1832.] The Autobiography of St. Simon. 657 



a small scale ; for the most philosophical mode of investigating the phe- 

 nomenon of human intelligence, is to consider the brain as a small ma- 

 chine, which executes materially all that is done in the universe, on the 

 same principle that a watch repeats the movements of a clock. They are 

 two similar machines, but of different dimensions. In order to accelerate 

 the progress of science, the greatest and most noble of means is to study 

 the universe by a series of experiments ; but it is neither the great nor the 

 little world, but man himself, whom we can reduce to experiments. 



One of the most important experiments to be made upon man consists 

 in establishing new social relations. Now every new action resulting 

 from such experiments, cannot be classed as good or bad, but after 

 observations have been made upon the results ; and every attempt of this 

 kind cannot be successful. Thus the man who gives himself up to the 

 study of philosophy, can and ought, during the course of his experimental 

 career, to commit many actions that bear the stamp of folly. 



In short, it results from the nature of things, that, in order to make 

 philosophical discoveries, one must 



1st. Lead, in the vigour of age, a most original and active kind 

 of life. 



2dly. Attain a knowledge of every scientific theory, particularly those 

 on astronomy and physiology. 



3dly. Mix with every class of society, place oneself in the greatest 

 number of different social conditions, and even create for others, and 

 ourself, relations that have not pre-existed. 



4thly. To employ our old age in digesting the observations upon the 

 effects that have resulted from our experiments, upon others as well as 

 ourself, and to correct these observations so as to form a new philo- 

 sophical theory. 



The man who has followed this line of conduct is the one to whom 

 humanity should grant the largest portion of its esteem, for he it is who 

 ought to be regarded as the most virtuous, since it is he who has 

 laboured the most methodically and the most directly to further the 

 progress of science, the true source of all wisdom. 



It will doubtless be objected to this view of the subject, that, at the age 

 of eighty, Newton died without ever having violated his continency 

 that he was generous and economical that he knew how to conciliate 

 all his duties that he laboured at the same time for the improvement of 

 humanity, and the national prosperity of his countrymen, to the illustra- 

 tion and the fortune of his family ; in fact, that he had no other passion 

 than that of studious labour, and that he was in every other path a model 

 of continency. 



To this objection I shall answer, that Newton was a great geometrician 

 and a great astronomer, but that physiology occupied in not the slightest 

 degree his attention, so that he cannot be ranked as a philosopher ; for 

 science, as I have before observed, has two principal roots, astronomy 

 and physiology, and these two roots are so disposed, that we must have a 

 foot upon each in order to reach the trunk. 



But it would, perhaps, be better to compare general science to a river 

 fed by two sources, one of which enriches it with observations made 

 upon inorganic bodies, and the other upon organic bodies. 



Descartes navigated this river, and reached both its sources. Newton 

 passed his life at one of them, but he never descended the river. The 

 geometrician has not studied man he has not fixed his attention on phy- 



