notion of an archetype, itself taken from ideas of unity and object. Descartes and Leibnitz descend also by a common idea, from the abstract to the sensible, but only after having risen from the subject to the object, the former by the way of conception, the latter by that of perception. Kant, without passing the limits of the sensible, separates the abstract object from the subject, and leaves it in the rank of the general notions of which his intuitive reason can give no account. According to Saint-Martin, man, taken as subject, neither conceives nor perceives simply the abstract object of his thought: he receives it, but from another source than that of sensible impressions. (V. sequitur, No. II.) Further, a man who introverts himself, and by his will makes abnegation of all created things, operates and obtains the intimate knowledge of the Principle of his thought and speech itself — that is, of his prototype, or the WORD, whose type and image, (or objectum,) he originally was. The Divine Being thus reveals himself to the spirit of man; and the knowledge of all that relates to ourselves and the nature of things is communicated at the same time. It is to this original nature, in which man was in harmony with his Principle, that he ought now to tend, by his work and desire, through the reunion of his will with that of the reparateur. Then the Divine image is produced again; the human soul is regenerated, the beauty of order is discovered; and the communion between God and man restored.
It will be seen from this view of the doctrine of Saint-Martin, that the spiritualism, the way of which was first opened to him by Pasquales, and afterwards made clear and smooth by Jacob Boehme, was no longer the mere science of spirits, but that of GOD. The mystics of the middle ages, and those of Fenelon's school, by uniting themselves by recollection or contemplation to their Principle, according to the doctrine of their master, Rusbrochius, were absorbed in God through affection. Here the entrance is higher; it is not the faculty of affection only, it is the Divine intellectual faculty itself, which knows in itself its Principle, and through him, the pattern of that Nature which Malebranche saw, not actively in himself, but speculatively in God; and of which Saint-Martin discovers the type in his interior being, by an active and spiritual operation, which is the germ of all knowledge. It would appear to be towards this end, that the author's works tend in the order of their composition, marking progressively the route which he had taken in the course of his own experience,
I. 'Des Erreurs et de la Verite, ou les Hommes rappeles au Principe universel de la Science, par un Philosophe inconnu.' Edimbourg (Lyons), 1775. 8vo. — The author, who seldom followed his own will in writing, but rather the advice of friends, indignant at reading, in Boulanger, that religion sprang from the fright occasioned by the catastrophes of nature, wrote this book to show, as we have said, in the nature of man himself, the sensible knowledge of an active intelligent Cause, the real source of all allegories, mysteries, institutions, and laws. Whilst the Holbach school, through the medium of Voltaire, treated this book, which is sometimes enigmatical, as insane and absurd, and, nevertheless, wrote a "sequel" to it, the Bernese philosopher, struck with the truths which appeared under the veil, originated a correspondence with its author, whose work he considered as that of the deepest writer of the age. The pretended 'Suite des Erreurs et de la Verite,' &c. (Salomonopolis (Paris), 5784, in 8vo.), was declared by Saint-Martin to be a fraud, stained with the very vice of the false systems which he combated. In fact, the 'Philosophe inconnu' had stated that the Will constituted the essential and fundamental faculty of man; and they had the hardihood to deny it, by asserting (p. 7) that the will is only a modification of the brain, by which man is disposed to put his organs in action. [Was not this work only a clever burlesque?]
II. 'Tableau Naturel des Rapports qui existent entre Dieu, l'Homme, et l'Univers: in two parts.' Edimbourg (Lyons), 1782; in 8vo. — In this work, composed in Paris, on the advice of some friends, the author infers, from the superiority of man's faculties, and from his action on his organs of sense and his productions, that the existence of nature, both general and particular, is also the production of creative powers superior to this result. Yet man is dependent on physical causes, the idea of which he acquires only by the impression they make on his organs. But he has, at the same time, notions of another kind, ideas of law and power, of order and unity, of wisdom and justice. Thus he is dependent on his intellectual and moral ideas as well as on those received through his senses. Now, those do not come through his senses: they come, therefore, from some other source; from external faculties, which produce thoughts in him. But whence this dependence? From disorder produced by an inferior cause, opposing itself to the superior, and ceasing to be under its law. Man fell: and then, what existed as an immaterial principle, became sensibilized under material forms. Order and disorder became manifest. Nevertheless, everything tends to return to the unity out of which it proceeded. If, in consequence of this fall, man's moral and intellectual virtues and faculties have been divided, he ought, by renewing his will, and by his desire, to labour for the recovery of those he has lost. But his regeneration can be effected only by virtue of the Repairer's act, whose sacrifice took the place of the expiations which preceded the spiritual law. — Such is the plan of this important work: it is more closely logical in its course, more methodical, and more continuous than the first. Several parts marked by parentheses appear detached from, or less connected with the context; they rise from the enigmatical part of Martinez Pasquales' doctrine, where it is said, for instance, in the mysterious doctrine of numbers that man was lost by going from 4 to 9, that is, from spirit to matter. But it is not by these purely allegorical figures that his doctrine must be judged. The two above-named works have appeared in German, with commentaries by an anonymous writer; 2 vols. 8vo., 1784.
III. 'L'Homme de Desir,' Lyons, 1790, in 8vo, reviewed and frequently re-printed; a new edition, Mayence, 1802. — These are aspirations in the style of the Psalmist, in which the human soul presses towards its first estate, which the way of the Spirit can help it to recover, through Divine goodness. The author wrote 'L'Homme de Desir' at the instigation of the religious philosopher Thieman, during his travels, when at Strasburg and London. Lavater, a clergyman at Zurich, in his 'Journal Allemand' of December, 1790, highly eulogizes this work as one of the books he had most liked, though he acknowledges he could not quite penetrate to its grounds of doctrine. But Kirchberger, more familiar with the principles of the book, considered it as most rich in luminous thoughts: the author himself agreed that it here and there contained germs the properties of which he was ignorant of when they were sown there, and which opened themselves to him daily, since he had known Jacob Boehme.
IV. 'Ecce Homo,' imprim. Cercle Social, 1792, in 12mo. — It was at Paris he wrote this little work, following (as he said) a lively inspiration he had received at Strasburg. Its object was to show, to what degree of abasement and infirmity man had fallen, and to cure him of his inclination for the marvellous of the lower sort, such as the modern somnambulic and spiritualism-phenomena. He had especially in view the Duchess of Bourbon, his beloved friend, a model of virtue and piety, but who had given way to this inclination for the marvellous.
V. 'Le Nouvel Homme.' Paris, ibid. 1792. 1 vol. 8vo. — Is rather an exhortation than a teaching. He wrote it at Strasburg, in 1790, on the advice of the Chevalier Silverhielm, formerly almoner to the King of Sweden, and nephew of Swedenborg. The fundamental idea of this work is, that man bears within him a kind of text, of which his whole life ought to be the development; because, said he, man's soul is, primitively, a thought of God: hence it follows that the way to renew ourselves by re-entering our true nature, is to think by our Principle, and to employ our thoughts as so many organs to work out this renovation. Notwithstanding the high source to which the author rose, he afterwards said, that he would not have written this book, or would have written it differently, if he had then had knowledge of Jacob Boehme's works.
VI. 'De l'Esprit des Choses, ou Coup-d'oeil philosophique sur la Nature des Etres, et sur l'Objet de leur Existence;' with the epigram, 'Mens hominis rerum universalitatis speculurn est.' Paris, 1800. 2 vols. 8vo. — Our philosopher believed that there must be a reason for everything that exists, and that the inward eye of the observer was its judge. He thus considers Man as having, within him, a living mirror, which reflects everything to him, and leads him to seek to see and know all things: but this living mirror being itself a reflection of the Divinity, it is by this light that man acquires sound ideas and discovers the eternal Nature (v. seq. X.) spoken of by JACOB BOEHME. This work is, no doubt, the 'Revelations Naturelles,' which the author projected in 1797, as he infomed Kirchberger, and on which occasion the latter advised S. M. to suppress everything that savoured of mystery. But what Boehme, following his notions a priori, was able to sketch en grand, could Saint-Martin with all his knowledge develop in detail, so as to be always clear and intelligible? if 'L'Anthropologie,' a work which at present occupies one of his disciples, aided by all that modern science has been able to discover, embraced the principles applicable to the different branches of the science of Man, physical, moral, and intellectual, then, indeed, we should have a veritable 'Esprit des Choses.' [Query, what this work, its title, and if published?]
VII. 'Lettre a un Ami, ou Considerations politiques, philosophiques, et religieuses, sur la Revolution Francaise.' Paris, 1795. In the seventh year of the Revolution, and at the instance of one of his friends, he published his thoughts on the scene which was passing in the world. He regarded the French Revolution as that of human nature, and an image in miniature of the last judgment, but in which things had to pass successively, beginning with France. — 'Eclair sur l'Association Humaine.' Paris, 1797, in 8vo. — This 'Eclair' is like a view of the spirit, which discovers, in the principle of social order, the focus from whence issue Wisdom, Justice, and Power, without which no association can be durable, whether it be founded, with Helvetius, on the wants and foresight natural to man, or, with Rousseau, on a supposed general will, but which is particular, nevertheless, in man more or less vicious. — 'Reflexions d'un Observateur' on the question proposed by the Institut: "What are the institutions best adapted for founding the morality of a people?" 1798. After passing in review the various means which may, more or less, tend to this end by connecting morals with politics, the observateur shows the insufficiency of these means, if the legislator himself do not ground his ethics upon the inmost foundations of our nature, for a government ought to be nothing else than the result of morals put in action. The author had treated, fifteen years previously, an analogous subject, which was propounded by the Academy of Berlin, On the best way of recalling to reason people who are given over to errors or superstitions, a question which he showed to be unresolvable by human means alone.
VIII. 'Discours en Reponse au Citoyen Garat, Professeur d'Entendement Humain aux Ecoles Normales,' on the existence of a moral sense, and the distinction between sensations and knowledge. This discourse, which was delivered at the close of a public conference, on 9 Ventose, an III. (27 February, 1795), is printed in the collection of the 'Ecoles Normales,' published in 1801 (tom. iii. des Debats). The discussion which took place between the professor and the pupil, says M. Tourlet, in his historical notice of Saint-Martin, "brought to light all his adversary's power, and the result was that the most abstract subject was sifted to the bottom," and, we will add, entirely to the advantage of the moral side. — 'Essai' relating to a question proposed by the Institut: Determiner l'influence des signes sur la formation des idees, with the epigram: 'Nascuntur ideae, fiunt signa' (1799), in 8vo. A passage, in which the professor had maintained the priority of signs over ideas, appears to have given rise to this question by the Institut, which supposes this priority, and to which the author replies no less victoriously, treating the question half theosophically, half academically. This 'Essai' is intercalated in the facetious allegory, 'Le Crocodile, ou la Guerre du Bien et du Mal, arrivee sous le regne de Louis XV., poeme epico-magique, en 102 chants,' &c., in prose and verse, 'oevre posthume d'un amateur des choses cachees.' Paris (1799), 8vo.
IX. 'Le Ministere de l'Homme-esprit.' Paris, 1802, in 8vo., 3 parts: of Man, of Nature, and of the Word. — The object of this book is to show how the Spirit-man (or man exercising a spiritual ministry) may improve and regenerate himself and others, by restoring the Logos (the Word) to man and nature. It is from this Word that Saint-Martin, full of the doctrine and sentiments of JACOB BOEHME, draws the life with which he here inspires his reasonings and his style. Yet this work, although plainer than those which preceded it, is still too far removed from men's thoughts to be fully comprehended and conceived. The great amelioration which our theosopher proposes, consists in the radical development of our inmost essence. All his writings rest, more or less, on this ground; but 'Le Ministere de l'Homme-esprit' shows man how to work out in himself the work of the Reparateur, by sacrificing himself, after his example, to separate himself from the material kingdom, which is the organ of evil. The new birth of man by the Gospel way, in which Jacob Boehme, according to Saint-Martin, entered so deeply, and which he states is the simple key to the door of wisdom, (see his 'Book of True Repentance,') being very preferable to the quiet contemplative way of some mystics, or the sensible manifestations, — produced either by the exaltation of the soul, as in Swedenborg, or by the slumber of the bodily senses, as in somnambulic or trance magnetism.
X. 'Translations of the WORKS OF JACOB BOEHME,' namely: 1st. 'L'Aurore Naissante, or the Racine de la Philosophie,' &c., containing a description of nature in its origin, &c., translated from the German edition of Gichtel, 1682, by le Philosophe inconnu, with a Notice of Jacob Boehme. Paris, 1800, in 8vo. — This original nature, which BOEHME calls eternal nature, and of which ours must be an alteration, is not a nature without a begetting, since it is an emanation from a Principle, one and indivisible, which BOEHME, to make himself understood, considers as threefold in essence, and septenary in form or mode. So that it was incorrect to confound it, as well as its Cause, with the Substance-principle of Spinosa.
An abstract of the origin and consequences of the alteration of this Nature, according to Boehme, given in 'Le Ministere de l'Homme-Esprit' (p. 28-31), shows how, by wishing to rule by his own will, in the first principle of Fire, instead of reigning by resignation and obedience, in the second of Light and Love, the prevaricateur ruined himself and all his hierarchy; and that he afterwards succeeded in drawing down in his fall the man who had been created to replace him, not only as a prince, but a saviour; and now, man having become thereby, so to speak, fossilized in a gross form, Divine love imparts into his soul a seed of himself, which, by the process and ever-operative action of Jesus Christ, as the life and sun of the moral world, might grow up again into original perfection. All this in general, is, no doubt, biblical; but in announcing the forms of nature, his descriptions of the different properties of Being might seem, partly, to be taken from qualities of the sensible order. Yet, notwithstanding the physical or chemical terms so frequently mixed up in the expression of his highest thoughts, BOEHME always meant them to be taken in an immaterial spiritual sense; and he took all these thoughts, which are the basis of his philosophy, from his own conceptions, without borrowing anything, as some have alleged of him, from Paracelsus.
Saint-Martin agrees, however, with P. Poiret, that the author is at once both sublime and obscure, and that his 'Aurora' particularly is a chaos, but that it contains all the germs which are developed in the 'Three Principles' and subsequent works, on which we shall remark but briefly.
2ndly. 'Les Trois Principes de l'Essence Divine.' Paris, 1802. 2 vols. 8vo. — This work, written seven years after the 'Aurora,' is much less confused; and it may be considered as a complete view of the author's doctrine, except the further light and new explanations which his subsequent works present; but it is sufficient to give an idea of them; and the entire work would not satisfy those readers who would be unable to comprehend the same things repeated and explained, even to satiety, by the author himself.
3rdly. 'De la Triple Vie de l'Homme,' edition revised by M. Gilbert. Paris, 1809, in 8vo. — It is on the manifestation of the origin, essence, and end of things, that, according to the 'Three Principles,' this Threefold life is established, comprising the external corporeal life, the life proper or inward life, and the divine life, in which the soul enters by a new birth, and penetrates into the Spirit of Christ.
4thly. 'Quarante Questions sur l'Ame,' &c., followed by the 'Six Points,' and the 'Neuf Textes,' edition revised by the same. Paris, 1807, in 8vo. — These questions, which turn on the nature and properties of the soul, had been propounded to the author by an amateur of theosophy, one Dr. Balthazar Walter. The answers are announced as not being according to outward reason, but according to the spirit of understanding (the Divine wisdom), the principles of which the author had laid down fundamentally, and of which they are a recapitulation.
These translations form about a third of Boehme's works, two only of which had been translated previously, in antiquated language: 1st, The 'Signatura Rerum,' printed at Frankfort, in 1664, under the title of 'The Temporal Mirror of Eternity'; the 2nd, at Berlin, 1722, in 12mo., with the title of 'The Way to Christ.'
XI. 'OEuvres Posthumes de St. Martin', — 2 vols. 8vo. Tours, 1807. — This collection embraces: 1st, A judicious selection of the 'Pensees de St. Martin,' by M. Tournier; 2ndly, a journal, commencing 1782, of his intimacies, conversations, &c., under the title, 'Portrait de Saint-Martin,' by himself; 3rdly, several questions and fragments of literature, morals, and philosophy, amongst others, sundry morsels on 'Prophetic Poetry,' 'Admiration,' the 'Ways of Wisdom,' and the 'Laws of Divine Justice'; 4thly, some Poems, in which, as it may be supposed, the author cared more for the substance than the form; nevertheless, we find in the 'Cimetiere d'Amboise,' and especially in the lines, 'Sur l'Origine et la Destination de I'Homme,' profound thoughts, expressed with feeling and energy; 5thly, and lastly, Meditations and Prayers, in which the man of desire is truly depicted, desiring to see his fellow-creatures seeking for true knowledge, and pure joys of the spirit, in their own centre, and from thence ascending to the source of light and life, after which his own longings knew no intermission.
Such the tribute of respect paid to the memory of Saint-Martin twenty-two years after his decease, by his friend M. Gence. The 'Notice,' though not one of sound criticism, besides being itself mystical in parts, and hence difficult of familiar rendering, will afford a general insight into the character of Saint-Martin's spirit, and the nature of his publications. But, for an extensive historic notice on those topics, the reader is referred to the elaborate and critical memoir of St. Martin, published in Paris contemporaneously with the original of the present work, entitled Saint-Martin, 'Le Philosophe Inconnu,' sa Vie et ses Ecrits; d'apres des Documents Inedits. Par M. Matter, Conseiller Honoraire de l'Universie de France. 8vo. Paris, 1862. It must be said however, that the author, a gentleman of the modern French school of literary art and criticism — as appears on the face of its journalism-reviews and romances, whilst displaying great ability and perspicuity in the collection and arrangement of his notices, treats his subject throughout as manifestly an utter stranger to the true sentiment of it, and with too evident an affectation of patronage, withal professing great respect for the amiability of his protege. Surely, such is not the tone and spirit in which, a life so earnest in its research after truth, so serious and devout towards God, and so innocent and benevolent towards mankind — as was that of Saint-Martin, should be discussed, and paraded before the public? The work in question, however, will have its uses for the reflective reader, as taken in connection with the present publication.
Baron Kirchberger von Liebestorf, the name of the other correspondent of this work, was a patrician of Berne, in Switzerland, Member of the Grand Council, and of numerous permanent Committees of Government. For our present purpose in regard to the reader, he may be briefly described as a Christian gentleman and Protestant, of a devout and inquisitive turn of mind, who had made himself conversant with the facts and phenomena of 'animal magnetism,' mesmerism, and spiritism, which were at that time engaging attention in the chief cities of the Continent, in which he felt himself profoundly interested. — For, notwithstanding the modern "spiritualism," as it improperly styles itself in this country, is considered by some to be a recent Yankee discovery, or novelty of the last twenty years, the spirit-manifestations, so termed, of the period here referred to, far exceeded in strangeness, and interest to the educated classes of society, those which are ordinarily reported in the spiritism publications of the present day. — The Baron, then, being of an ingenious turn, was much impressed in favour of these physical manifestations of intellectuo-spiritual powers, and was ever on the lookout for some clue to the nature of those laws under which they existed or took place. And, though fully convinced of the established verities of the received orthodox Christianity of all ages — by their natural efficacy in effecting the moral and universal renovation of man's being, thus proving themselves to be the true religion of nature; yet here in these manifestations or phenomena, nature of some kind was vocal, though her dicta, bizarre and confounding, seemed perpetually to come in collision with the indubitable verities and doctrines of orthodox theology. On the look-out then, in this perplexity, for advancing light, and unable and unwilling to abandon these material facts of intellectuo-spiritism — for he was hoping to find the means of turning them to valuable account, he, the Baron, in this state of mind as it appears, met with some of Saint-Martin's earlier works, and thereupon he sought out the author, whence ensued the present correspondence.
In the 'Life of Jung Stilling,' vol. iii., English translation, we find the following reference to Saint-Martin, which, as suitable to our purpose, we present to the reader's notice in this place. It is contained in a letter written to Stilling by the Countess of W., dated Feb. 1806, and proceeds thus: — "As it might be interesting to brother Jung to learn something more of the celebrated, but so frequently misunderstood Saint-Martin, I will subjoin a few particulars respecting him.
"In the year 1785 I was in Paris, at the same time as the late Duchess of Wurttemberg and her son, Prince Eugene. The latter, who at that time belonged in sincerity to the Saviour, made me acquainted with Saint-Martin. I found him a man of about thirty years of age, of a friendly, open, pleasing countenance, in blooming health, cheerful and active, but modest and gentle. In his youthful years, his father, a strict old country nobleman, would have had him join the army; but the young man had accidentally become acquainted with an aged individual, whose name he did not mention to me, who instructed him in many things, left him at his decease important documents, and became the cause of his thorough awakening. From that time he believed himself destined to lead souls to the Saviour, refused to enter into military service, and by this means enraged his father against him so violently, that he entirely renounced him. After that, he went for a long time from place to place; and wrote his works, 'Des Erreurs et de la Verite', and 'Dieu, l'Homme, et la Nature,' &c. &c., which he begged me never to read, because he had written them only for those who had erred in a peculiar manner from the truth, and therefore (as he then thought), must be brought back again to the truth in a mystic way, one which is little known! He lived upon a small sum of money, for he said he thought himself rich when he had a louis-d'or in his pocket. He earnestly besought the Saviour to give his father to him. The latter fell mortally ill. Saint-Martin hastened to him, attended upon and comforted him, preached the Gospel to him, and he expired, as a reconciled sinner, gratefully in his arms. His friends often begged him to live with them, but he always refused, in order that he might the better pursue his vocation. At the time of the Revolution, he at length yielded to the Duchess of Bourbon, and accepted an apartment in her hotel. He afterwards translated into French, Jacob Boehme's Writings. The Duchess wrote to me from Spain, that she was in constant correspondence with him, and that he continued faithful to the Saviour. Two years ago, she informed me of his decease.
"Saint-Martin was wholly composed of love, tolerance, and kindness. 'Let us accumulate prayers (said he often), we cannot pray enough.' He was, at least outwardly, quite a Catholic. He believed that the mother of our Lord is so intimately united with him in heaven, that he who prays to her, adores her son at the same time. He spoke much of guardian angels; this was a subject of great importance to him. In other respects, it did not appear as if he concerned himself in the least, that I did not belong to the Romish Church. He only exhorted me to love the Saviour, to be faithful to Him, and to pray even for him, as he said. He had great abilities, and when obliged to be in the world, was a pleasant and highly-polished companion, but always gentle, serious, and more taciturn than talkative. He laid no stress on intercourse with spirits: 'What can I learn from them (said he) which the Scriptures have not already told me, and mysteries which I ought not to know? However, it seemed to me, as if he did not intend to discredit the possibility and reality of such intercourse. . . . "
Here we find stated by Saint-Martin himself, the object of his earlier writings, and their character. The individual referred to, from whom the light was received, to which his first awakening is attributed in this letter, was the famous Martinez-Pasquales, of whom particulars at length may be seen in Mons. Matter's 'Memoir of Saint-Martin,' before mentioned. He was a theurgist, and practised magical arts of spiritual intercourse. But when Saint-Martin was led into the true light of theosophy and the Gospel, he then perceived the dim twilight or practical blindness of all his former conceptions of the means or media of spiritual renovation, and of course the vanity of all his labours to such ends, and accordingly advises his best friends not to read his earlier writings: which yet may be said to comprise all except his two last works, 'L'Esprit des Choses' and 'Le Ministere de l'Homme-esprit,' the books he wrote after making the acquaintance of Boehme and theosophical literature.
In the Memoir in question, as well as in the correspondence of the present work, it will be seen how Saint-Martin was led out of all the Theurgy, Spiritism, Swedenborgianism, and other phenomenal mistifications and mockeries, of the astral [v. Theosophical Transactions, 4to, 1697, pp. 188-193.] mixed powers of the superficies of intellectual spiritual nature, (awakened into action by men's false magical seeking), into the simplicity and purity of theosophic or Gospel light, — as indeed the highest wisdom on his part, in order to the attainment, if desired, of the greatest 'magistery' over the spirits and powers of the astral nature. He saw, that all the powers and virtues of the periphery, absolutely depend upon the centre, and that the centre lay in himself, ready to be opened in answer to his right faith, right desire and right practice. What he wanted, as the 'one thing needful,' was God — God, we say; not any creature, or circle of creatures, however exalted, but God — the one only good, pure, holy, joyous, satisfying life of minds; whose abyssal seat or fountain-ground, is within the centre of the soul, or soulish-life, as it is within the centre of the eternal nature itself; both of which were equally created to be his 'holy habitation," or kingdom of heaven. For, as God, by his eternal Will, in the efflowing Word of his abyssal mind, eternally generates the centre of nature, (the ground of all intellectual, spiritual being), as a mere desire or want-life; and eternally satisfies, glorifies and rejoices such posited desirous want, or mere life of nature, by imparting to it himself, the fulness and riches of his own ineffable, glorious, holy, personal essence; so is he ever doing or ready to do the same thing to the soulish life of man also, (itself being the same mere desirous-want), when not resisted by man's self-will, — by his refusing, or failing to conform the motion or efflux of his soul's life, and the subsequent dependent agencies of his being, (which latter, though now so disordered and unruly, he is yet able by grace to subject), to the law and order of the eternal nature, — as we find practically illustrated in the example of Jesus Christ, and taught in his precepts and counsels. — For, indeed, man's life, by his creation, (Gen. ii. 7), was the conception and expression, or posit in a form, of the outbreathing or outspeaking Word of the pregnant mind of the Divine Wisdom, therefore qualified to again re-express that same informed powerful Word; it was the object or reflex image of the Divine Will, — man being thus graduated, by his original, his birth, and his person, (for his exterior vestment or body, was the pure mundane electric element, or solar quintescence), in order to be the virtual vicegerent, and medium of Divine rule and government, to the whole astral, elementary nature, with all its creatures, spiritual and material. To which glorious birthright-prerogatives, man is again restored in Christ . . . but which entire subject, with the final cause of the creation of man, and of this strangely constituted, enigmatical universe — of material globes, with their fixed, and circular, and elliptical motions, and their frigid lunar, and burning earthly volcanoes, etc., must be left for elucidation to another place. — According, then, to the theosophic and pure Gospel science involved in these ideas, originally deducible from the principles of BOEHME, and LAW, and subsequent intellectual discoveries, Saint-Martin — under such enlightening, sought directly that which he wanted, (as briefly set forth in the 'Appendix' to B.'s 'De Electione Gratiae'), and having found it, though as yet but an incipient birth, his eyes were opened (as we have already remarked), to see the vanity of all his former views and efforts respecting saving truth, and the placing mankind en rapport with it.
And here, in passing, we may just allude to the boasted pretences of 'modern spiritualism" — which seldom elicits anything more lofty in intelligence than answers, as it were, from intellective elephants, or 'learned pigs,' and then only after much obsequious coaxing, — that it is a divine institution or dispensation, to prove the being of God and the immortality of the soul, and as such has worked wonders of conversion, 'far beyond all the evangelical labours of all the churches of Christianity put together, from their first institution down to the present time." But, without inquiry into the real character of these alleged "conversions," examined under the light of the Gospel, — for a mere alteration of an opinion makes a man no more a disciple of Jesus Christ, and regenerate child of heaven, than his wearing a new hat, we would simply reply, that the being of God and the immortality of the soul, are truths which no more require a revelation from heaven for their proof to rational intellects, than a revelation is required from "the sperrits" to prove that we are flesh and blood, and have hunger and thirst after earthly nourishment. For are not the thoughts, the cares, the fears, the hopes, the expectations, about God and eternal things, as great a proof of an eternal life within us, as the desires and appetites peculiar to our animal nature, are a proof to us of our present degraded bestial life and mortal form of existence?
The result, however, of the correspondence between the Baron and Saint-Martin was, that the former, like the latter, though still retaining his predilection for physical manifestations, was led out of the confused twilight of the astral mental philosophies, in which he had previously stood, into the advancing clear day of true theosophy and the Gospel life.
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The Translator and Editor begs to state, that he is indebted for the foregoing introductory remarks to a friend, who first called his attention to the French original of the present work, and who lent him the original of Gence's 'Biographical Notice,' and from whom also he received the Extracts composing the Appendix to this work. He would, however, just recall attention to Saint-Martin's advice to the Countess W. (in the letter quoted above), "not to read his earlier works, as they were written for a peculiar class." The Countess W. was of the number of those alluded to by the author of the 'Serious Call,' and of the 'Way to Divine Knowledge,' in the quotation below, — a simple-minded Christian believer, who might, by such study, have run the risk of unnecessarily disturbing her mind — with what, in fact, was never intended for such characters. Saint-Martin wrote for the rationalists and materialists, who had possession of the literary world in France, who made ridicule of the Gospel, and who, indeed, were unqualified to hear its acceptable sounds; at least, he wrote for the really thoughtful amongst them, whose pride of reason had not yet utterly shut up the understanding of the heart. — Are there not in the present day in this country, many of a similar character of mind? To whom this work, with its references, may prove acceptable, and to whom it is now humbly tendered for perusal.
In the execution of his task, the Translator is conscious of many defects and shortcomings. To do justice to such a work, would require literary powers of a higher order than he can pretend to, and a more practised pen would have fashioned its English dress in a much more pleasing style. But he feels confident that the thoughtful reader — who cares for the substance, will excuse the imperfections of the style.
As a suitable close to this preface, the Editor thinks he cannot do better than offer the following extract from that luminous treatise of the celebrated William Law, entitled the 'Way to Divine Knowledge' — it being a dissertation on the nature and end of the Writings of JACOB BOEHME (as a revelation of the mystery of the two lives of nature and grace in man, with their respective forces, or powers of operation), and on the right manner of studying those writings.
Law thus concludes his discourse: — "If I knew (says he) of any person who stood in the faith and simplicity of the first Christians, whose soul was dead to the earthly nature, seeking only light, life, and salvation from God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, living and dwelling in him, redeeming and sanctifying his whole body, soul, and spirit — to such a one I could freely say, this 'mystery' was needless, as having all that, already, which this mystery would do for him. And this may pass for a good reason why this 'mystery' was not opened by God in the first ages of the church; since there was no occasion for it. But seeing a worldly spirituality has a Babel religion of its own in every corner of Christendom, built upon some rational interpretation of the letter of Scripture, how adorable is the goodness of God in vouchsafing in these last ages of the world such a remedy (viz. the opening the ground and mystery of all things) as is suitable to the distressed and confused state of religion in the world; and how easy is it also to see the greatest reasons why this remedy was not afforded sooner! For as true faith did not want it, and learned reason, whilst pleased with itself, could not be in a condition to receive it, so it was highly suitable to the goodness and wisdom of God not to give forth this 'mystery' till reason, or earthly wisdom, had made shipwreck of faith, and stood in its last and highest state of distress, perplexity, and confusion, when the want of it would be felt.
"Let not, therefore, the genuine, plain, simple Christian, who is happy and blessed in the simplicity of Gospel faith, take offence at this 'mystery,' because he has no need of it; neither let the orthodox divine reject this 'mystery' as heretical, because it opens a ground of Man and the Divine mysteries, not known or found in the primitive writers. He should rather thankfully receive it with open arms, as having and being the very thing which the distressed divided state of the church now so greatly wants. . . . Let no one, therefore, take offence at the opening of this 'mystery,' as if it brought anything new into religion; for it has nothing new in it, but only sets every article of the old Christian faith upon its true ground, and in such a degree of light, as, when seen, is irresistible. It disturbs no one who is in possession of the truth, because it points at nothing, drives at nothing but to the opening of the heavenly life in the soul. The 'mystery' only shows you that the whole system of the universe saith the same thing that the Gospel does, in the plainest language; and to be a true student or disciple of the 'mystery' is to be a true disciple of Christ. . . ."
The Editor has just to observe, in conclusion, that the French edition of this 'Correspondence' contains parts of five more letters, down to 7th November, 1797, which are omitted in this translation, as of inferior interest. Numerous and lengthy discussions about the meaning of German words or passages in Boehme, and, occasionally, other merely incidental matter, all which would have increased the size of the volume without being of any present interest, have also been omitted throughout. — The references to Boehme's Works, in the 'Correspondence,' are to the German edition of 1682, from which the English version differs, in the arrangement of its paragraphs.
P. S. The Editor takes this opportunity of stating that he is now engaged in the translation of 'Le Ministere de l'Homme-Esprit,' which has been justly styled Saint-Martin's crowning work, and, in due time, hopes to be able to present it, as a companion to the present volume.
Topsham, 1863.