658 The Autobiography of St. Simon. [JUNE, 



siological phenomena; he occupied himself solely with inorganic matter, 

 and the means of calculating their movements. On one side Newton has 

 rendered essential services, but on the other he has greatly impeded the 

 progress of science. He improved astronomy and optics, as also every 

 other department of physics relative to inorganic matter j but he led 

 to the neglect of that department which concerns organic bodies, and 

 was the cause of the almost total abandonment of general science. 



Public opinion has not yet finally pronounced its judgment upon 

 Newton j it is yet too much prepossessed in favour of the discoveries 

 made by this geometrician. Descartes had already started facts. New- 

 ton was a more skilful hunter ; he seized and mastered the greatest 

 of these facts, and human nature lives upon this game with all the impro- 

 vidence of young gourmands, who, when once seated at table, care not to 

 inform themselves of the situation of the larder. 



I return to the history of my life, which is the fact upon which are 

 based my energy and courage, the extension of which is a thousand times 

 superior to what they ought to be at the age I have reached. I repeat 

 that my actions ought not to be judged by the same principles which are 

 applied to the generality of men, because my whole life, up to the present 

 day, has been one course of experiments. I shall offer an example of the 

 difference which there appears to me to exist between the principles by 

 which we ought to judge of the actions directed towards the ordinary end 

 of life, and those whose object is experience. 



If I see a man exercise his strength and his skill upon an animal 

 with no other aim than to make him suffer (an animal, were it only a 

 fly), I say this man has not received from nature an organisation favour- 

 able to sensibility, and I affirm, without hesitation, that he has a ten- 

 dency to cruelty ; bnt if I see a physiologist make experiments upon 

 living animals, rip open the bellies of bitches in a state of parturition, and 

 dissect dogs in the full vigour of health and life, I say there is a man 

 who is occupied with researches which lead to the discoveries of pro- 

 cesses useful to the relief of suffering humanity. The unfortunate Bichat 

 was remarkable for his sensibility j Dubois, Boyer, Dupuytien, are day 

 and night on foot for the purpose of relieving the sufferings of men of 

 every class of society. If again I see a man who does not occupy himself 

 with the study of general science, frequenting houses of play and de- 

 bauchery, and not avoiding with the most scrupulous care the society of 

 persons of notorious immorality, I should say, there is a man who is lost j 

 the habits he is contracting will debase him in his own eyes, and con- 

 sequently render him an object of sovereign contempt ; but if this man 

 is investigating theoretical philosophy, if the object of his researches be 

 to rectify the line of demarcation that ought to separate human actions, 

 and to classify them as good or evil if he seeks to discover a remedy for 

 the diseases of intelligence which lead those they attack far from the 

 paths of happiness, then, I should say, this man follows in the track of 

 vice, but in a direction that must necessarily lead him to the loftiest 

 virtue. 



All my efforts have been directed to obtain the most exact and ex- 

 tended knowledge of the manners and opinions of the different classes of 

 society. I have sought I have eagerly seized every opportunity of con- 

 necting myself with men of all characters and every degree of morality. 

 These researches have greatly injured me in the opinion of the public ; 

 but I am far from regretting it. My self-esteem has always augmented 



