BY ONE WHO HAS A GOOD MEMORY. THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF ST. SIMONIANISM. N. He is gone! Incomparable Savage! | REMINISCENCES OF MEN AND THINGS. I cannot more effectually retaliate upon him for all his invectives against us than by admitting his gossiping trash into the Magazine. No part of the dialogue will be mistaken for Southey's; nor even for Porson's inspirations from the brandy-bottle. All the honor due to the author will be exclusively Mr. Walter Savage Landor's; and, as it is certainly "not worth five shillings," no one will think it "worth borrowing or putting on." LINES. THOSE were brilliant but meteoric passages in the life of Saint Simonianism, when at Paris a gentleman, yclept "Rodrigues," a philosopher, named "Enfantin," and a dashing blood, rejoicing in the title of "Michel Chevalier," first resolved to take care of ladies' properties, and to expend both capital and interest with great discretion, to establish equality of rights, as well as equality of domains, and to send out missionaries well steeped with the best black Written upon seeing Mulvany's Picture of "FIRST LOVE" in the coffee, and appropriate liqueurs, to found a Irish Exhibition of Paintings June, 1842. From the Dublin University Magazine. Ay gaze u pon her face, impassion'd boy, And years will pass, till dim as some sweet dream But the First Love of Youth's a sacred thing, ELIZABETH AUCHINLECK. Master of the Rocking Horse. Black Rod in ordinary. appointments for the " separate household" which new system of morals and virtue! The Paris وت As I am fearful this introductory matter may be more amusing than instructive, unless supplied with a passing explanation, I or on very low ottomans, whilst he listened to their artless tales of their former lives, when, enthralled by the chains of matrimony, they absurdly and impiously imagined that they were fulfilling the high destinies to which their degraded and noble sex had been destined by heaven, by nature, and by ST. SIMON!! must here indulge myself and my readers | The ladies-at least on state occasions, and with the pleasure and benefit of a paren- I was admitted to no others-wore white thesis. Be it known, then, that once upon robes as indications of their purity, very a time there lived a man of whom the world low bodies as proofs of their chastity, no might say, that the term saint when applied ornaments as demonstrations of their havto him, was the least appropriate ever being placed all in the common treasury, and stowed on any living or departed mortal, sat at the feet of the "Père" on the ground, and yet to this day he is called Saint Simon. Now Mister Saint Simon, or St. Simon, Esq., for both are equally applicable and appropriate, entertained peculiar notions as to "communion of goods," or the truly felicitous arrangement of this world's property by way of partnership, so that he who had the advantage of possessing something should share it with him, or her (as the case The first time I saw MICHEL CHEVALIER may be), who had the privilege of possess he was introduced to me as the author of a ing-nothing! Thus, if I had the misfor- very spirited and lively pamphlet, "On the tune of possessing £20,000 (I meant pence) best mode of tying a Cravat!" He was gay, and my brethren had the happiness of pos- smiling, jocular, light-eyed, light-haired, exsessing not quite a five-pound note, the sys- ceedingly well dressed, and just the sort of tem of Saint Simon was this, that we man to be the greatest possible favorite at should put both sums into a hat, shake the a gipsey-party. At dinner he was sedulous, hat well, and spend it together. Now, as smart, and smirking. At dessert he was the success of all such plans for the amelio- philosophical, romantic, or profound. At ration of the condition of our species, must the piano he was admirable. But at coffee depend a great deal upon the persuasive-yes, at coffee, he was prodigious!! They powers of one party, and the mesmerised, say (that is some Baptist biographer) that or submissive and docile powers of the the late great Robert Hall used to drink sleeping party, it follows, of course, that from sixteen to thirty-two cups of strong the best talker has the greatest chance of tea per evening. Very likely, though we success, and that those who can prove black to be crimson, and small beer to be pale brandy, must decidedly come off the conquerors. Well, then, Rodrigues, Enfantin, and Chevalier, were three very powerful men of this description of moral calibre, and they resolved to carry into action the principle of Saint Simon, that "the communion of goods" was the only real way of terminating all the discord which existed in the world, and of making men, and women too, virtuous and happy. When this holy and patriotic determination first entered the minds of the three emancipators of their species in question, it is but fair to say that they were by no means disagreeable and awkward companions. Few men could look better with a long black beard, a bare throat, a Roman gown, and a broad girdle with the word "Père" inscribed on it, than the Saint Enfantin. And when surrounded by a troop of other men's wives, who had left their husbands and their children, with their own private fortunes in their pockets, to receive from his lips the instruction, and listen to the dogmas of the departed Saint Simon, as recorded in his works, he had the air of a mighty prophet, who had descended from a land of heroes or of sages, to change society, or to subvert the world. should have preferred counting them to taking other people's arithmetic for granted; but again we say, very likely. Still what was Robert Hall and his thirty-two cups of gunpowder or twankay to Michel Chevalier and his pipkins of coffee? Never mind; the more he drank, the more he sung, danced, played, laughed, and punned; and by the time he was at his sixty-fourth pipkin, he really beat Theodore Hook hollow. Ah! little did I think at that moment that that very Michel would hereafter become one of the regenerators of the world! I remember I met him at the house of an English gentleman in Paris, famed for good dinners and bad French, for excellent wines, and plenty of them, and for giving "frogs" to Frenchmen as great rarities, and so, in truth, they were, for spite of the English mistake to the contrary, I never saw in my life any arrangement of frogs, either in soups, or ragouts, pies, roasted, boiled, fried, or stewed, at the table of a French gentle man. However, so it was; delighted we met, and charmed we parted; he thinking me a very good fellow, and I fully resolved always to tie my cravat after his fashion. The next time I caught a glimpse of the small eyes of my former acquaintance Michel-gracious heavens! he had become a moral philosopher and a social reformer! | penitence. They knew quite well that He had associated himself with Rodrigues, monasteries and nunneries on the old-estabEnfantin, and a host of minor stars, all lished principles would never do in France, beaming their very best, and all leagued to- and that for "religious houses" or "social gether to persuade mankind, but particu- establishments" to become popular, they larly womankind, to associate together, must give good dinners, bumpers of wine place their fortunes in a common bank, live both at meeting and parting, and must keep happily, and die joyously, by following the late hours both for waltzing, gallopading, maxims of the dear departed Mr. Saint and quadrilling. But how was this to raise Simon. the dignity of woman? How was this to place her on an equality with man in the scale of moral elevation? This was a puzzler to the mere novices in Saint Simonianism; but when Enfantin lectured, and Chevalier discoursed of "physics" of the highest class, it was made apparent to all that the coffee, chocolate, déjeûners à la fourchette, liqueurs, desserts, dinners, banquets, balls, soirées, and musical and theatrical entertainments, were only accompaniments to the system of dissolving matrimonial alliances, and placing society on a different footing! "Look at the present state of marriage life in France," exclaimed Enfantin in one of his moments of excitement and eloquence, "and what do we see? Marriages of convenance. Fathers and mothers engaged in selling their chil dren's happiness for the sake of a connex. ion with a wealthier or a titled family; young girls allied to old men ; young men tied to the apron-strings of some elderly spinsters from sixty-five to seventy; ignorant men, because wealthy, conducting blue-stocking ladies to the altar of Hymen It would have been impossible for any men to have selected a more appropriate moment for making this experiment than that chosen by this "band of deliverers." Society in France was broken up into fractions; every new theory was received with rapture; the revolutionists had gained so little by their revolutions, and the lads of the Polytechnic, the law and the medical schools, were so much the leaders of the unsettled and the visionary, that women's heads were turned, as well as those of the sterner sex, and "liberty forever"-meaning the liberty for every one, both male and female, doing that which seemed good or evil in his or her own eyes-was the cry which met you in nearly every circle of the French metropolis. Here and there, indeed, it was different. The Legitimists looked on scornfully and scoffingly. The "justemilieu" strove to keep altogether by an increased police, quadrupled troops, and an enormous display of national guards. But society at large was in a state of dissolution, and the words of Casimir Perier still vibrate on my ears, and patronized by their literary wives; "Monsieur, il n'y a plus rien-absolument stupid and frivolous women, possessed of rien;" or in other words, "Every thing large fortunes, married to men who stand has gone to nothing!" And really this high in science, simply because the money The philosophers of 1832 of the former was necessary to the perdebated every thing, disputed every thing, sonal standing of the latter; wives openly denied every thing. They were not quite avowing they have lovers, and husbands sure that they existed; and as to govern-making no secret that they have mistresses. ments, they vowed they should all be speedily destroyed. was the case. So the moment was well chosen by Rodrigues, Enfantin, and Chevalier, for inculcating new dogmas, or for enforcing old ones, and they added to their effrontery, zeal; and to their zeal, sarcasm; and to their sarcasm, abuse; so that those who opposed them were ridiculed as belonging to the old-fashioned school, the antiquated, before-the-deluge tribe, of "husbands and wives, and all that sort of thing." The tact of these three moral heroes consisted in this, that knowing perfectly well that they addressed themselves to a carnal, sensual, pleasure-loving people, their new religion was precisely the reverse of mortification, privations, fasting, sackcloth or Do we not know, besides all this, that divorce not being permitted in France, the most immoral and degrading, false and hypocritical alliances are maintained, though the best feelings of human nature repudiate them? Are not illegitimate children born to husbands in wedlock? And can a man have any confidence in the legitimacy of those, who yet call him their father? Is not this state of things as common to our provinces as it is to our capital, till at last marriage has become a crime, instead of a sacrament, and the source of innumerable woes, instead of pure and sublime joy? Tell me not, then, that our system is immoral! It is yours that is immoral, you who encourage this state of things by defending the system, He and by reproaching us who seek to raise |ly thought me an antediluvian sort of perthe moral dignity of the sex!" son to refer to the commandments. thought highly of Moses, and still more so of Jesus; and he was of opinion that Mahomet was an extraordinary man; but as for Saint Simon and himself, and himself and Saint Simon, they were the ne plus ultras of every thing. So I left him and visited the second father-the father in know how it was, but so it was, I never could see Michel without laughing. He sought to be grave, he endeavored to engage me in controversy, he laid before me the moral wonders of their immoral scheme, and he even worked himself up to the belief, that he who had written an able pamphlet on the best mode of tying a cravat, might likewise be destined to emancipate the world! But, though he believed this himself, he perceived that the pamphlet and the cravat always stuck in my throat, and that I was not to be converted to Saint Simonianism. The disciples, the novitiates, the sisters, all looked amazed at this picture of the awful state of society as it was in France, and seemed to wonder how I could get out of the difficulty in which this oration must have placed me. I remember, however, I only felt dismayed at the reflection that there stood a man, with a giant mind, who miniature-Michel Chevalier. I don't had ably and truly depicted the state of society in his country, and yet who had the temerity and the power to cause it to be believed that the condition in which married persons existed in France was to be changed, amended, improved-by what? By nothing short of the cohabitation, without marriage, of the sexes. I know very well that he succeeded in convincing many ladies who had small properties wholly settled on them, and quite independent of their husbands, that it was very wicked indeed, and most repugnant to the laws of nature and Saint Simon, to live together if you did not love each other; and many of The last time I entered the doors of the these silly ones left husbands, homes, chil- Saint Simoniacal establishment of the Rue dren, relatives, all-in order to enter the de Monsigny was to see how matters were Saint Simonian establishment in the Rue conducted at a Saint Simonian ball. Well, de Monsigny. I found plenty of lights, a vast number of The first time I ever entered that well-young and old men, stewards, with canes fitted-up, stylish, taking establishment, in most exquisitely adorned, and with gloves order to examine its arrangements and which fitted so tight that I quite trembled take notes for my future lucubrations on for the fingers to which they appeared to the subject, was one fine spring morning. have been attached, or affixed, by machineThe Père (Enfantin) was invisible ! He ry; and I saw the "father" and the was engaged in his study. I pleaded for "brethren" of this anti-monastic incorpoadmission. His room was enveloped in a ration exceedingly sedulous in their attendim religious light. The sun shone but ob- tions to divers ladies, who were reported scurely through ground glass darkly col-" to have had money," and to be "extremeored, and he looked a most handsome and ly unhappy in their matrimonial engageheart-winning fellow. He rose to receive ments and spheres ;" to be perfectly just to me, and we had a few minutes conversa- the base, or to the calumniated, husbands, tion. "The awful state of society in Eng- I will not pretend to say which. The laland" was the subject to which he was di- dies in question were by no means handrecting his attention, and "he hoped also, some, pretty, or even passable, but they there to effect a large and vigorous re- had the "quoi," which the French love betform!" I fancy I smiled incredulity, for ter than any thing else that "quoi" being he replied rather petulantly, but still with ready money, and a wish to part with it. some point, and asked me how it was pos- The ladies aforesaid were sitting on a sort sible for man to progress, and society to of gently rising platform, but very close to advance, whilst bound down by the chains the ground, and all of them wore white of deplorable and blighted usages, ceremo- frocks (not gowns), blue sashes (not ceinnies, and superstitions? I asked him his tures, but sashes tied behind with a bow), remedy. He gave me some pamphlets. white stockings, white frilled drawers with I knew all they said beforehand, for I had exquisitely beautiful lace round close to read the then Globe of France, and had the feet, and, finally, black satin slippers, studied the works of Mr. Saint Simon. Imade by that prince of cordoniers, Melendeavored to make him feel that immoral-notte, of the Rue de la Paix. In the cenity was not to be cured by vice, nor hy-tre stood ENFANTIN, dressed in the costume pocrisy by a violation of the command- of the "Père," in which the tri-colored ments. He smiled in return. He evident-emblems of France were tastefully display One morn I missed them from the Rue Monsigny, ed, and which evidently formed a subject | Now it must not be thought that I am burlesquing or libelling these reformers, when I say, that this was the real plan-the bona fide plan-pursued; and that the Saint Simonians, with Enfantin and Chevalier at their heads, turned diggers, hoers, and rakers, in the gardens of Ménilmontant. There, sighing over pleasures "never to return," and over prospects which were full of clouds, darkness, and bitterness, they cultivated their beards and potatoes, excluded the fair sex altogether, made their own beds, washed their own linen, cobbled their own shoes, and cooked their own dinners; which dinners, albeit, were somewhat different to those which were the themes of universal praise when they tabernacled in the Rue Monsigny. "But the best of things will pass," and pleasure is fleeting, and joys are flitting. So it was with Saint Simonianism. The wines and the lights, the punch and the flowers, the viands and the frocks, had all to be paid for; and the old saying about emptying the barrel if meal be always taken out and never put in, was at last realized in this hospice for the unhappy. Rodrigues, who had attempted a loan from the public, had failed in his beneficent undertaking! The ladies who were miserable in their married lives, and who had ready money, and plenty of it to spare, were not quite so numerous as this immortal trio had anticipated; and, consequently, they did not arrive in such numbers to pour their contributions of goods and The last time I ever saw the Saint Simochattels, lands and tenements, into the nians as a body was at this very establishcommon treasury, as was really anticipated. ment at Ménilmontant. They had hired a So the meal-box got empty, the ladies trou- very large and antiquated building. The blesome and vexatious; and, one fine morn-gardens were extensive, and digging was ing, it was unanimously resolved by the in request. The beards were sprouting. male portion of the establishment, to "cut Some had grown into really respectable the fair sex," and turn monks! The ladies wanted their money back, but it was gone! The gentlemen had their hearts restored to them without any difficulty! The police were referred to, but all had been done quite legally; and the wives who had abandoned their homes for philosophy, and the dignity of their own sex, found, to their cost, that they also had paid too much for their whistle." crops, but others had refused to put forth in to any thing like luxuriance. Michel had kept up his spirits, and preserved all his archness and humor. He did not tie his cravat as well as formerly, and evidently his clothes had seen better days. As to Enfantin, he was invisible, and was preparing for the sauve qui peut." 66 That sauve qui peut" at last arrived; for the police began to be pestered with |