Des Erreurs et de la Verite, ou les hommes rappeles au principe
universel de la science; ouvrage dans lequel, en faisant remarquer aux
observateurs l'incertitude de leurs recherches, et leurs meprises
continuelles, on leur indique la route qu'ils auroient du suivre, pour
acquerir l'evidence physique sur l'origine du bien et du mal, sur
l'homme, sur la nature materielle, et la nature sacree; sur la base des
gouvernements {168} politiques, sur l'autorite des souverains, sur la
justice civile et criminelle, sur les sciences, les langues, et les
arts. Par un Ph.... Inc.... A Edimbourg. 1782.[369] Two vols. 8vo.
This is the famous work of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin[370] (1743-1803),
for whose other works, vagaries included, the reader must look elsewhere:
among other things, he was a translator of Jacob Behmen.[371] The title
promises much, and the writer has smart thoughts now and then; but the
whole is the wearisome omniscience of the author's day and country, which
no reader of our time can tolerate. Not that we dislike omniscience; but we
have it of our own country, both home-made and imported; and fashions vary.
But surely there can be but one omniscience? Must a man have but one wife?
Nay, may not a man have a new wife while the old one is living? There was a
famous instrumental professor forty years ago, who presented a friend to
Madame ----. The friend started, and looked surprised; for, not many weeks
before, he had been presented to another lady, with the same title, at
Paris. The musician observed his surprise, and quietly said, "Celle-ci est
Madame ---- de Londres." In like manner we have a London omniscience now
current, which would make any one start who only knew the old French
article.
The book was printed at Lyons, but it was a trick of French authors to
pretend to be afraid of prosecution: it {169} made a book look wicked-like
to have a feigned place of printing, and stimulated readers. A Government
which had undergone Voltaire would never have drawn its sword upon quiet
Saint-Martin. To make himself look still worse, he was only ph[ilosophe]
Inc...., which is generally read _Inconnu_[372] but sometimes _Incredule_;
[373] most likely the ambiguity was intended. There is an awful paradox
about the book, which explains, in part, its leaden sameness. It is all
about _l'homme_, _l'homme_, _l'homme_,[374] except as much as treats of
_les hommes_, _les hommes_, _les hommes_;[375] but not one single man is
mentioned by name in its 500 pages. It reminds one of
"Water, water everywhere,
And not a drop to drink."
Not one opinion of any other man is referred to, in the way of agreement or
of opposition. Not even a town is mentioned: there is nothing which brings
a capital letter into the middle of a sentence, except, by the rarest
accident, such a personification as _Justice_. A likely book to want an
_Edimbourg_ godfather!
Saint-Martin is great in mathematics. The number _four_ essentially belongs
to straight lines, and _nine_ to curves. The object of a straight line is
to perpetuate _ad infinitum_ the production of a point from which it
emanates. A circle [circle] bounds the production of all its radii, tends
to destroy them, and is in some sort their enemy. How is it possible that
things so distinct should not be distinguished in their _number_ as well as
in their action? If this important observation had been made earlier,
immense trouble would have been saved to the mathematicians, who would have
been prevented from searching for a common measure to lines which have
nothing in common. But, though all straight lines have the number _four_,
it must not be supposed that they are all equal, for a line is the result
of its law and {170} its number; but though both are the same for all lines
of a sort, they act differently, as to force, energy, and duration, in
different individuals; which explains all differences of length, etc. I
congratulate the reader who understands this; and I do not pity the one who
does not.
Saint-Martin and his works are now as completely forgotten as if they had
never been born, except so far as this, that some one may take up one of
the works as of heretical character, and lay it down in disappointment,
with the reflection that it is as dull as orthodoxy. For a person who was
once in some vogue, it would be difficult to pick out a more fossil writer,
from Aa to Zypoeus, except,--though it is unusual for (,--) to represent an
interval of more than a year--his unknown opponent. This opponent, in the
very year of the _Des Erreurs_ ... published a book in two parts with the
same fictitious place of printing;
Tableau Naturel des Rapports qui existent entre Dieu, l'Homme, et
l'Univers. A Edimbourg, 1782, 8vo.[376]
There is a motto from the _Des Erreurs_ itself, "Expliquer les choses par
l'homme, et non l'homme par les choses. _Des Erreurs et de la Verite_, par
un PH.... INC...., p. 9."[377] This work is set down in various catalogues
and biographies as written by the PH.... INC.... himself. But it is not
usual for a writer to publish two works in the same year, one of which
takes a motto from the other. And the second work is profuse in capitals
and italics, and uses Hebrew learning: its style differs much from the
first work. The first work sets out from man, and has nothing to do with
God: the second is religious and raps the knuckles of the first as follows:
"Si nous voulons nous preserver de toutes {171} les illusions, et surtout
des amorces de l'orgueil par lesquelles l'homme est si souvent seduit, ne
prenons jamais les hommes, mais toujours _Dieu_ pour notre terme de
comparaison."[378] The first uses _four_ and _nine_ in various ways, of
which I have quoted one: the second says, "Et ici se trouve deja une
explication des nombres _quatre_ et _neuf_, qui ont peu embarrasse dans
l'ouvrage deja cite. L'homme s'est egare en allant de _quatre_ a
_neuf_...."[379] The work cited is the _Erreurs_, etc., and the citation is
in the motto, which is the text of the opposition sermon.